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DigitalOcean vs Railway pricing

What each charges for the same traffic, and what happens when a post goes viral.

Verdict at 100,000 pageviews a month: DigitalOcean is cheaper: DigitalOcean comes to $4 and Railway to $24.77 a month at 100,000 pageviews with our default traffic profile. Viral day: DigitalOcean bills ≥ $4; Railway goes past its free limits, and its paid plan comes to $40.72.
DigitalOcean vs Railway
DigitalOceanRailway
TypeVPSPlatform (PaaS)
Free tierUnverifiedSource · Oct 16Free $0 with $1/month usage credit (plus $5 one-time 30-day trial)Source · Oct 16
Free bandwidth—UnverifiedSource · Oct 16
Free requests—UnverifiedSource · Oct 16
Paid planBasic Droplet 512MiB/1vCPU/10GiBSource · Oct 16HobbySource · Oct 16
Price$4/monthSource · Oct 16$5/monthSource · Oct 16
Included500 GiB transferSource · Oct 16—
Bandwidth overageUnverifiedSource · Oct 16$0.05/GBSource · Oct 16
Requests overage——
Over the free limitNo free tierBehaviour unverified

Try your own traffic

Scenario
Traffic details2 MB pages · 20 requests · 10% dynamic · 30 deploys
Pages
Functions
Deploys
Always-on server

The always-on server is used for Railway, which bills a service that runs all month. Fly.io uses one small machine.

One month at your traffic. Totals use verified prices only; “≥” means some items are unverified and left out.

  1. DigitalOcean
    Basic Droplet 512MiB/1vCPU/10GiB
    $4/mo
    Cheapest verifiedKeeps billingNo free tier.
    How this is calculated
    Cost breakdown
    Droplet (flat monthly price)$4.00Source, Oct 16, 2026

    A flat-price server has fixed CPU and RAM; whether it can serve this much traffic depends on your app.

  2. Railway
    Hobby
    $24.77/mo
    Keeps billingFree tier goes over its limits (what happens next isn’t stated) with this setup.
    How this is calculated
    Cost breakdown
    Hobby plan$5.00Source, Oct 16, 2026
    Egress
    195.31 GB × $0.05
    		$9.77Source, Oct 16, 2026
    vCPU (always on)
    0.5 vCPU × $20/month
    		$10.00Source, Oct 16, 2026
    Memory (always on)
    0.5 GB × $10/month
    		$5.00Source, Oct 16, 2026
    Included usage
    $5 of usage is included
    		−$5.00Source, Oct 16, 2026

    Railway bills actual use; this assumes your server runs all month at the vCPU and RAM you set.

FAQ

Is DigitalOcean or Railway cheaper for 100,000 pageviews a month?

DigitalOcean is cheaper: DigitalOcean comes to $4 and Railway to $24.77 a month at 100,000 pageviews with our default traffic profile.

What happens to DigitalOcean and Railway on a viral day?

On a month with one day at 50× normal traffic: DigitalOcean bills ≥ $4; Railway goes past its free limits, and its paid plan comes to $40.72.

Does DigitalOcean or Railway have a hard cap on the free tier?

DigitalOcean has no free tier. Railway's free tier: behaviour unverified.

Full details: DigitalOcean pricing · Railway pricing