Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Fly.io VS Netlify

Compare Fly.io VS Netlify and see what are their differences

Fly.io logo Fly.io

Edge computing is the new frontier.

Netlify logo Netlify

Build, deploy and host your static site or app with a drag and drop interface and automatic delpoys from GitHub or Bitbucket
  • Fly.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-11-16
  • Netlify Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23

Fly.io features and specs

  • Global Deployment
    Fly.io enables developers to deploy applications geographically close to users, reducing latency and improving performance.
  • CLI and Git-based Deployment
    Fly.io offers a command-line interface and Git integration for quick and efficient application deployment.
  • Automatic SSL
    Fly.io provides automatic SSL/TLS certificates, simplifying secure traffic management.
  • Scalability
    Applications deployed on Fly.io can scale both vertically and horizontally to handle varying loads.
  • Built-in Storage
    Fly.io offers persistent storage solutions such as Fly Volumes, which seamlessly integrate with applications.
  • Integrated Monitoring
    Fly.io provides built-in monitoring tools to track application performance and health.

Possible disadvantages of Fly.io

  • Learning Curve
    New users may find the platform's concepts and deployment methods unfamiliar, requiring time to learn.
  • Documentation
    Users have reported that the documentation can sometimes be lacking in detail or difficult to navigate.
  • Cost
    While Fly.io offers a free tier, the cost can become significant as you scale your applications.
  • Limited Language Support
    Fly.io supports fewer runtime environments and languages compared to more established platforms like AWS or Azure.
  • Platform Maturity
    As a relatively new platform, Fly.io may lack some advanced features and ecosystem integrations offered by more mature competitors.
  • Debugging
    The debugging tools and processes can be less comprehensive compared to traditional cloud providers.

Netlify features and specs

  • Deployment Speed
    Netlify offers very fast and easy deployment processes, often requiring just a push to a Git repository.
  • Built-in CDN
    Netlify includes a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up the delivery of websites and applications.
  • Serverless Functions
    Netlify provides serverless functions allowing developers to run backend code without managing servers.
  • Automated Builds
    Automated build processes are integrated, supporting continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD).
  • Custom Domains and SSL
    Easily manage custom domains and automatically provision and renew SSL certificates.
  • Integrated Form Handling
    Netlify offers form handling capabilities out-of-the-box, simplifying the process of collecting form data.
  • Plugins and Integrations
    Extensible with a wide range of plugins and integrations including analytics, CMS, and other third-party services.
  • Developer-Friendly
    Offers a wide range of developer-friendly features, such as split testing, instant rollbacks, and APIs for customization.
  • Free Tier
    Generous free tier that allows for hosting of personal projects and small websites at no cost.

Possible disadvantages of Netlify

  • Pricing
    While there's a free tier, more advanced features and higher usage can become expensive on a paid plan.
  • Function Limits
    Serverless functions have execution and duration limits, which may not be suitable for all applications.
  • Platform-Specific
    Deployment and feature configurations can be platform-specific, which may require learning new processes that differ from other providers.
  • Build Minutes
    The free tier includes limited build minutes, which can be a constraint for projects that require frequent deployments.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Using Netlify-specific features (like certain build plugins) can make it harder to migrate to another hosting provider.
  • Limited Backend Services
    Primarily designed for frontend applications, so it may not be as robust for extensive backend services compared to traditional servers.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Some advanced features may have a steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Build Times
    Build times can be slow for very large sites or monorepos, impacting continuous deployment speed.
  • Support
    Customer support responses can be slow on the lower-tier plans.

Fly.io videos

We FLY a SPACESHIP! Video Game FLY.io Computer App with HobbyKidsTV

Netlify videos

Netlify Platform Tutorial Review

More videos:

  • Review - Deploy Websites In Seconds With Netlify
  • Review - Deploy Your Website In Minutes With Netlify

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Fly.io and Netlify)
Cloud Computing
63 63%
37% 37
Developer Tools
58 58%
42% 42
Cloud Infrastructure
100 100%
0% 0
CDN
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Fly.io and Netlify. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Fly.io and Netlify

Fly.io Reviews

5 Free Heroku Alternatives with Free Plan for Developers
Fly.io is one the best free alternatives to Heroku that you can use. It’s designed for developers and students to run small applications for free and scale costs affordably as you grow. Just like Heroku it comes with CLI applications and there are other tools in it that you can use to easily deploy your apps. For advanced users, it has premium plans but for now, due to its...

Netlify Reviews

  1. Eleanor Bennett
    · Digital Marketing Specialist at Logit.io ·
    Useful previews

    As someone who is often creating new pages, Netlify's preview makes the review process easier. You can also use the generated URL from Netlify's preview to run an SEO audit prior to going live. This is very useful for spotting bugs or broken redirects.


Top 15 Cloudflare Alternatives: A Complete Guide
Netlify is a CDN service that also offers edge computing, web security, and VPN solutions. Netlify allows you to deploy and run your web content and applications on its edge network, which has over 70 edge locations in 35 countries. Netlify also provides security features, such as SSL, DDoS protection, WAF, and firewall, to protect your web content and applications.
Exploring alternatives to Vercel: A guide for web developers
Netlify is one of the most popular alternatives to Vercel, offering a comprehensive platform for deploying static sites and modern web applications. With a strong focus on developer experience, Netlify provides powerful features such as serverless functions, continuous deployment, and advanced analytics.
Source: fleek.xyz
Choosing the best Next.js hosting platform
Where Netlify is superior to Vercel is the list of add-ons they offer. Among them, Netlify Forms allow developers to manage forms and submission without extra code. It even integrates with third-party applications such as MailChimp, Zendesk, and more.
Top 10 Netlify Alternatives
Although Netlify is a credible static app hosting and deployment platform for all sizes of businesses. But if you still want alternatives, then you should consider our suggested Netlify alternatives. This guide displays all these alternatives to Netlify in detail with pricing structure and core properties. Hopefully, you will pick a suitable option for your project.
3 best alternatives to the big cloud providers
Very interesting topic! I’m not sure if things like Netlify or Vercel could replace something like Kubernetes on GCP but I believe in the power of Netlify for hosting websites!
Source: dev.to

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Fly.io should be more popular than Netlify. It has been mentiond 457 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Fly.io mentions (457)

  • The ultimate open source stack for building AI agents
    Fly.io Deploy Docker containers close to users, great for edge agents. - Source: dev.to / 1 day ago
  • Quick blog set-up with Quarto and Fly.io
    Fly.io, a developer-centric and friendly cloud platform. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Django on a Budget: The Best Affordable Hosting Options for Your App
    If your wallet’s on life support, these platforms give you solid performance without the hefty price tag: Render – Free static hosting + affordable backend plans. A smooth Heroku alternative. Fly.io – Deploy globally with a generous free tier. Great for performance. Railway – Think of it as DIY Heroku with smooth GitHub integration. Great for side projects and testing, but if you need serious power, check out... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Local Development, Remote Data: Accessing Fly.io PostgreSQL from Your Java API
    Inter-communication between databases when developing applications is not an entirely new challenge to developers or the software engineering space. I recently found myself in a situation where I had to access data from an external PostgreSQL database while developing a Java API locally. The external database was hosted on Fly.io and my local development setup had to interact with it seamlessly. After some... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Building Static HTML Pages with JSX Server-Side Rendering
    Deploying your app globally is so simple with Query's integration with Fly.io. Using LiteFS for distributed SQLite database replication, you can ensure low-latency access for users across different regions. Say goodbye to complex deployment pipelines. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
View more

Netlify mentions (108)

  • Deploy Your Full-Stack App for Free: Host Backend on Render and Frontend on Netlify in Minutes
    Deploy on Netlify Go to https://netlify.com and log in. Click "Add new site" → "Import an existing project". Connect your GitHub and choose your frontend repo. Fill in the deploy settings: Build Command: npm run build (or flutter build web) Publish Directory: build (for React) or build/web (for Flutter) Add your environment variables (e.g., your backend URL). Click Deploy Site. You’ll get a public frontend URL like:. - Source: dev.to / 12 days ago
  • How Bun can help to revive a Gridsome project
    Starting from this year, builds for this website's code through my Netlify account began failing. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • I'm Joining Sentry
    As much as this is exciting news, it does mean that sadly I'm moving on from Netlify. Netlify which has been my home for the last 2 years and who believed in us(and me) before anyone else did. Their support is what made SolidStart possible. I've learned so much about deployment and infrastructure working closely with the Frameworks and Primitives team. I've traveled the world giving talks alongside the Developer... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Join us for the Netlify Dynamic Site Challenge: $3,000 in Prizes!
    We are so excited to team up with Netlify to bring you our next DEV challenge. This Challenge is all about dynamic and high-performance digital experiences, across any framework! - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Replatforming from Gatsby to Zola!
    Wait as the Netlify CI/CD robots work their magic to build and push my updated blog site with the shiny new post to the open internet. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Fly.io and Netlify, you can also consider the following products

Render - Render is a unified platform to build and run all your apps and websites with free SSL, a global CDN, private networks and auto deploys from Git.

Vercel - Vercel is the platform for frontend developers, providing the speed and reliability innovators need to create at the moment of inspiration.

Railway - Made for any language, for projects big and small.

CloudFlare - Cloudflare is a global network designed to make everything you connect to the Internet secure, private, fast, and reliable.

Heroku - Agile deployment platform for Ruby, Node.js, Clojure, Java, Python, and Scala. Setup takes only minutes and deploys are instant through git. Leave tedious server maintenance to Heroku and focus on your code.

Amazon CloudFront - Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery web service.