# Fly.io

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/hosting/fly-io/

Runs Docker images as lightweight VMs in chosen regions, billed on provisioned resources rather than plan tiers.

## Who it suits

Workloads that ship as Docker images and need placement in particular regions. Billing is purely usage-based with no plan tiers, which suits spiky or region-pinned traffic better than a flat monthly fee.

Consider something else if You want a predictable flat bill rather than charges that track the resources provisioned for each app.

## iScore

68 / 100 (80% interval 64–72), rank 5 of 11 in hosting — interval overlaps the next rank, so this is an ordering, not a finding.

inetGeek's own reading, computed from sourced facts against category peers by disclosed rules. Not a provider claim. Intervals are 80%; a provider with few documented facts is pulled toward the category middle rather than scored on what little is known.
Method: https://inetgeek.com/iscore/. Full output with every criterion's basis: https://inetgeek.com/scores.json. Every hosting peer ranked: https://inetgeek.com/hosting/fly-io/alternatives/

- Price: 74 (68–80), weight 25%, 4 of 5 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: minimum_paid_price
- Capacity and limits: 49 (37–61), weight 20%, 2 of 6 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: bandwidth_included, concurrent_builds, max_request_duration, sites_included
- Capabilities: 78 (69–88), weight 20%, 11 of 12 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: containers
- Trust and compliance: 65 (58–71), weight 15%, 4 of 11 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: audit_logs, encryption_at_rest, gdpr_data_residency, hipaa_eligible, iso27001, pci_dss, uptime_sla
- Evidence: 92 (92–92), weight 10%, 4 of 4 criteria scored
- Adoption: 50 (40–60), weight 10%, 1 of 2 criteria scored

## What the documentation says

### Pricing

- Free tier: No ([source](https://fly.io/docs/about/free-trial/), read 2026-09-13)
- Kind of free offer: Free trial ([source](https://fly.io/docs/about/free-trial/), read 2026-09-13)
- What the free plan includes: Two hours of machine runtime or seven days of access, whichever runs out first, before a payment method is required. ([source](https://fly.io/docs/about/free-trial/), read 2026-09-13)
- Credit card to start: No — Apps stop when the trial's 2 machine-hours or 7 days run out, whichever comes first, until a card is added. ([source](https://fly.io/docs/about/free-trial/), read 2026-09-13)
- When the free offer ends: 7 days, or when the trial's included resources run out — whichever comes first. ([source](https://fly.io/docs/about/free-trial/), read 2026-09-13)
- Pricing model: Usage-based, no compute plan tiers; billing is pro-rated for the time resources are provisioned. ([source](https://fly.io/docs/about/pricing/), read 2026-09-14)
- Egress over allowance: Egress to the public internet is $0.02/GB in North America and Europe, $0.04/GB in Asia Pacific, Oceania and South America, and $0.12/GB in Africa and India. ([source](https://fly.io/docs/about/pricing/), read 2026-09-13)
- When you exceed a cap: No plan cap to exceed — Fly bills per second for provisioned resources. The only documented enforcement is unspecified automated scaling limits, which surface as an error message (platform-wide, all plans) ([source](https://fly.io/docs/about/pricing/), read 2026-09-05)

### Limits

- Memory (entry plan): 256 MB on shared-cpu-1x, the cheapest Machine at $1.94/month in Ashburn (iad), the region the pricing table shows by default. ([source](https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing/), read 2026-09-27)
- File, inode or volume limit: 8 GB rootfs (deployed image) limit per Machine, platform-wide on all plans; exceeding it fails the image push at deploy time ([source](https://fly.io/docs/getting-started/troubleshooting/), read 2026-09-05)

### Execution

- CPU time limit: Platform-wide, per Machine size: shared vCPUs get a 5ms CPU quota per 80ms period (6.25%); performance vCPUs get the full 80ms. Quotas are shared across a Machine's vCPUs, and tasks are throttled for the rest of the period once the quota is reached. ([source](https://fly.io/docs/machines/cpu-performance/), read 2026-09-05)
- Streaming response limit: No duration or size ceiling documented. Streaming works, but Fly Proxy buffers responses before compressing them, so progressive server-side rendering needs Content-Encoding: none set on those responses. ([source](https://fly.io/docs/reference/content-encoding/), read 2026-09-05)
- Managed connection pooling: Supported ([source](https://fly.io/docs/mpg/cluster-configuration/), read 2026-09-05)

### Deployment

- Git deployment: Limited ([source](https://fly.io/docs/launch/continuous-deployment-with-github-actions/), read 2026-09-07)
- Docker deployment: Supported ([source](https://docs.fly.io/launch/deploy), read 2026-09-27)
- Scheduled jobs: Limited ([source](https://fly.io/docs/machines/flyctl/fly-machine-run/), read 2026-09-05)

### Infrastructure

- Persistent processes: Supported — A stopped or suspended Machine still bills for its root filesystem at $0.15 per GB per month. ([source](https://docs.fly.io/about/billing/), read 2026-09-27)
- Persistent storage: Supported ([source](https://fly.io/docs/volumes/overview/), read 2026-09-05)
- Managed databases: Supported ([source](https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing/), read 2026-09-27)
- Edge network: Limited ([source](https://fly.io/docs/reference/architecture/), read 2026-09-05)
- Scales to zero: Supported ([source](https://fly.io/docs/launch/autostop-autostart/), read 2026-09-05)
- Autoscaling: Limited — Two forms: autostop/autostart of existing Machines, and metrics-based autoscaling. ([source](https://docs.fly.io/reference/autoscaling/), read 2026-09-27)
- Regions: 17 regions ([source](https://docs.fly.io/reference/regions/), read 2026-09-27)

### Support

- Support on entry paid plan: Community support is free. Paid support is a separate subscription on top of compute, not a plan tier: Standard $29/month, Premium $199/month. ([source](https://fly.io/pricing), read 2026-09-14)
- Response time commitment: 36-hour first response on Standard, the cheapest paid support plan at $29/month. ([source](https://fly.io/pricing), read 2026-09-14)

### Compliance

- Private networking / VPC: No Terraform, no VPC configurations, no IAM: apps talk directly to each other on private networks with zero configuration . ([source](https://fly.io/security/), read 2026-09-21)

## Compared with

- [Fly.io vs Railway](https://inetgeek.com/compare/railway-vs-fly-io/)
- [Fly.io vs Heroku](https://inetgeek.com/compare/fly-io-vs-heroku/)
- [Fly.io vs Render](https://inetgeek.com/compare/render-vs-fly-io/)
- [Fly.io vs Google Cloud Run](https://inetgeek.com/compare/fly-io-vs-google-cloud-run/)