Dokku vs Railway

Dokku is a self-hosted Platform as a Service for building and running applications from Git pushes on a server you choose. It can deploy applications with Heroku buildpacks, Dockerfiles, or Docker images, targeting a single server, Docker containers, or a K3s cluster. Dokku routes web processes, manages background processes and automated cron tasks, and supports deployment rollback and audit logs. Its plugin architecture allows users to add functionality, with official plugins for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, and Let’s Encrypt. Per-application SSL/TLS certificate management is supported, and HTTPS responses have HSTS enabled by default. Dokku recommends SSH key authorization for pushes. The free open-source plan costs nothing. Dokku Pro costs $849, paid once and adds a web interface, JSON API, HTTP(S) app push, management tools, scaling, logs, team management, and email support.

Railway is a deployment platform for teams that want to provision infrastructure, develop locally against it, and deploy services to the cloud. Projects can start from Docker images, GitHub repositories, local repositories, container registries, or templates. Railway offers PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, and Redis database templates with built-in backups, plus persistent volumes with up to 5 TB of storage. Networking includes public and private options, TCP proxying, custom domains, and managed TLS certificates. Services can scale vertically, horizontally, and across four regions. Operational tools include logs retained for up to 90 days, configurable dashboards, distributed tracing, health checks, usage limits, and alerts. Teams can use unlimited environments, pull-request and preview deployments, GitHub branch deploys, approval gates, audit logs, and rollbacks. Railway also provides a GraphQL API, a CLI, and iOS and Android apps for deploying, monitoring, and managing services. The Trial plan includes a one-time $5 free credit; Hobby costs $5 a month and Pro costs $20 a month. Enterprise pricing is custom.