A Railway alternative with a flat, predictable bill.
Railway has a great developer experience for backends and databases, but it prices by usage — compute, memory, egress — so the number moves month to month. shiply.now is flat $0 / $8 / $24 per month, with no usage meter, and your agent publishes the whole stack in one call.
Publish my site to shiply.now and give me the live URL. Read https://shiply.now/skill.md first — it is the live API map. Before publishing, look for .shiply.json and existing Shiply credentials; if MCP is connected, call whoami. If no valid credential is available, publish anonymously immediately — never block the first live URL. Then show me Shiply’s REAUTH_REQUIRED verification link so I can claim it. If I choose email reconnect, request the six-digit code, wait for me to paste it, verify it, and securely save the returned API key. In a cloud sandbox, use the raw HTTP API only (no npm or install scripts). Follow Shiply’s JSON errors and docs pointer; don’t guess.
Usage-based pricing means the bill moves when you least expect it.
On a usage-based platform the plan is only a starting point. The real bill is metered on compute time, memory, and egress, and those climb together exactly when a project takes off or a process misbehaves.
That is where bill anxiety comes from. A launch that hits the front page, a runaway job, or a sudden burst of traffic — none of it changed your code, but each one can push a small monthly bill to a larger one. For a solo builder or a micro-team who just wants a web app live on a number they can plan around, a flat price is the thing they go searching for.
Flat price. No meter. Whole stack in one call.
The price on the card is the price you pay — and your agent ships app, database, and domain in one place, no build to wait on.
One flat line, no matter the usage
$0, $8, or $24 per month — and that is the whole bill. There is no usage meter, so a viral day or a doubling of traffic does not change what you owe. Ship a launch, hit the front page, and still know your invoice to the dollar.
- Flat $0 / $8 / $24 per month (USD)
- No metered compute, memory, or egress
- A spike in usage never raises the bill
Your agent publishes in one HTTP call
No repo to connect, no Dockerfile to write, no account to create before you can ship. Your agent POSTs once and the site is live at a real <slug>.shiply.now URL in a single request — then add a database, edge function, email, or custom domain from the same surface.
- No account needed to publish your first site
- One HTTP call — no build to wait on
- Agent-first: MCP (100+ tools), CLI, or raw HTTP
shiply.now vs Railway, at a glance
Flat versus usage-based, what it takes to get live, and what ships in the box.
| Feature | shiply.nowflat | Railwayusage-based |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | Flat $0 / $8 / $24 per month | Usage-based — pay for compute, memory, bandwidth |
| Usage metercompute time, memory, egress | ||
| Predictable monthly bill | Varies with usage | |
| A spike can raise the bill | ||
| Getting started | ||
| Account required to start | ||
| Publish method | One HTTP call — no build step | Git repo or Dockerfile, then build + deploy |
| Agent-first API + MCP tools | Partial | |
| Real URL the moment the call returns | After a build completes | |
| What ships in the box | ||
| Custom domains, auto-DNS + SSL | ||
| Managed SQL databaseCloudflare D1 + Neon Postgres | ✓ (Postgres, MySQL, etc.) | |
| Persistent containers / background workers | ||
| Per-site inbox | ||
| Marketplace to sell a finished siteStripe Connect, atomic handoff | ||
How they compare, category by category
Pricing. Railway meters compute, memory, and egress — flexible and fair, but variable. shiply.now is a flat $0 / $8 / $24 monthly price with no meter, so the same site costs the same amount whether it gets ten visitors or ten thousand on its best day.
Getting live. Railway deploys from a Git repo or a Dockerfile after a build. shiply publishes in one HTTP call with no build step and no account — the URL is real the moment the call returns.
The stack. Railway gives you first-class managed Postgres, MySQL, Redis, and persistent services — genuinely strong backend infrastructure. shiply bundles app hosting + a SQL database (D1 or Neon Postgres) + edge functions + email + custom domains + a marketplace in one place, aimed at web apps rather than long-running containers.
Agents. shiply is agent-native: a write-enabled MCP with 100+ tools, a CLI, and llms.txt / agent.json discovery surfaces mean your agent can publish and operate the whole thing without a human in a dashboard.
Who each one is best for
shiply.now is best for solo builders, vibe-coders, and freelancers who want an AI agent to publish a web app to a real URL right now, on a flat bill, with the database, functions, email, and domain included — and, if it is client work, a marketplace to hand it off.
Railway is best for teams that need real backend infrastructure — persistent Docker containers, background workers, message queues, or full control over a managed Postgres/Redis instance — with a polished developer experience and per-usage pricing they are happy to pay for. If your project is a stateful service rather than a web app that needs a URL, Railway is the right call.
Moving a front-end or web app over
If the thing you host on Railway is really a web app — a SvelteKit, Astro, Nuxt, React Router, or Next.js front end, or a static build — moving it is quick: point your agent at the build output and publish in one call, then re-attach a database (D1 or Neon Postgres) and any edge functions from the same surface. Keep your persistent backend services on Railway if you have them, and let shiply serve the app on a flat bill. See the frameworks guide for the exact build and publish commands.
Railway alternative — common questions
Is shiply.now a drop-in replacement for Railway?
Not exactly — they solve overlapping but different jobs. Railway is a general application platform: you deploy long-running backends, workers, and databases from a Git repo or Dockerfile. shiply.now is agent-native app hosting: an agent publishes a web app (static or full SSR) in one HTTP call, then attaches a database, edge functions, email, and a custom domain from the same surface. If your job is "get the app my agent built live on a flat bill," shiply fits. If you need a persistent Docker container or a background worker, Railway is the better tool.
How is shiply.now pricing different from Railway?
shiply.now is flat: $0, $8, or $24 a month in USD, with no usage meter. Railway uses usage-based pricing — you pay for the compute, memory, and bandwidth your services actually consume. That model is fair and flexible, but the number moves month to month, and a traffic spike or a runaway process can push it up. With shiply the price on the card is the price you pay, whatever the traffic does.
What does shiply include that I would assemble separately on Railway?
shiply bundles the whole stack in one place: app hosting (static + SSR for every major JS framework), a SQL database (Cloudflare D1 or Neon Postgres), single-file edge functions, transactional email with a per-site inbox, custom domains with auto DNS and SSL, and a marketplace to sell a finished site via Stripe Connect. On Railway you would typically wire several of these together yourself.
Can my AI agent publish to shiply without me signing in first?
Yes. Your agent POSTs once and the site is live at a real <slug>.shiply.now URL — no account needed to start. You claim it later with one click to keep it. There is a write-enabled MCP server with 100+ tools, a CLI (npm: shiply-cli), and a plain REST API, so Claude Code, Cursor, or any HTTP-capable agent can ship directly.
When is Railway the better choice?
Railway is excellent when you need real backend infrastructure: persistent Docker containers, long-running background workers, message queues, or full control over a managed Postgres/Redis instance with a great developer experience. If your project is a stateful service rather than a web app that needs a URL, reach for Railway.
Does shiply run full server-side rendering?
Yes. shiply runs real SSR on production for every major JS framework — SvelteKit, Astro, Qwik, the Nitro family (Nuxt, SolidStart, Analog, TanStack Start), React Router v7, and Next.js (plain SSR via OpenNext) — all served from Cloudflare’s edge as a per-site Worker. The one current limit is Next.js ISR and on-demand revalidate, which are not supported yet.
Comparing more hosts? See the Render alternative, the Cloudflare Pages alternative, the Vercel alternative, or the full shiply vs Vercel breakdown.
Predictable hosting, in one call.
Flat $0 / $8 / $24 per month. No usage meter, no surprise bill, no account to start.