Railway vs AWS Lightsail
Pricing data as of 2026-10-12 · refreshed weekly
Railway (paas) and AWS Lightsail (vps) overlap on 15 stacks. The table below shows the cheapest fitting plan on each for a typical startup workload (~50,000 visits/month) — list prices, no promos.
Railwaypaas
| Hobby | $5/mo |
| Pro | $20/mo |
AWS Lightsailvps
| $5 bundle | $5/mo |
| $7 bundle | $7/mo |
| $12 bundle | $12/mo |
| $24 bundle | $24/mo |
Cheapest fitting plan per stack (startup traffic)
| Stack | Railway | AWS Lightsail | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Next.js | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) | tie |
| Nuxt | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) | tie |
| Astro | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) | tie |
| SvelteKit | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) | tie |
| Remix / React Router | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) | tie |
| Node.js API | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) | tie |
| Django | $5 (Hobby) | $7 ($7 bundle) | Railway |
| FastAPI | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) | tie |
| Laravel | $5 (Hobby) | $7 ($7 bundle) | Railway |
| Ruby on Rails | $5 (Hobby) | $12 ($12 bundle) | Railway |
| Spring Boot | $5 (Hobby) | $12 ($12 bundle) | Railway |
| WordPress | $5 (Hobby) | $7 ($7 bundle) | Railway |
| Ghost | $5 (Hobby) | $7 ($7 bundle) | Railway |
| Strapi | $5 (Hobby) | $7 ($7 bundle) | Railway |
| Static site | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) | tie |
Next.js by traffic level
| Traffic | Railway | AWS Lightsail |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby / side project (~5,000/mo) | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) |
| Startup / small business (~50,000/mo) | $5 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) |
| E-commerce (~200,000/mo) | $39.1 (Hobby) | $5 ($5 bundle) |
| High traffic (~1,000,000/mo) | $73.25 (Hobby) | $7 ($7 bundle) |
"+" = even the largest plan may not cover that traffic. Full breakdowns: Next.js on Railway · Next.js on AWS Lightsail
FAQ
Is Railway or AWS Lightsail cheaper?
Railway is cheaper more often: at startup traffic (~50,000 visits/month) Railway wins on 7 of 15 shared stacks, AWS Lightsail on 0, 8 tie. Price alone ignores ops work: Railway is a PaaS, AWS Lightsail is a VPS.
What does a Next.js app cost on Railway vs AWS Lightsail?
Cheapest fitting plan by traffic level — hobby / side project: Railway $5/month (Hobby) vs AWS Lightsail $5/month ($5 bundle); startup / small business: Railway $5/month (Hobby) vs AWS Lightsail $5/month ($5 bundle); e-commerce: Railway $39.10/month (Hobby) vs AWS Lightsail $5/month ($5 bundle); high traffic: Railway $73.25/month (Hobby) vs AWS Lightsail $7/month ($7 bundle).
What is included with Railway and AWS Lightsail?
Railway bundles Edge, SSL, Previews, Auto-deploy; not included: CDN, Image opt. AWS Lightsail is a VPS with nothing bundled — CDN, TLS automation, previews and deploys are yours to set up.
How current are these prices?
They are official list prices as of 2026-10-12, re-checked against each provider's pricing page on a weekly cycle. Intro promos and coupons are not used in totals; taxes are not included unless a plan note says so.