For developers who want a bill they set once and an app that stays up, without a usage meter deciding either.
Four things, in the order they matter.
Connect a GitHub repo and every push to main goes live. No repo? Run npx dockhold deploy from the folder. The build, the HTTPS URL and the rollout are all handled for you.
Your app runs around the clock, free tier included. No sleep, no cold start, and if it crashes it restarts on its own. On a paid plan, run several copies of one app on separate hosts, so it stays up even when a copy goes down.
Every app runs in its own isolated environment. HTTPS from the first deploy, secrets encrypted at rest. Flip an app to private and every request is checked at the edge before it reaches your code.
An MCP server, llms.txt and agent rules, written so a machine reads them cleanly. Claude, Cursor or Codex can deploy here from our docs without you explaining the platform.
The Railway column was checked on 20 September 2026 against the pages linked in each row. Things change; the links are there so you can check too.
| Feature | Dockhold | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from GitHub | Connect the repo and push to main. Every push goes live with a zero-downtime rollout. Bring a Dockerfile and it is used as-is; on a paid plan the build detects your stack for you. How deploys work | Connect a repo and services deploy when you push to the connected branch. Railway docs |
| Deploy from a folder, or from your AI tool | npx dockhold deploy ships any folder, no repo needed. An MCP server, llms.txt and agent rules let Claude, Cursor or Codex deploy here on their own. Deploy from your AI tool | railway up deploys the current folder. An MCP server and plugins connect Claude, Codex and Cursor to your projects. Railway docs |
| HTTPS and custom domains | HTTPS on every app from the first deploy. Your own domains on any paid plan, several per app, with certificates issued and renewed for you. Custom domains | Automatic certificates. One custom domain on Trial, two per service on Hobby, twenty per service on Pro. Railway docs |
| Managed database | Managed Postgres on every account, free included. One click and DATABASE_URL is injected, with vector search built in. Add dedicated database memory at $10 per GB when you want faster queries. Databases | Postgres, MySQL, Redis and MongoDB deploy from templates as services in your project, metered for memory, CPU and volume like any other service. Railway docs |
| Persistent storage | Turn on app storage and the app gets a folder that survives restarts and deploys. It draws on the same pool as database disk: $0.20 per GB, first 10 GB free. App storage | Volumes are sized by plan: 0.5 GB on Free and Trial, 5 GB on Hobby, 50 GB on Pro. A service with a volume cannot run replicas and redeploys with a short downtime. Railway docs |
| Always on, and extra copies | Every app is always on, free included. No sleep mode, no cold start. On a paid plan, run several copies of one app on separate hosts with traffic shared across them. Runtime | Serverless is a per-service switch: on, the service sleeps after five minutes without outbound traffic, and the first request back may return a 502. Replicas are set by hand: one on Free, six on Hobby, forty-two on Pro. Railway docs |
| Private apps | Flip an app to private and every request needs a token, checked at the edge before it reaches your code. Named tokens you can rotate, an optional IP allow-list, on any paid plan. Private apps | Private networking connects the services in a project to each other over an encrypted internal network, for service-to-service traffic. Railway docs |
| Scheduled tasks | Run a command on a cron schedule, as its own run of the app’s image, on every account. A task reaches your app, its database and the internet. Pricing | A cron schedule on a service, five-minute minimum interval. A run is skipped if the previous one is still going. Railway docs |
| Pricing model | One pool of capacity, split across as many apps as you want, no per-app fee. $5 per 512 MB + 0.5 vCPU, $10 per GB of database memory, $0.20 per GB of disk. The bill changes only when you change it. Pricing | Metered: $10 per GB of memory, $20 per vCPU, $0.15 per GB of volume, all per month, and $0.05 per GB of egress. Hobby is $5 a month with $5 of usage included; Pro is $20 a month per workspace with $20 included. Railway pricing |
| Free tier | 256 MB of always-on app power, a managed database and 10 GB of storage. No card, no trial clock, no sleep. Pricing | $1 of credit a month on the Free plan, with a service capped at 0.5 GB of memory, 1 vCPU and one replica. A one-time $5 trial credit that lasts up to 30 days. Railway plans |
| Where it runs | Germany, in the EU. Your apps, databases and storage stay there. Security and trust | Four regions: California, Virginia, Amsterdam and Singapore. Railway docs |
A production web app with 2 GB of memory, a Postgres database with 1 GB of dedicated memory, and 5 GB of database disk.
$30 a month
Fixed. It changes only when you change it.
At this size private apps, your own domains and extra copies of the app are all unlocked. Fine with the database on the included baseline? Then it is $20 a month.
$40.75 a month
At published rates, with 3 GB held all month and CPU averaging half a vCPU. Railway meters usage, so a busy month costs more.
The Free plan caps a service at 0.5 GB of memory, so an app this size needs Hobby or above. Hobby caps a volume at 5 GB, so the database disk here is at the plan’s limit.
Railway prices read on 20 September 2026 from Railway pricing and Railway plans .
Both put an app online from a repo in minutes. The difference is what comes after. On Dockhold the price is the one you chose, the app never sleeps, the database comes with it, and it all runs in the EU.
Every app runs in its own isolated environment, hosted in the EU, with an audit trail you can export. How we handle security.
Start free on Dockhold Read the quickstart
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