Hosting
What hosting really costs, past the free tier.
Free plans come with limits: some sleep, some pause, some are for personal projects only. Pick what you’re hosting, put in your own numbers, and see what each provider charges a month for the same project, with every line of the sum shown.
Small web app
A site with server code: sign-in, an API, server-rendered pages. Priced for one developer; where the host runs it as a server, one small always-on instance (0.5 CPU, 512 MB). Change the numbers to match your project: nothing you type leaves this page.
Cheapest: Cloudflare Workers & Pages Free at $0.00 a month, with limits worth reading in the last column. Cheapest with no catch listed: Fly.io Pay as you go at $4.69.
| Plan | A month | How it adds up | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| CloudflareWorkers & Pages Free | $0.00 | About 33k requests a day, inside the 100,000 a day includedNo bandwidth chargeSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | Server code gets 10 ms of CPU time per request on the free plan.Static files free and unlimited, no bandwidth charge, 500 builds a month. Server code: 100,000 requests a day |
| VercelHobby | $0.00 | Inside the included 100 GB and 1M requests; server code has 4 CPU-hours a monthSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | Personal, non-commercial use only.Past a limit, that feature stops until 30 days have passed.100 GB transfer, 1M requests, 1M function calls and 4 CPU-hours a month |
| Fly.ioCheapest, no catchPay as you go | $4.69 | Machine (shared CPU, 512 MB) running all month: $3.6950 GB sent out at $0.02: $1.00Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —Machines from $2.19 a month (shared CPU, 256 MB), billed for the time they run. No free plan: new accounts get a trial of 2 hours of machine time or 7 days |
| CloudflareWorkers Paid | $5.00 | $5 minimum; requests are inside the 10M includedNo bandwidth chargeSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$5 a month: 10M requests and 30M CPU-milliseconds, then $0.30 per million requests |
| RenderFree web service | $6.75 | Free instance (512 MB): $0Bandwidth: 5 GB included, 45 GB more at $0.15 = $6.75Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | Spins down after 15 minutes without traffic; the next visit waits about a minute while it starts.512 MB instance, 750 instance hours a month |
| RenderStarter web service | $13.75 | Instance (0.5 CPU, 512 MB): $7.00Bandwidth: 5 GB included, 45 GB more at $0.15 = $6.75Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$7 a month for an always-on instance: 0.5 CPU, 512 MB |
| NetlifyPersonal | $14.00 | 20 deploys, 50 GB and 1M requests need about 1,500 credits; the plan has 1,0001 extra pack of 500 credits at $5.00Server code costs more credits (10 per GB-hour)Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$9 a month, 1,000 credits; extra packs of 500 credits for $5 |
| RailwayHobby | $17.72 | 0.5 vCPU in use all month: $10.14512 MB memory: $5.0750 GB sent out at $0.05: $2.50The $5 plan fee counts toward this usage. Railway bills what the app actually uses, so a mostly idle app costs lessSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$5 a month, which covers the first $5 of usage |
| NetlifyPro | $20.00 | 20 deploys, 50 GB and 1M requests use about 1,500 of 3,000 credits1,500 credits left for server code (10 per GB-hour)Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$20 a month for the whole team, 3,000 credits; extra packs of 1,500 credits for $10 |
| VercelPro | $20.00 | $20 per developerTransfer and requests are inside the included 1 TB and 10MServer code is paid from the $20 usage credit ($0.128 per CPU-hour, $0.60 per million calls)Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$20 per developer, with $20 of usage, 1 TB transfer and 10M requests included |
| NetlifyFree | Doesn’t fit | Needs about 1,500 credits a month; this plan has 300.Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | When the credits run out, all your sites are paused until the next month.300 credits a month |
| RailwayFree | Doesn’t fit | Includes $1 of usage a month; this uses about $17.72.Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$1 of usage a month, after a 30-day trial with $5 of credit |
The database
Most apps also need a database, usually from a separate provider. Priced for 500 MB of data.
Cheapest with no catch listed: Render Postgres, smallest paid at $6.00 a month.
| Plan | A month | How it adds up | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| CloudflareD1 Free | $0.00 | Inside the included 5 GBSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | D1 is SQLite, not Postgres: the app has to be written for it.5 GB, 5 million rows read and 100,000 written a day |
| NeonFree | $0.00 | Inside the included 1 GBSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | Goes to sleep after 5 minutes idle (can’t be turned off); 100 compute-hours is about 13 hours a day at the smallest size.1 GB per project and 100 compute-hours a month |
| RenderFree Postgres | $0.00 | Inside the included 1 GBSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | Expires 30 days after it’s created; you then have 14 days to upgrade before it’s deleted.1 GB Postgres, one per workspace |
| SupabaseFree | $0.00 | Inside the included 500 MBSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | Paused after 1 week without activity.500 MB Postgres, 2 projects, 5 GB egress |
| RenderCheapest, no catchPostgres, smallest paid | $6.00 | Instance (256 MB RAM): $6.00Inside the included 1 GB of storageSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$6 a month: 256 MB RAM, 1 GB storage included, more at $0.30 per GB |
| NeonLaunch, always on | $19.53 | Smallest size (0.25 CU) running all month: $19.35500 MB stored: $0.18If it sleeps when idle and runs 8 hours a day: about $6.63Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —Pay for what you use: $0.106 per compute-hour, $0.35 per GB a month, no minimum |
| SupabasePro | $25.00 | $25 plan; the first project’s compute is covered by the included $10 creditInside the included 8 GB of diskSource · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$25 a month: 8 GB disk, 250 GB egress, and $10 of compute credit that covers one Micro instance |
| Fly.ioManaged Postgres Basic | $38.14 | Basic plan: $38.00500 MB stored at $0.28 per GB: $0.14Source · checked Oct 3, 2026 | —$38 a month, plus $0.28 per GB stored |
None yet: we began checking these prices on Oct 3, 2026. Changes will be listed here from the next check on.
How these numbers are made
- Source
- Each provider’s own pricing page or docs, read by hand and linked in every row. List prices in US dollars, monthly billing, before tax.
- Checked
- Oct 3, 2026, and again every month. Hosting prices change often: the provider’s page is the final word.
- The sum
- The same project priced at each provider with its published numbers. Server code on usage-billed plans (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare) is noted but not added, because it depends on the app. Railway is priced as if the instance is busy all month. The calculator stays within small-project sizes, where one small server is a fair comparison.
- Worth knowing
- Limits stated in the provider’s own docs. “No catch” means none of those is listed for the plan, not that it suits every project.
Each provider on its own page: Vercel · Netlify · Cloudflare · Render · Railway · Fly.io · Supabase · Neon
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