AZIN vs Railway: Deploy to Your Cloud or Theirs

Railway and AZIN both make deployment dead simple. Connect a repo, push code, get a URL. The difference is where your code actually runs. Railway deploys to their infrastructure. AZIN deploys to yours — your GCP today, with AWS and Azure on our roadmap. Same developer experience, different architecture.

#Quick comparison

Data verified as of February 2026. Railway raised a reported $100M Series B in January 2026 (per TechCrunch).

#The fundamental architecture difference

AZIN deploys to your own GCP account via GKE Autopilot (first cluster free, $0 overhead). Railway deploys to Railway Metal, their own data centers. This is the decision that matters — everything else flows from it.

Railway runs your code on Railway Metal across 4 regions (US-West, US-East, EU-West, Singapore as of February 2026). You push code, Railway builds and deploys it on their servers. Fast, simple, and fully managed. But your application data lives on their infrastructure, and BYOC is Enterprise-only.

AZIN runs your code on infrastructure you own. Push code, AZIN provisions GKE Autopilot in your GCP account and deploys. Same push-to-deploy workflow. But the containers, databases, and networking are in your cloud account, visible in your GCP console. AWS and Azure support are on the roadmap.

If you don't need infrastructure ownership, this distinction doesn't matter much. If you do — for compliance, data residency, cost optimization at scale, or strategic cloud relationships — it changes everything.

#Developer experience compared

Both platforms prioritize developer experience. The daily workflow is similar.

What's the same

• Git-push deploys — connect a GitHub repo, push code, it's live
• Auto-detection — both detect your framework and configure builds automatically
• Preview environments — PRs get their own isolated deployments
• Managed databases — one-click PostgreSQL, Redis, and more
• Environment variables — UI for managing config (CLI planned)
• Custom domains — automatic TLS certificates
• CLI tools — Railway offers terminal-based workflows; AZIN CLI is planned

Where they diverge

Railway's visual canvas is genuinely excellent. You see services, databases, and connections as a graph. Drag to add, click to configure. As of February 2026, Railway has 1,800+ one-click templates — the largest template library of any PaaS.

AZIN adds what Railway doesn't: cloud target selection. After connecting your repo, you choose where it runs. Your GCP project in europe-west4 or us-central1? Or lttle.cloud (early access) for the fastest, cheapest start? The deploy flow is otherwise identical.

# azin.yaml — deploy a Next.js app to your GCP
name: my-app
services:
  web:
    build:
      type: railpack
    cloud: gcp
    region: europe-west4
    scaling:
      min: 1
      max: 10
      target_cpu: 70
  db:
    type: postgres
    plan: production

On Railway, you'd configure the same app through the visual canvas or railway.toml, but without choosing a cloud provider — it deploys to Railway Metal.

#Pricing breakdown

Railway and AZIN use different pricing models. Understanding both matters for estimating real-world costs.

Railway pricing (as of February 2026)

Railway bills for CPU, RAM, and egress on top of the platform fee. Egress is $0.05/GB. If your Hobby plan usage stays under $5/mo, you pay only $5/mo total. Exceed it, and the difference is charged.

AZIN pricing

AZIN charges a platform fee for deployment management. Infrastructure is billed directly by your cloud provider. On lttle.cloud, you get scale-to-zero with cold starts targeting sub-10ms, so idle services cost nothing.

What a typical startup workload costs

For a web app with 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, managed Postgres, running 24/7:

Railway pricing based on published rates as of February 2026. AZIN costs vary by cloud provider and usage — see azin.run/pricing for current rates.

At small scale, Railway's all-in pricing is competitive. At production scale — multiple services, multiple team members, higher compute — AZIN's direct-to-cloud model avoids the compounding usage fees. Railway's $20/seat/mo adds up: a 5-person team pays $100/mo in seat fees alone, before any compute.

#Scaling and infrastructure

This is where the architectural difference has real consequences.

Railway scaling

Railway scales vertically (more CPU and RAM per container) automatically. Horizontal scaling — adding more replicas — is manual. You set a replica count, and Railway runs that many instances.

As of February 2026, Railway's scaling constraints:

• No built-in horizontal autoscaling — you set replicas manually
• App sleeping available — services sleep after 10 min of inactivity and wake on traffic, but cold boot latency applies (not true serverless scale-to-zero)
• Max 6 replicas on Hobby, 42 on Pro
• 4 regions only: US-West, US-East, EU-West (Amsterdam), Singapore
• VPC peering not available on standard plans

AZIN scaling

AZIN provisions cloud-native scaling in your account. On GCP, that means GKE Autopilot's built-in autoscaler — no cluster ops, no node sizing. On lttle.cloud (early access), microVMs scale to zero when idle and resume targeting sub-10ms cold starts.

• Horizontal autoscaling based on CPU, memory, or request count
• Scale-to-zero on lttle.cloud (early access) — pay nothing when nothing's running
• Every GCP region available — deploy close to your users. AWS and Azure regions on the roadmap
• Cloud-native networking — VPCs, private subnets, firewall rules in your account

Why region count matters

Railway's 4 regions cover the basics. But if your users are in South America, Africa, the Middle East, or most of Asia-Pacific, you're routing traffic across continents. With AZIN deploying to every GCP region available, you put your app close to your users today. AWS and Azure region support is on the roadmap.

#Railway's strengths

Railway has built a reported 2M+ developer community for real reasons. Here's what they do well.

Visual project canvas

Railway's canvas view is the best project visualization in PaaS. Services, databases, environment variables, and connections rendered as an interactive graph. Railway's canvas view is one of the most intuitive project visualizations in PaaS.

Template ecosystem

1,800+ one-click templates covering frameworks, databases, CMS platforms, monitoring tools, and full application stacks. This makes Railway the fastest way to go from zero to deployed for common setups.

Speed to first deploy

Connect a GitHub repo, wait for auto-detection, click deploy. Under 2 minutes to a live URL for most frameworks. Railway's build system (Railpack) is fast and handles most language/framework combinations without configuration.

Organic community

Railway reports approximately 200,000 new developers joining per month, largely through organic growth. The community knowledge base, templates, and shared patterns reflect real developer usage.

#AZIN's strengths

AZIN is built for teams that need the Railway deployment experience with infrastructure ownership.

True BYOC on every tier

Connect your GCP account. AZIN provisions GKE Autopilot — no cluster ops, no node sizing, first cluster free forever — and deploys your code there. You see the resources in your cloud console. You control the billing relationship. No enterprise contract required. AWS and Azure support are on the roadmap.

Scale-to-zero on lttle.cloud (early access)

AZIN's own cloud (lttle.cloud, currently in early access) runs Rust-based microVMs designed for sub-10ms cold starts via stateful snapshotting. When your service has no traffic, it suspends. When a request arrives, it resumes instantly. True pay-for-what-you-use, not pay-for-what's-running.

GCP BYOC today, multi-cloud on roadmap

Start on lttle.cloud (early access) for speed. Move to GCP BYOC when your compliance team requires it. AWS and Azure are on the roadmap — same console, same workflow when they land. No re-platforming.

EU-native

AZIN is headquartered in Europe (Netherlands, Romania). GDPR compliance is built in from the architecture level, not bolted on as an enterprise add-on. Deploy to europe-west4 or any EU region in your GCP account.

#When to choose Railway

Railway is the right pick when infrastructure ownership isn't a concern and speed of iteration matters most.

• Prototyping and MVPs — Railway's templates and auto-detection get you deployed in minutes
• Solo developers and small teams — the visual canvas makes managing services intuitive without DevOps knowledge
• Template-driven projects — if your stack matches one of Railway's 1,800+ templates, it's the fastest path
• Budget under $50/mo — Railway's pricing is competitive at small scale
• No compliance requirements — if you don't need data residency, HIPAA, or SOC 2, Railway's shared infra works fine

#When to choose AZIN

AZIN is the right pick when you need the Railway deployment experience but with infrastructure you control.

• Compliance and data residency — HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, or data sovereignty requirements. Your data stays in your cloud account.
• Production workloads at scale — horizontal autoscaling, scale-to-zero, and no replica caps
• GCP BYOC today, multi-cloud on roadmap — deploy to GCP now; AWS and Azure support coming
• Cost optimization at scale — infrastructure billed directly by your cloud provider. Use cloud credits (GCP for Startups).
• Teams that have outgrown Railway — if you're hitting Railway's 4-region limit, manual scaling ceiling, or lack of BYOC, AZIN offers an alternative with a similar deployment workflow

#Moving from Railway to AZIN

The migration path is straightforward because both platforms deploy from Git.

What stays the same

• Your code and Dockerfiles don't change
• Git-based deploy workflow remains identical
• Environment variable management works similarly
• Preview environments continue working per PR

What changes

• You connect a GCP account for BYOC (AWS and Azure coming on roadmap)
• Database connections point to Cloud SQL in your GCP account instead of Railway's managed databases
• You gain autoscaling configuration options via GKE Autopilot
• Region selection expands from 4 to all available GCP regions

# Deploy an existing app from Railway to AZIN
# (AZIN CLI is planned — commands shown are planned)
azin init --from-repo github.com/your-org/your-app
azin cloud connect gcp --region europe-west4
azin deploy

For database migration, export from Railway's managed Postgres and import into Cloud SQL in your account. AZIN provisions the managed database service and handles connection strings automatically.

For a broader look at platforms you can move to, see our Railway alternatives comparison.

#Frequently asked questions

#Related comparisons

Looking at other platforms? These comparisons might help:

• AZIN vs Render — Render offers no BYOC at any tier
• AZIN vs Heroku — Heroku is in maintenance mode as of February 2026
• Deploy Node.js with AZIN — Node.js hosting on GKE Autopilot in your own GCP account
• Best Railway alternatives in 2026 — Full comparison of 9 platforms
• Best Heroku alternatives in 2026 — If you're evaluating multiple platforms
• Best BYOC cloud platforms — Focused comparison of bring-your-own-cloud options
• AZIN vs Fly.io — Global edge VMs vs managed BYOC deployment
• AZIN vs Porter — Kubernetes-based BYOC with a ~$225/mo AWS minimum
• Railway vs Render — Head-to-head comparison of the two most popular Heroku replacements

Railway is a trademark of Railway Corp. All product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. AZIN is not affiliated with or endorsed by the companies mentioned on this page.