2026-09-12
·
T2 Team
·
46 次阅读
Vercel vs Netlify vs Railway: The Definitive 2026 Comparison
We deployed the same Next.js app to all three. Here's where each one wins and where they make you pay.
Vercel vs Netlify vs Railway: The Definitive 2026 Comparison
We deployed the same Next.js 14 app (with edge functions, ISR, and a Postgres database) to all three platforms. We measured cold starts, build times, real-world latency, and invoice surprises.
TL;DR
| If you build... | Pick... |
|---|---|
| Static sites + Next.js with mostly static rendering | Vercel |
| Multi-framework JAMstack (Astro, Hugo, Gatsby, SvelteKit) | Netlify |
| Backend-heavy services (Express, FastAPI, Rails) | Railway |
| Anything with persistent state and databases | Railway |
| Pure edge serverless with zero DB | Cloudflare Workers |
Build Times (Next.js 14, 247 pages)
| Platform | Cold Build | Incremental | Cache Hit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel | 1m 12s | 8s | < 1s |
| Netlify | 2m 04s | 15s | 1s |
| Railway | 1m 38s | 12s | N/A |
Vercel wins build times by a comfortable margin.
Cold Start Latency (TTFB from Singapore)
| Platform | P50 | P95 | P99 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel | 47ms | 178ms | 412ms |
| Netlify | 89ms | 241ms | 658ms |
| Railway | 22ms | 95ms | 245ms |
Railway wins cold start latency (no cold start, always-on containers).
Pricing Reality Check
Vercel
- Hobby: Free for personal
- Pro: $20/user/mo
- Real bill for our test app: $87/month
- Free: 100 GB bandwidth
- Pro: $19/user/mo
- Real bill for our test app: $45/month
- Hobby: $5/mo + usage
- Developer: $20/mo + usage
- Real bill for our test app: $28/month
- Vercel: No built-in DB, pair with Neon
- Netlify: No built-in DB, pair with Supabase
- Railway: ✅ Built-in Postgres + Redis + Mongo
- Vercel: Heavy lock-in (edge middleware, ISR, image opt)
- Netlify: Medium lock-in
- Railway: Low lock-in (just Docker)
- Next.js + mostly static → Vercel (free hobby plan)
- Next.js + heavy DB/API → Railway ($5/mo)
- Multi-framework static → Netlify
Netlify
Railway
Railway wins pricing for backend services.
Database Story
If you need a database, Railway wins by 10x.
Lock-in Risk
Our Verdict
For T2 readers building side projects:
*Published 2026-09-12 by T2 Team · 10 min read*