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Fly.io vs Vercel

Two sides of the hosting decision: container platform and frontend cloud. When each fits, what it costs, who moves from one to the other, and what makers who chose it say.

Fly.ioContainer platformllms.txt
VercelFrontend cloudllms.txtMCPCLIIn v0
Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

Which fits you

Choose Fly.io if
  • Your users are spread across continents and the app runs in Docker

Use it whenYour app runs in Docker and should serve users in several regions.

Trade-offMore operations work than a PaaS.

Choose Vercel if
  • You built a Next.js or other frontend-heavy app and want preview URLs on every pull request

Use it whenYour app is Next.js, or you want a preview URL on every pull request with no setup.

Trade-offThe Hobby plan is non-commercial; costs grow with usage.

At a glance

Fly.ioVercel
Used by66 makers' products · 52 open-source projectsNo maker's product yet
Cost at default usagerequests 5 million requests, data transfer out 100 GB, serverless function compute 100 GB-hours$15/mo Pay As You Go$40/mo Pro + Flat Rate CDN 10M
Moved to it on GitHubpull requests since Oct 202411 from Vercel7 from Fly.io
Downloads5.7M/wk+93% vs npm
PricingUsage-based. · paid from $1.94/mo (shared-cpu-1x)Free Hobby plan (non-commercial); Pro per seat plus usage. · paid from $20/mo
Free tierNoYes
Open sourceNoNo
Incidents, 90 daysfrom its status page25+ (11 major)31 (10 major)

Cost as you grow

At 100k requests Vercel costs less ($0 vs $13); from about 5M requests Fly.io does ($15 vs $40). They're different kinds of tool — container platform and frontend cloud — so the prices don't buy the same thing.

$0$100$500$1,000$2,0000.10.5151050100500
VercelFly.iox: requests per month (million requests), other usage scaled with it; held at 1 server and 1 seat (always-on app servers, developers on the team) · cheapest usable plan at each point, list prices · try your own numbers
The numbers, plan by plan
Requests per monthFly.ioVercel
0.1$13 Pay As You Go$0 Hobby
0.5$13 Pay As You Go$0 Hobby
1$13 Pay As You Go$0 Hobby
5$15 Pay As You Go$40 Pro + Flat Rate CDN 10M
10$17 Pay As You Go$40 Pro + Flat Rate CDN 10M
50$33 Pay As You Go$127 Pro + Flat Rate CDN 50M
100$53 Pay As You Go$353 Pro + Flat Rate CDN 150M
500$213 Pay As You Go$2,766 Pro (on-demand CDN)

From each vendor's pricing page: Fly.io, Vercel.

Who moves from one to the other

Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "Fly.io to Vercel" or the reverse — real code changes, by developers in general rather than makers only.

Vercel → Fly.io11 PRs
All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗
Fly.io → Vercel7 PRs
All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

What makers say

Makers on using it for hosting, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On Fly.io
Machines on Fly made it easy to build SSL-secured proxies and backends for keeping cross-internet Pig automations safe and encrypted.
Pig, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Shoutout to @flyDev - Deploying Mascotly globally was seamless thanks to Fly.io. It made it super easy to get our backend up and running close to users with minimal config. Fast, reliable, and developer-friendly - couldn’t ask for more! 🚀🌍
Mascotly, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Fly’s setup process was smooth and intuitive. Hosting APIs globally with minimal configuration was a huge time-saver.
Cure AI, the makerSep 2026 ↗
18 more on the Fly.io page →
On Vercel

No maker quote about Vercel for hosting yet.

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

Fly.io
Most loved
  • Apps deploy close to users around the world with minimal configuration. PH
  • The CLI makes deploys and scaling a single command. PH
  • Pricing is simple and predictable, with small containers costing very little. HNHN 2PH
Watch-outs
  • Its unmanaged Postgres needs manual recovery when nodes fail or run out of memory. HNHN 2
  • Repeated major outages undermine confidence in its stability. HN
On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 27 reviews · mentioned most: easy deployment, developer friendly, CLI
Vercel
Most loved
  • Pushing to Git deploys automatically with zero configuration. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
  • Every commit or pull request gets a preview URL, so changes are reviewed live before release. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
  • Small teams ship without managing infrastructure or CI/CD themselves. PHPH 2PH 3PH 4
Watch-outs
  • Heavy bot traffic, such as Meta's crawler, can multiply the bill with little protection. HNHN 2HN 3
  • Execution limits and middleware quirks need workarounds. PH
On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 1,077 reviews · mentioned most: fast deployment, Next.js integration, developer experience · complaints: pricing, UI dependencies

Who uses each

Fly.io66 makers' products
Cure AIFlight FollowerFormcraftsGitHub Wrapped 2025InfiniDeskMascotlyOboeOpenchangelogPigPinchRemySailhouse+54 more
Vercel0 makers' products
None tracked yet.

What makers pair each with

With Fly.io
Frontend Framework
Database
Transactional Email
Web Analytics
With Vercel
Frontend Framework
Transactional Email
Database
Payments

Neither quite right?

See the whole hosting decision →
NetlifyFrontend cloudStatic sites and JAMstack apps on any framework.vs Vercel →
CloudflareEdge platformCheap global hosting with Workers, plus database (D1) and storage (R2) on the same platform.vs Vercel →
RailwayPaaSServers, workers and databases deployed together, with almost no configuration.vs Fly.io →vs Vercel →
RenderPaaSA Heroku-style platform for web services, cron jobs and Postgres.vs Fly.io →vs Vercel →
Amazon Web ServicesHyperscaler cloudThe widest catalog of building blocks — Lambda, containers, managed databases, queues — to assemble your own infrastructure.vs Fly.io →vs Vercel →
Hetzner CloudYour own serverA lot of CPU and RAM per euro, in European, US and Singapore regions.vs Fly.io →
CoolifyYour own serverA Heroku- or Vercel-style dashboard on your own server, with many one-click services.