Render, Railway, Fly.io: When PaaS Beats Cloud for .NET Applications

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) platforms like Render, Railway, and Fly.io offer a different value proposition than traditional cloud: zero infrastructure management. For small teams, this can be more cost-effective than cloud - even when the monthly bill appears higher.

This guide compares PaaS options for .NET applications and explains when the simplicity premium is worth paying.

The PaaS value proposition

Cloud requires infrastructure knowledge. Even with managed Kubernetes and databases, you're responsible for:

• Cluster configuration and scaling
• Network security and firewall rules
• SSL certificate management
• Container registry setup
• CI/CD pipeline configuration
• Monitoring and alerting setup
• Secret management
• Log aggregation

PaaS abstracts all of this away. You push code (or a Docker image), and it runs.

The question isn't just "how much does it cost?" but "how much does it cost including your time?"

The hidden cost of cloud

Let's be honest about what cloud infrastructure requires from a small team:

Time investment (realistic estimates):

Task	Monthly hours	Notes
Cluster maintenance	2-4 hours	Updates, node issues, scaling
Security patches	1-2 hours	OS and container updates
CI/CD pipeline	1-2 hours	Build failures, new services
Monitoring/alerts	1-2 hours	False alarms, tuning
Incident response	2-4 hours	When things go wrong
Total	7-14 hours/month	Conservative estimate

Cost calculation:

At £50/hour (conservative for UK developer time):

Infrastructure time:     10 hours/month
Labour cost:             £500/month
Cloud hosting:           £37/month (DigitalOcean)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total cost of ownership: £537/month

Now compare to PaaS:

PaaS hosting:            £60/month (Render)
Infrastructure time:     0 hours/month
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total cost of ownership: £60/month

PaaS is 89% cheaper when you include labour costs.

This is obviously a simplified calculation. Your actual infrastructure time may be lower (especially with good automation) or higher (if things go wrong). But the principle holds: time has value.

PaaS platform comparison

Render (£60/month)

Overview: Modern PaaS built as a "Heroku replacement" with native Docker support.

Pricing for .NET application:

Component	Specification	Monthly cost
Web service	Standard (2GB RAM)	£19.75
PostgreSQL	Standard (1GB RAM)	£19.75
Storage	100GB at £0.20/GB	£20.00
Total		£59.50

What you get:

• Zero infrastructure management
• Native Docker container support (essential for .NET)
• Pull request preview environments
• Auto-scaling (horizontal)
• Free SSL certificates
• Infrastructure as Code via Blueprint

Developer experience:

1. Connect your GitHub repo
2. Specify your Dockerfile
3. Configure environment variables
4. Click deploy

New developers can ship to production in under an hour.

Trade-offs:

• Stability concerns: Community reports of occasional reliability issues
• Build times: Can be slower than dedicated CI/CD
• Support: Complaints about response times for non-enterprise customers
• No UK data centre: US-based infrastructure

Best for: Teams prioritising speed of development over infrastructure control

Railway (£96/month)

Overview: Usage-based PaaS with excellent GitHub integration and developer experience.

Pricing for .NET application:

Component	Specification	Monthly cost
Compute	1 vCPU, 2GB RAM (always-on)	£52.56
PostgreSQL	Usage-based	£23.70
Storage	100GB at £0.20/GB	£20.00
Total		£96.26

Usage-based pricing explained:

Railway charges per second of resource usage:

• RAM: $0.000231/GB-hour (£0.000182)
• CPU: $0.000463/vCPU-hour (£0.000366)

For always-on applications, this adds up. A 2GB, 1 vCPU service running 24/7 costs approximately £52/month.

What you get:

• Usage-based billing (good for variable workloads)
• Excellent GitHub integration
• Infrastructure from code
• No cold starts (unlike some serverless options)
• Template library for quick starts
• Team collaboration features

Developer experience:

Railway's DX is exceptional:

• Connect repo and deploy in minutes
• Preview environments on every PR
• Environment variables managed in UI
• Logs and metrics built-in
• Database provisioning with one click

Trade-offs:

• Can be expensive at scale: Usage-based pricing grows with traffic
• Unpredictable bills: Variable costs can surprise teams
• Limited customisation: Less control than cloud
• No UK data centre: US-based infrastructure

Best for: Teams with variable workloads who value excellent DX

Fly.io (£44/month)

Overview: Global application platform focused on edge computing and low latency.

Pricing for .NET application:

Component	Specification	Monthly cost
Compute	Shared CPU (2GB RAM)	£15.80
PostgreSQL	Container-based	£15.80
Storage	100GB at £0.12/GB	£12.00
Total		£43.60

Edge computing approach:

Fly.io deploys your application to data centres close to your users. For a UK-focused application, this means:

• London data centre available
• Low latency for UK users
• Option to deploy globally with minimal configuration

What you get:

• Global edge deployment
• WireGuard VPN for private networking
• Free tier (3 shared machines + 3GB storage)
• Geographic flexibility
• LiteFS for distributed SQLite (unique feature)

Developer experience:

Fly.io has a steeper learning curve than Render or Railway:

• CLI-focused workflow (flyctl)
• Configuration via fly.toml
• More control, but more complexity
• PostgreSQL runs as a container, not fully managed

Trade-offs:

• Steeper learning curve: More complex than Render/Railway
• Database not traditionally managed: PostgreSQL runs as a Fly app
• Pricing complexity: Multiple resource types to track
• Community support: Smaller community than alternatives

Best for: Teams with edge/global requirements or those comfortable with more technical setup

Comparison table

Feature	Render	Railway	Fly.io
Monthly cost	£60	£96	£44
Simplicity	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Stability	Mixed reports	Good	Good
Docker support	Native	Native	Native
UK data centre	No	No	Yes (London)
.NET support	Via Docker	Via Docker	Via Docker
Database	Fully managed	Fully managed	Container-based
Free tier	Yes (limited)	Yes ($5 credit)	Yes (3 machines)
Best for	Simplicity	Variable workloads	Edge/global

When PaaS makes sense

Choose PaaS when:

Team size: 1-5 developers

Small teams can't afford dedicated infrastructure expertise. Every hour spent on Kubernetes is an hour not spent on product features.

Focus: product over infrastructure

If your competitive advantage is your application - not your infrastructure - why build it yourself?

Budget: £50-100/month acceptable

The PaaS premium (typically 50-100% over self-managed cloud) is worth it if it saves 5+ hours/month of engineering time.

Customisation: standard patterns sufficient

PaaS works best for typical web applications. If you need custom networking, specific compliance configurations, or unusual architectures, cloud gives more control.

The PaaS sweet spot

PaaS excels for:

• Web APIs and backends
• Content management systems
• Internal tools and dashboards
• MVPs and early-stage products
• Side projects and experiments
• Staging and preview environments

When to choose cloud instead

Team has DevOps expertise

If you already have infrastructure skills and good automation, the cloud cost savings are worth capturing.

Complex infrastructure requirements

Multi-region failover, custom networking, specific compliance requirements - these often require cloud-level control.

Cost optimisation is priority

At scale, PaaS premiums add up. A £60/month Render app could run on DigitalOcean for £37/month - savings that compound with multiple services.

Specific compliance needs

PaaS providers have fewer compliance certifications than hyperscalers. Check requirements carefully.

PaaS for .NET: practical considerations

Docker is essential

All three platforms run .NET via Docker containers. Your Dockerfile becomes your deployment unit:

# Example .NET 8 Dockerfile
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src
COPY ["MyApp.csproj", "."]
RUN dotnet restore
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o /app

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:8.0
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app .
EXPOSE 8080
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.dll"]

Health checks matter

PaaS platforms use health checks for:

• Deployment validation (new version healthy before traffic)
• Auto-restart (unhealthy containers replaced)
• Load balancing (traffic only to healthy instances)

Add a health endpoint to your .NET application:

app.MapHealthChecks("/health");

Environment configuration

All platforms inject configuration via environment variables. Use .NET's configuration system:

builder.Configuration.AddEnvironmentVariables();

Store sensitive values (database connections, API keys) in the platform's secrets management, not your repository.

Database connections

PaaS databases provide connection strings. For PostgreSQL with Entity Framework:

var connectionString = builder.Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")
    ?? Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("DATABASE_URL");

builder.Services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(options =>
    options.UseNpgsql(connectionString));

Cost comparison with cloud

Let's put the full picture together:

Approach	Hosting cost	Labour (10 hrs @ £50)	Total TCO
Azure Container Apps	£93/month	£500/month	£593/month
DigitalOcean	£37/month	£500/month	£537/month
Hetzner (self-managed)	£14/month	£500/month	£514/month
Render	£60/month	£0/month	£60/month
Railway	£96/month	£0/month	£96/month
Fly.io	£44/month	£0/month	£44/month

If your time is worth £50/hour and you spend 10 hours/month on infrastructure, PaaS is significantly cheaper.

Of course, reality is nuanced:

• Experienced teams spend less time on infrastructure
• Good automation reduces ongoing maintenance
• PaaS isn't truly zero maintenance (you still deploy, monitor, troubleshoot)

But for teams where infrastructure isn't a core competency, the comparison holds.

Making the decision

Audit your infrastructure time

Before deciding, track how much time you actually spend on infrastructure:

• Deployment issues
• Scaling problems
• Security updates
• Certificate renewals
• Monitoring alerts
• Incident response

If it's under 3-5 hours/month, cloud probably makes sense. If it's 10+ hours/month, PaaS could save money.

Start with PaaS, migrate later

A reasonable approach for new projects:

1. MVP phase: Use Render or Railway for speed
2. Growth phase: Monitor costs as you scale
3. Optimisation phase: Migrate to cloud when PaaS costs exceed cloud + labour

The Docker-based deployment model means this migration is straightforward - your container runs identically on PaaS or Kubernetes.

Hybrid approach

Some teams use PaaS for non-critical workloads and cloud for core systems:

• PaaS: Internal tools, admin dashboards, preview environments
• Cloud: Production APIs, customer-facing applications

This captures PaaS simplicity where it matters most (developer productivity) while maintaining control where it matters most (core systems).

Recommendations

For solo developers and tiny teams (1-2 people)

Recommended: Fly.io (£44/month)

Lowest cost with acceptable complexity. The CLI-focused workflow suits developers comfortable with command line tools.

For small teams (3-5 people)

Recommended: Render (£60/month)

Best balance of simplicity and features. The slightly higher cost is offset by excellent developer experience and pull request previews.

For teams with variable workloads

Recommended: Railway (£96/month)

Usage-based pricing makes sense if your application has significant traffic variation. Just monitor bills carefully.

For teams that will outgrow PaaS

Recommended: Start with PaaS, plan for cloud

Use Docker-based deployments from day one. When PaaS costs exceed cloud + labour, migrate your containers to DigitalOcean or similar.

Summary

PaaS platforms offer a compelling alternative to cloud for small teams:

Platform	Monthly cost	Simplicity	Best for
Fly.io	£44	Good	Solo/tiny teams, edge computing
Render	£60	Excellent	Small teams, simplicity focus
Railway	£96	Excellent	Variable workloads, great DX

The key insight: time is money. A £60/month Render bill beats a £37/month DigitalOcean bill if DigitalOcean costs you 10 hours/month of engineering time.

For small teams building .NET applications, PaaS deserves serious consideration. The infrastructure abstraction lets you focus on what matters - your product.

---

Need help choosing the right hosting approach?

We help teams evaluate their infrastructure options and choose the approach that fits their size, skills, and priorities. Schedule a consultation to discuss your application architecture.

---

This article contains affiliate links. If you sign up through our links, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend services we've evaluated and believe provide genuine value.

---

Related articles:

• Azure Alternatives: UK Cloud Hosting Comparison for .NET Applications
• Stop Paying for Kubernetes: 5 Providers with Free Control Planes
• On-Premises Hosting in 2026: Why It's 7x More Expensive Than Cloud

---

Last updated: January 2026

Pricing changes frequently. Verify current prices on provider websites before making decisions.