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A Railway alternative on a server you own

Stackap is an alternative to Railway for people who want a fixed server cost instead of metered usage, with one container and one private Postgres per project, and no multi-service canvas.

The short answer

Railway is a hosted platform that deploys from a repository or an image, runs several services side by side inside a project, and offers managed databases, billed by what you use. It is built around a visual project that holds many things.

Stackap makes a different trade. A project is one app with its own database. If your system is one web app and one Postgres, that is enough. If it is five services talking to each other, Stackap does not model that today.

Where the one-container limit bites is easy to count. A web app, a separate API, a worker and a cache are four things on Railway's canvas. On Stackap they become two projects, the worker has to be reshaped into something with an HTTP port, and the cache has nowhere to live except the database.

Side by side

	Railway	Stackap
Where it runs	Railway's infrastructure	A server you rent
Shape of a project	Several services and databases together	One app, one database
Deploy source	A repository or an image	Stackap's own git, or a Dockerfile in it
Services talking privately	Supported	Not a feature
Managed databases beyond Postgres	Several kinds	Postgres only
Background workers with no port	Supported	Not included; apps must serve HTTP
Scheduled jobs	Supported	Yes, HTTP calls to a path, UTC
Cost shape	Metered usage	The price of the server

Choose Railway if

Your system is made of several services that need to reach each other privately.
You want databases other than Postgres, or workers that run without a web port.
You like deploying and reshaping infrastructure on a visual canvas.

Choose Stackap if

Each of your apps is a web app with its own Postgres.
A predictable monthly bill matters more than elastic capacity.
You want encrypted, restore-verified backups going to a bucket you own.
You are fine with one server and the single-machine limits that come with it.

What the money looks like

Railway is billed by usage and its pricing changes, so read it before you compare. Stackap's cost follows the server you choose, so a steady, busy app has a predictable bill.

Metered billing can be cheaper than a server for an app that is mostly idle, and a fixed server can be cheaper for an app that is busy. Work out which your app is before you assume either.

Early-access scope

There is no multi-service project, no private networking between apps and no database but Postgres.
Background workers without an HTTP port cannot pass the health check.
One server means one failure domain.
Stackap is in invite-only early access.

Questions

Can I run a worker next to my web app?

Not as a separate service. A worker that exposes a small health endpoint could run as its own project, but we have not tested that pattern.

Is a Docker image deploy supported?

Stackap builds from your repository, using your Dockerfile if you have one. Pulling a prebuilt image from a registry is not a feature.

Facts about other products on this page were last checked on 2026-10-03. Check their own pages before you decide.

Stackap is in early access. Tell us what you run and we will reply with a straight answer about whether it fits.

Ask for an invitation

Last updated 2026-10-03.