You want the largest region count
Fly.io runs in more locations than we do. If you need an edge presence in dozens of cities, they are the stronger fit today.
Comparison
One platform instead of four and a glue layer.
Most platforms run your code well, then leave data, observability, and access control to you. Here is what Darwa, Railway, Render, Fly.io, and Heroku each include without add-ons.
| Capability | Darwa | Railway | Render | Fly.io | Heroku |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deploying | |||||
| GitHub auto deploy (CI/CD) | Yes | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| AI detects the setup | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Command-line tool | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Push from Cursor, Codex, or Claude Code | Yes | — | — | — | — |
| Your own Dockerfile | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Preview for every change | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Partial |
| Running | |||||
| Managed MySQL, Postgres, and MariaDB | Yes | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Managed file storage | Yes | Partial | — | Yes | — |
| Logs and metrics built in | Yes | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Deploy to many regions | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes | — |
| Shared hosting plans | Yes | — | — | — | — |
| Mailboxes and business email | Yes | — | — | — | — |
| One-click AI agent install | Yes | — | — | — | — |
| Operating | |||||
| Team roles and approvals | Yes | Partial | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| AI picks the server plan | Yes | — | — | — | — |
| AI finds what broke | Yes | — | — | — | — |
| AI DevOps recommendations | Soon | — | — | — | — |
| Visual cloud builder with cost preview | Soon | Partial | — | — | — |
| Transactional email API | Soon | — | — | — | Partial |
| Free while you build | Yes | — | Yes | — | — |
Built inExtra setup or add-onSoonRolling out—Not offeredFrom public docs, reviewed August 2026
When we are not the answer
Three reasons to pick someone else.
A comparison is only useful if it tells you when to walk away. These are the cases where another platform is genuinely the better choice.
You are already deep in Heroku
Heroku's add-on marketplace is far older than ours. If your stack depends on several of those add-ons, migration is real work.
You only need one static site
A single site with no API, database, or worker does not need a platform. Render's or Vercel's free tier will do it, and so will our Frontend Cloud.
Try it instead
The table is easier to believe after a deploy.
Connect a repository on the free tier and check the rows that matter to you against the running thing.