Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Railway VS Cyclic

Compare Railway VS Cyclic and see what are their differences

Railway logo Railway

Made for any language, for projects big and small.

Cyclic logo Cyclic

Full stack Serverless Hosting - Build, Deploy and Host Full Stack JS/TS/nodejs Apps
  • Railway Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-02
  • Cyclic Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-19

There are no servers, no containers, no images, no hours to count. Each app is deployed entirely on serverless cloud infrastructure.

No Sleep

Even with free tier. Apps do not have to sleep, wake up, spin up or recycle. All front-ends and back-ends are ready on-demand, immediately and at all times.

No Overload

Containers make traffic a constant concern because resources are shared across concurrent requests.

On Cyclic, serverless functions are allocated to each individual request on demand, making it possible for your apps to hyper scale.

On Cyclic free tier, an individual 1GB RAM compute instance handles each separate http request. For a single request, this is about ~2x cpu/memory compared to popular container platforms. In a 10 concurrent request scenario, this comparison results in ~200x or 100GB RAM available system compute - on free tier!

Cloud-scale Database and Storage

Database and storage on free tier. 1GB of AWS S3 file object storage as well as a 1GB AWS DynamoDB NoSQL database are available for all apps. Cyclic makes it simple to use the services without having to set up an AWS account. To make using the AWS database even easier, check out our open source DynamoDB SDK

Worldwide

Apps can be launched around the world to make sure your users see the least latency. Apps can also be launched across the world to minimize downtime with default active-active failover strategy.

Cyclic

Website
cyclic.sh
$ Details
free
Platforms
Node JS
Release Date
2021 July

Railway features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Railway features an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it accessible for developers of all levels to deploy and manage applications.
  • Integration Flexibility
    Supports a range of integrations with popular tools and platforms, allowing seamless addition to existing workflows.
  • Scalability
    Railway allows for effortless scaling of applications, enabling users to handle increased traffic and workload without significant overhead.
  • Rapid Deployment
    Offers quick and straightforward deployment processes, significantly reducing the time required to go live with applications.
  • Resource Management
    Provides robust resource management capabilities, making it easy to monitor and optimize the usage of resources such as CPU, memory, and networking.

Possible disadvantages of Railway

  • Less Customization
    The platform might offer limited customization options compared to more traditional deployment solutions, restricting the level of control for advanced users.
  • Pricing Structure
    Railway's pricing model may not be the most cost-effective for very large applications or organizations with complex requirements, potentially leading to higher costs.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While the basic features are user-friendly, mastering the advanced functionalities of Railway can require a steep learning curve.
  • Limited Community Support
    Compared to more established platforms, Railway has a smaller user community, which can result in less available support and fewer shared resources.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Relying heavily on Railway's platform could lead to vendor lock-in, making it challenging to migrate to other services or platforms in the future.

Cyclic features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Cyclic provides a straightforward interface and setup process, making it accessible for developers to deploy and manage apps quickly without extensive configuration.
  • Automated Deployments
    Cyclic supports automated deployments from source code repositories, enabling continuous integration and faster iteration cycles for developers.
  • Scalability
    The platform offers scalability options, allowing applications to handle varying loads without the need for manual intervention.
  • Built-in Monitoring
    Cyclic includes monitoring tools that provide insights into application performance and resource usage, helping developers to proactively manage their services.
  • Cost-Effective
    The service provides various pricing tiers that can be cost-effective for different stages of business growth, offering flexibility in resource usage.

Possible disadvantages of Cyclic

  • Limited Customization
    Cyclic's ease of use can come at the cost of customization, offering fewer options for developers who need extensive configuration capabilities.
  • Dependence on Third-party Integrations
    The platform relies heavily on third-party integrations, which might necessitate additional setup and maintenance efforts from users.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic deployment is straightforward, there might be a learning curve associated with some of the more advanced features for inexperienced users.
  • Potential Service Limitations
    Certain features and scalability options might be limited compared to larger cloud providers, which can impact very large or complex deployments.

Analysis of Railway

Overall verdict

  • Railway is a solid choice for developers looking for a streamlined and efficient way to deploy and manage applications. Its ease of use and robust feature set make it a competitive option in the cloud deployment sector.

Why this product is good

  • Railway (railway.com) is a platform designed to simplify the deployment and management of applications in the cloud. It offers features such as a user-friendly interface, seamless CI/CD integration, and automatic scaling. These aspects help developers focus on building their applications without getting bogged down by infrastructure complexities.

Recommended for

    Railway is particularly well-suited for individual developers, small to medium-sized teams, and startups that require an intuitive and flexible platform to manage cloud applications without extensive infrastructure management experience.

Railway videos

The Railway Review to the IET

More videos:

  • Review - The Railway Review To The Electrostars
  • Review - The Railway Review To The Class 455

Cyclic videos

Cyclic Intro

More videos:

  • Review - Burton [ak] Cyclic GORE-TEX Shell Snowboard Jacket (Men's) | W22/23 Product Review
  • Tutorial - Cyclic mod pack review and tutorial Minecraft, 1.16.5 + 1.17.1
  • Review - Burton Cyclic Jacket Review 2020

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Railway and Cyclic)
Developer Tools
91 91%
9% 9
Cloud Hosting
0 0%
100% 100
Cloud Computing
93 93%
7% 7
Software Engineering
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Railway and Cyclic

Railway Reviews

5 Free Heroku Alternatives with Free Plan for Developers
There is a pay as you go model available if you want to scale your apps. Just sign up for the trial account (free tier) and then deploy your small apps. It is perfect for that and the best part is that it is now offering a Heroku importer. Migrating from Heroku to Railway will not be a problem. It can effectively pull the variables that you are using in your app so the whole...

Cyclic Reviews

We have no reviews of Cyclic yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Railway seems to be a lot more popular than Cyclic. While we know about 236 links to Railway, we've tracked only 21 mentions of Cyclic. 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.

Railway mentions (236)

  • Launch HN: Infra.new (YC W23) – DevOps Copilot with Guardrails Built In
    Congrats on the launch. Here are my two cents, as I am very familiar with this space[1][2] The problem of trying to position your product as "an easy way to deploy on over GCP" or "an easier way to do K8s" is that your product is always limited by the potential of what the underlying platform directly offers. You are not required to, but will be seduced to build 1:1 mapping to the concepts of the underlying... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • 5 Must-Watch Tutorials to Build Your SaaS App in 2025
    You’ll start by configuring a Python project with Django to manage views, routes, and static files. The video also shows how to style the front end using Flowbite and TailwindCSS. The tutorial then walks you through preparing Django for a production environment and deploying it to Railway’s cloud platform via Docker containers. - Source: dev.to / 3 months 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 / 4 months ago
  • My 2025 Tech Stack: Tools & Tech I'm Using This Year
    Railway. My go-to platform for backend/database hosting. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Ask HN: Why does nearly every Ruby on rails tutorial/book ask to use Heroku?
    Heroku is the OG of affordable rails hosting. If the tutorial is older than 3-4 years ago then it was published when Heroku was free, which it no longer is. There are lots of other affordable, but probably not free, options now; https://railway.app/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
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Cyclic mentions (21)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Railway and Cyclic, 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.

Fly.io - Edge computing is the new frontier.

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.

ClawCloud Run - ClawCloud Run delivers a high-performance, lightweight cloud-native deployment platform with integrated GitOps workflows, native Docker/Kubernetes support, and seamless GitHub integration.

Innocrux - Best Video Streaming Solution to Build & Monetize OTT Platform across Web, Mobile Apps and Smart TVs.