Fly.io vs Hetzner Cloud
Pricing
Fly.io: Free tier (3 shared VMs), usage-based from $1.94/mo per VM
Hetzner Cloud: Servers from EUR 5.49/mo excl. VAT and IPv4, billed hourly
Description
Fly.io: Deploy Docker containers to servers around the world with a single command
Hetzner Cloud: German cloud provider renting virtual servers by the hour from data centres in Germany, Finland, the US and Singapore
Pros
- Run your app in 30+ regions close to users: real global distribution, not just CDN caching
- Free tier includes 3 shared-cpu VMs with 256MB RAM each, enough for small apps
- Built-in Postgres, Redis, and object storage so you can run a full stack
- Servers in the EU include 20 TB of traffic a month
- Hourly billing with a monthly cap: delete a server mid-month and you pay only for the hours used
- Firewalls at no extra cost, private networks, a REST API, a CLI and Terraform support
Cons
- Steeper learning curve than Railway or Render: you need to understand Dockerfiles and fly.toml config
- Billing can be unpredictable: outbound bandwidth costs and machine scaling add up
- Support response times on free tier are slow: community forum only
- The cheapest Cost-Optimized servers (from EUR 5.49/mo) are marked as not available on Hetzner's site
- Prices rose on 15 June 2026: the 2 vCPU, 4 GB CPX22 went from EUR 7.99 to EUR 19.49 a month in Germany and Finland
- Servers come unmanaged: you install, update and secure them yourself
Details
Fly.io takes your Docker container and runs it on servers around the world. Your app in Tokyo, Sao Paulo, and Amsterdam simultaneously, not behind a CDN, but actually running there. For apps where latency matters (real-time features, APIs, databases), this is the real deal.
The free tier gives you 3 shared VMs with 256MB RAM each, which can run a small app and a Postgres database. Beyond that, pricing is usage-based starting at $1.94/month for a shared-cpu VM. The tradeoff versus Railway or Render is complexity: Fly gives you more control over where your code runs, but you need to understand containers, config files, and networking basics. If you just want to push code and forget about it, Railway is easier. If you want your API to respond in under 50ms for users worldwide, Fly.io is worth the setup.
Hetzner rents virtual servers by the hour from data centres in Falkenstein and Nuremberg (Germany), Helsinki, two US locations and Singapore. You pick a size and an operating system such as Ubuntu or Debian, and the server is ready in seconds. You can run a self-hosting tool such as Coolify on top of it.
It suits founders who are comfortable running a Linux server. There are three lines: Cost-Optimized (shared CPUs, the cheapest), Regular Performance (shared AMD CPUs on newer hardware) and General Purpose (dedicated vCPUs).
Read the prices carefully. Hetzner’s June 2026 price list puts the CX23 (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB disk) at EUR 5.49 a month and the CPX22 at EUR 19.49, both excluding VAT and the IPv4 address, and the Cost-Optimized line is currently shown as not available. Singapore servers cost more and include only 0.5 TB of traffic.
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