Vercel vs Railway
Vercel is the best home for Next.js and frontends, with previews for every branch and pull request; Railway is better for long-running servers, workers and databases. Many stacks use both: Vercel for the frontend, Railway for the backend.
The verdict
Side by side
| Attribute | Vercel | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Serverless functions + CDN | Containers with per-second billing |
| Free plan limits | Hobby: non-commercial use only | Free: $1/month of usage |
| Best for | Frontends, Next.js, preview deploys | APIs, workers, databases |
| Starting paid price | $20/mo | $5/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
| Pricing verified | Oct 15, 2026 | Oct 15, 2026 |
| Our take | The smoothest deploy experience for Next.js and frontend apps, with preview deployments for every branch and pull request. The free Hobby plan is non-commercial only, so a paying product needs Pro. | The easiest way to run real servers, workers and databases with per-second usage billing. The Hobby plan includes usage credit that covers many small apps. |
| Links | Visit Vercel ↗ | Visit Railway ↗ |
Prices from each vendor's official pricing page. Check site means we couldn't verify a price — we never guess.
FAQ
Can I run a database on Vercel?
Most Vercel apps connect a managed database such as Supabase or Neon. Railway can also run a database service right next to your app in the same project.