Hatchbox vs Fly.io

The predictable alternative to Fly.io

Fly.io meters everything — compute by the second, storage by the gigabyte, egress by the region. Hatchbox is a flat $15 per server per month on machines you own, and the invoice looks the same every month.

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Includes a 7 day free trial. $15 per server per month after that — unlimited apps.

Fly.io does some genuinely impressive things: machines that boot in under a second, thirty-plus regions with anycast routing, scale-to-zero for bursty workloads, and one of the best CLIs in the business. If your app truly needs to run in a dozen cities at once, Fly is built for that.

Most Rails apps don't need that — they need a couple of reliable servers, a database with backups, and a bill that doesn't require a spreadsheet. On Fly, fly launch generates a Dockerfile and fly.toml you maintain forever, shared CPUs are throttled under sustained load, human support starts at $29/month extra, and the managed Postgres lineup jumps from a 2GB plan at $72 straight to an 8GB plan at $282.

Hatchbox takes the opposite approach: plain Ubuntu servers in your own hosting account (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, AWS — anywhere), no Docker required, databases with scheduled backups on hardware you control, and support from actual humans included in the $15.

Where the two differ

Billing you can predict

Fly bills per second, per region, per gigabyte — machines, volumes, egress, IPv4 addresses, even stopped machines' root filesystems. Hatchbox is $15 per server. Your host bills you for the servers at their list price. That's the whole model.

No Dockerfile to maintain

fly launch generates a Dockerfile, fly.toml, and entrypoint scripts that become your responsibility. Hatchbox detects Rails from your Gemfile and configures the build itself — there's nothing to generate or maintain.

Servers you actually own

Fly machines live in Fly's cloud, and SSH gets you into a microVM. Hatchbox servers sit in your own hosting account with root access. If you ever leave, the servers keep running — nothing to migrate off.

Support included

Fly's ticket support starts at $29/month on top of usage; otherwise it's community forums. Hatchbox support is real humans who've deployed thousands of Rails apps, and it's included.

Real-world pricing comparisons

Fly.io pricing verified August 2026 (machine prices vary slightly by region). Hatchbox examples use DigitalOcean; Hetzner runs even cheaper. Full details on our pricing page.

Production Setup

Two 2GB web processes, a worker, managed Postgres, and Redis. Fly's supported Postgres path jumps from 2GB to 8GB, so a 4GB-class app lands on the $282 Launch plan. Hatchbox runs Postgres and Redis with scheduled backups on a server you own — about $118/month vs. Fly's ~$346, a 66% reduction.

Platform Fee

Fly.io None — $0.00
Hatchbox $15/server x3 — $45.00

Web Servers

Fly.io shared-cpu-2x 2GB x2 — $23.00
Hatchbox DigitalOcean 2vCPU / 4GB x2 — $48.00

Worker

Fly.io shared-cpu-2x 2GB — $11.00
Hatchbox Runs on web servers — $0.00

PostgreSQL + Redis

Fly.io Managed Postgres Launch (8GB) + Upstash Redis 1GB — $302.00
Hatchbox DigitalOcean 2vCPU / 4GB, managed by Hatchbox — $24.00

Postgres Storage & Backups

Fly.io 20GB @ $0.28/GB — $6.00
Hatchbox Scheduled backups to S3 — $1.00

Dedicated IPv4 + Egress

Fly.io $2 IPv4, ~100GB egress — $4.00
Hatchbox Included with your servers — $0.00

TOTAL / MONTH

Fly.io $346.00
Hatchbox $118.00

Hobby / Staging Setup

One small app with Postgres and Redis. Fly's cheapest supported Postgres is the $38 managed Basic plan. On Hatchbox, everything runs on a single $12 server — $27/month vs. Fly's ~$49, and you can add more apps to the same box for free.

Platform Fee

Fly.io None — $0.00
Hatchbox $15/server — $15.00

Web Server

Fly.io shared-cpu-1x 1GB — $6.00
Hatchbox DigitalOcean 1vCPU / 2GB — $12.00

PostgreSQL

Fly.io Managed Postgres Basic (1GB) + 10GB storage — $41.00
Hatchbox Runs on your server — $0.00

Redis

Fly.io Upstash pay-as-you-go — $2.00
Hatchbox Runs on your server — $0.00

TOTAL / MONTH

Fly.io $49.00
Hatchbox $27.00

Which one should you pick?

Fly.io is a great fit if…

  • Your app genuinely needs to run close to users in many regions at once
  • You have bursty workloads that benefit from scale-to-zero machines
  • You're comfortable owning a Dockerfile and debugging container deploys
  • Usage-based billing works in your favor because traffic is spiky

Hatchbox is a better fit if…

  • You want a bill you can predict to the dollar every month
  • Your app runs happily in one or two regions on steady servers
  • You'd rather skip Docker, fly.toml, and container debugging entirely
  • You want root access to servers in your own hosting account, with support included

What customers say

I run 15+ Rails apps and static sites with Hatchbox. My bill went from $400/month on Heroku to $28/mo with Hatchbox & DigitalOcean combined.

Donn Felker

Software Professional

If you want the most bang for your buck, Hatchbox / Hetzner / DigitalOcean is the killer combo. You can throw sooo much at this and it's crazy how inexpensive it is.

Josh Pigford

Serial Entrepreneur

Applications deployed
24,000+
Deployments run
2 million+
Deploying since
2016

Read more customer stories

Fly.io vs Hatchbox questions

Still stuck? Ask us directly — a real person who has deployed a lot of Rails apps will answer.

Why do Fly.io bills surprise people?
Because many meters run at once: per-second compute priced per region, extra RAM, volume storage, snapshot storage, dedicated IPv4 addresses, per-gigabyte egress — and stopped machines still bill for their root filesystems. None of that is hidden, but it's hard to forecast. Hatchbox is a flat $15 per server, and your host's server prices are published and fixed.

Does Hatchbox require a Dockerfile like Fly does?
No. Fly runs containers, so fly launch generates a Dockerfile and fly.toml you maintain. Hatchbox deploys straight from your GitHub repo to plain Ubuntu servers — it detects Rails from your Gemfile, installs the right Ruby, and runs your app as normal processes behind Caddy.

What about the database? Fly deprecated its old Postgres.
Fly's classic Postgres is officially unmanaged and unsupported; the supported path is Managed Postgres starting at $38/month, jumping from $72 (2GB) to $282 (8GB). Hatchbox installs and manages PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis on your own servers with scheduled backups to S3-compatible storage — no separate database bill.

Can Hatchbox match Fly's multi-region edge deployment?
Honestly, no — that's Fly's specialty. Hatchbox can run servers in any region your host offers and load balance across them, which covers most production Rails apps. If your core requirement is running compute in 20 cities simultaneously, Fly is the better tool.

How do I migrate from Fly.io to Hatchbox?
Connect your GitHub repo, let Hatchbox provision servers in your hosting account, set your environment variables, and deploy — your Dockerfile is simply ignored. Move the database with a standard pg_dump/restore. Share your Fly setup with us and we'll map out the migration and estimate your savings for free.

Simple, predictable pricing.

We charge per server, not per app. Run one application or twenty on the same box — the bill doesn't change.

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$15

/server/mo
  • Unlimited applications
  • Deploy anywhere
  • Zero downtime deployments
  • Custom domains & free SSL
  • Databases, cron jobs & background workers
  • Full SSH access to your servers
  • Real, human support
  • 7 day free trial

Ready to make deployments fun again?

Hatchbox has run more than 2 million deploys across 24,000+ applications since 2016. Start a 7 day free trial and put yours on a server you own.

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