Should I self-host Railway?

NOT REALLYkeep paying

Railway's $5 hobby plan is the VPS. Replacing it with a $5 VPS running Dokploy is a lateral move plus a weekend — you'd be self-hosting the convenience you were paying $0 extra for. Revisit at usage-based scale; at $5, keep paying.

The math (nothing hidden, including your time)

Railway (Hobby)	$5.00/mo
VPS share + storage	−$0.00/mo
Your maintenance: 0 min/mo at $20/h	−$0.00/mo
Net saving	$5.00/mo
Setup: 15 min measured (one-time)	$5.00
Break-even	1.0 months

What's your hour worth? $20/h$0/h = "my homelab time is free and I love it" — a legitimate position

Price: source, checked 2026-08-06. Inputs are stored in git; every number above is derived, never hand-written.

What you lose

Nothing at this tier — the subscription IS the infrastructure

What you're paying Railway for

app hosting from git
databases
environment management

Dokploy running from the boot-verified compose file — Dokploy, running from the compose file on this page — screenshot from our verified instance, not marketing material.

Ranked alternatives

1. Dokploy

Push to a git repository and get a running container, on a server you rent flat instead of a meter you watch.

Dokploy/dokploy · ★ 36,515 · last commit 0d ago · Apache-2.0

2. Coolify

A deploy button and a build pipeline for the server you already rent, with no seat price and no usage meter.

coollabsio/coolify · ★ 60,367 · last commit 0d ago · Apache-2.0

Hardware

Runs comfortably on a real VPS (2 GB+).

Verification

Protocol v1 · verified by zernonia on 2026-08-10 · setup measured at 15 min · AI assistant: claude-code (allowed & stated)

Full timed log

# Railway — verdict log

- **Date:** 2026-08-10
- **Verdict:** NOT REALLY — keep paying
- **Protocol:** v1 (2GB reference env, Docker preinstalled, AI assistant: claude-code)

## Why no compose file

- This verdict is decided by economics/capability, not setup effort — the rubric doesn't require a timed install to conclude the subscription should stay (or that the replacement's cost lives elsewhere, e.g. GPUs, egress, or an installer script).

## The call

Railway's $5 hobby plan is the VPS. Replacing it with a $5 VPS running Dokploy is a lateral move plus a weekend — you'd be self-hosting the convenience you were paying $0 extra for. Revisit at usage-based scale; at $5, keep paying.

Verdict history

2026-08-10: unscored → NOT_REALLY — Initial verdict: Railway's $5 hobby plan is the VPS.