Railway vs RailPush (2026)

Both Railway and RailPush let you deploy apps from git or a Docker image without managing Kubernetes yourself. Pick Railway if you want a mature, polished platform with usage-metered billing, a large template marketplace, and multi-region hosting across the US, EU, and Southeast Asia. Pick RailPush if you want predictable fixed monthly pricing, an always-on free tier with no credit card, optional GPU instances, and a deeply AI-native workflow where agents operate your infra through 286 hosted MCP tools and a no-auth agent-signup API.

Railway vs RailPush at a glance

FeatureRailwayRailPush
Deploy surfacesGit push, Docker image, CLI, templatesGit push, Docker image, one-click button, AND AI agent via MCP
Framework auto-detectionYes (Railpack, succeeding Nixpacks)Yes (20+ frameworks)
Pricing modelSubscription base + usage-based (per-second metered vCPU, RAM, egress, volume)Fixed monthly, per resource tier (no per-minute compute metering)
Free tier$5 trial credit (expires in 30 days), then an ongoing Free plan with a small monthly credit that does not roll overAlways-on free tier: 1 service + 1 PostgreSQL + 1 Redis, no credit card
Managed databasesPostgreSQL (HA via Patroni), MySQL, MongoDB, RedisPostgreSQL (PITR + daily backups), MySQL 8.0, MongoDB 7.0, Redis, Meilisearch, MinIO (S3), RabbitMQ
Deploy strategiesZero-downtime health-checked rollouts; instant rollbackRolling, blue-green, canary; instant rollback; full deploy history
Preview environmentsYes (PR environments)Yes (preview environments)
ScalingHorizontal replicas + automatic vertical scaling; serverless app-sleeping for idle servicesHorizontal autoscaling up to 50 instances; free-tier scale-to-zero (~60s wake)
RegionsMulti-region: US West, US East, EU West (Amsterdam), SE Asia (Singapore)EU only
GPU instancesNot offered (2026)Yes (NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada, 20GB VRAM)
Config / IaCConfig as Code (railway.toml / railway.json)Blueprints (railpush.yaml)
Custom domains + TLSYes, automatic TLSYes, automatic TLS (Let's Encrypt) + domain registration & DNS
AI agent MCP supportOfficial MCP server bundled in the CLI (~15 local / ~8 remote tools plus an agent, OAuth, account required)286 hosted MCP tools (Streamable HTTP + SSE) at mcp.railpush.com
Agent signup / onboardingRequires an existing Railway account + OAuthAgent-signup API needs no auth to start
Security controlsPrivate networking, scoped tokens, audit logs (Enterprise)WAF rules, network policies, gVisor sandboxing, audit logs, deploy approvals, scoped API keys

Where RailPush wins

Where Railway is strong

Best for

Pick Railway: Choose Railway if you need multi-region hosting for global latency, want pay-only-for-what-runs metered billing, or value its large template marketplace and battle-tested DX.

Pick RailPush: Choose RailPush if you want AI agents to deploy and operate your infra via 286 MCP tools, predictable fixed pricing, an always-on free tier, or GPU instances in the EU.

Migrating from Railway to RailPush

Migrating from Railway to RailPush is straightforward for most apps: both deploy from a git repo or Docker image with framework auto-detection, so you typically point RailPush at the same repo and recreate environment variables. Translate your railway.toml/railway.json into a railpush.yaml Blueprint, and provision managed PostgreSQL/MySQL/MongoDB/Redis on RailPush, then import data via standard dumps. Custom domains move by updating DNS once TLS is issued automatically.

Frequently asked questions

Does Railway support AI agents and MCP like RailPush?

Yes. Railway ships an official MCP server bundled into the Railway CLI, with a local variant (roughly 15 tools) and a hosted OAuth endpoint at mcp.railway.com (around 8 tools plus a multi-step agent), so agents can create projects, deploy, and redeploy. The difference is scale and onboarding: RailPush exposes 286 hosted MCP tools covering deploys, databases, domains, logs, scaling, and security, plus a no-auth agent-signup API so an agent can bootstrap without a human completing OAuth first.

How does pricing differ between Railway and RailPush?

Railway uses a subscription base plus usage-based metered billing (per-second vCPU, RAM, egress, and volume), so you pay for exactly what runs but bills vary with load. RailPush uses fixed monthly per-resource tiers with no per-minute compute metering, so your cost is predictable. Metered billing can be cheaper for spiky or idle workloads, while fixed pricing is easier to budget for steady ones.

Does Railway have a permanent free tier?

Railway gives new accounts a one-time $5 trial credit that expires after about 30 days; after that you move to an ongoing Free plan that provides a small monthly credit which does not roll over. RailPush offers an always-on free tier with 1 service plus 1 PostgreSQL and 1 Redis and no credit card required, which is better suited to keeping a small project running indefinitely without watching a credit balance.

Which platform supports more regions?

Railway is stronger here: it runs dedicated infrastructure in US West (California), US East (Virginia), EU West (Amsterdam), and Southeast Asia (Singapore), with anycast edge routing for ingress (you choose your service's region). RailPush currently hosts in the EU only, so if you need US or Asia latency, Railway has the edge today.

Can I run GPU workloads on Railway or RailPush?

As of 2026 Railway does not offer GPU instances. RailPush provides GPU instances (NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada with 20GB VRAM), making it the better fit for AI/ML inference or training workloads that need a GPU.

What managed databases does each platform offer?

Railway provides one-click PostgreSQL (with optional HA via Patroni), MySQL, MongoDB, and Redis. RailPush covers the same core set (PostgreSQL with PITR and daily backups, MySQL 8.0, MongoDB 7.0, Redis) and adds Meilisearch search, MinIO S3-compatible object storage, and RabbitMQ queues.

Verdict

Railway is the more geographically broad, usage-metered, and battle-tested choice, while RailPush wins on AI-native agent operability (286 MCP tools plus a no-auth signup API), predictable fixed pricing, an always-on free tier, and GPU support. The right pick depends on whether multi-region metered hosting or agent-driven, fixed-price EU deployment matters more to you.

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