Fly.io

Fly.io is a cloud platform for deploying applications and databases as lightweight micro-VMs, called Fly Machines, that run close to users in regions around the world. It is designed for developers who want global, low-latency deployment with fine control over where and how their app runs, without operating traditional cloud infrastructure.

The platform runs full applications and Docker images as fast-booting Firecracker micro-VMs, with a global Anycast network, private networking, persistent volumes, and managed Postgres. Developers deploy with a simple CLI, place instances in specific regions, and scale horizontally across geographies, making it well suited to latency-sensitive apps, edge workloads, and increasingly AI and GPU workloads.

As of October 2024, Fly.io moved to a pure pay-as-you-go model, eliminating fixed Hobby, Launch, and Scale subscription plans. Compute is billed per second while machines run, starting from around 1.94 dollars per month for a minimal always-on instance, with separate charges for volumes, dedicated IPv4, and egress. New accounts get 5 dollars in trial credits and there is no permanent free tier. It competes with Railway, Render, and Heroku, differentiated by global placement and micro-VM architecture.