Compare / DigitalOcean App Platform vs Fly.io Machines
DigitalOcean App Platform vs Fly.io Machines
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — DigitalOcean checked 2026-09-15, Fly.io checked 2026-09-15.
The short version
DigitalOcean App Platform and Fly.io Machines split our comparison — the right pick depends on what your project values.
Price Fly.io Machines
Fly.io Machines is cheaper at every stage we model — about $12/mo even for a growing project.
Ease DigitalOcean App Platform
DigitalOcean App Platform is easier to get running: connect the Git repo or a container image; App Platform builds, deploys, and scales it.
Control Fly.io Machines
Fly.io Machines gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.
Free tier DigitalOcean App Platform
DigitalOcean App Platform has a free tier; Fly.io Machines doesn't.
Features Tie
Feature coverage is even: each wins 4 of the 15 rows we track.
What developers say about this matchup
We couldn't find a substantive first-person discussion comparing this exact pair. We leave the section empty instead of filling it with vendor marketing or generic SEO comparisons.
At a glance
| DigitalOcean App Platform | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Apps that want git-push deploys inside a provider they can grow with. | Dockerized apps that want low cost, fine control, or multi-region placement. |
| How deploys work | Connect the Git repo or a container image; App Platform builds, deploys, and scales it. | fly launch builds the image and deploys it; configuration lives in fly.toml and the flyctl CLI. |
| The tradeoff | Weaker compute per dollar than a Droplet — the convenience premium is real. | You operate more of the stack yourself unless you pay for Managed Postgres. |
| Free tier | Free tier: 3 apps with static sites, 1 GiB of outbound transfer each per month. Extra static-site apps cost $3/month. | None |
What you'd realistically pay
| Project stage | DigitalOcean App Platform | Fly.io Machines | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈$5/mo 1 shared vCPU / 512 MiB — Includes 50 GiB of outbound transfer; billed per second. | ≈$3/mo shared-cpu-1x, 256 MB — About $2.02/month in Amsterdam if always on; less with scale-to-zero. | Fly.io Machines |
| Steady traffic | ≈$12/mo 1 shared vCPU / 1 GiB — Includes 150 GiB of transfer; a managed database adds more. | ≈$6/mo shared-cpu-1x, 1 GB — About $5.92/month in Amsterdam, plus egress at $0.02/GB. | Fly.io Machines |
| Growing | ≈$24/mo Two 1 GiB containers — Horizontal scaling; database and extra transfer on top. | ≈$12/mo Two 1 GB Machines — Two machines for availability; databases and egress on top. | Fly.io Machines |
DigitalOcean App Platform pricing notes
- Billed per second with a one-minute minimum.
- Scale to Zero is a private preview for web services. Sleeping services bill at 10% of the standard price.
Fly.io Machines pricing notes
- Billed per second only while Machines are started; scale-to-zero is natively supported.
- Egress: $0.02/GB in North America and Europe; more elsewhere.
- Managed Postgres (MPG): Basic $38, Starter $72, Launch $282, Scale $962, Performance $1,922 per month, plus $0.28/GB-month storage. Every plan includes HA, backups, failover, and pooling.
Our ratings
Ease of use DigitalOcean App Platform
Pricing clarity DigitalOcean App Platform
Free tier DigitalOcean App Platform
Scaling Fly.io Machines
Control Fly.io Machines
Feature by feature
DigitalOcean App Platform wins 4, Fly.io Machines wins 4, with 7 even.
Deploy workflow
| DigitalOcean App Platform | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Yes Connect GitHub or GitLab; pushes build and deploy automatically. | Partial No native git integration; the documented path is flyctl in GitHub Actions. |
| Preview deploys | No No automatic per-PR preview environments. | Partial PR apps work via the official GitHub Action, not out of the box. |
| Official CLI | Yes doctl manages apps, Droplets, and databases from one CLI. | Yes flyctl does everything: launch, deploy, scale, ssh, logs. |
| Instant rollbacks | Yes Roll back to a previous deployment from the dashboard. | Partial Redeploy any previous image; no one-click dashboard rollback. |
Platform
| DigitalOcean App Platform | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Custom domains with managed TLS certificates. | Yes Custom domains with free managed certificates. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | Partial Static assets go through a CDN; dynamic services run in one region. | Partial Anycast routing sends users to the nearest region, but there is no static-asset CDN. |
| Serverless functions | Partial DO Functions exist within App Platform but are a minor, less-loved product. | No Machines are micro-VMs, not functions. |
| Docker containers | Yes Deploy from a Dockerfile or any container registry. | Yes A Docker image is the deployment unit. |
| SSH / shell access | Partial A web console reaches the running container; no true SSH. | Yes fly ssh console opens a shell in any running Machine. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Amsterdam and Frankfurt at identical US prices. | Yes Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, London, and more. |
Runtime & operations
| DigitalOcean App Platform | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Partial Request-based autoscaling works on shared and dedicated plans. CPU-based autoscaling requires dedicated CPU. | Yes Machines autostart and autostop with traffic; scale counts per region. |
| Scale to zero | Partial Private preview for web services. Sleep costs 10% and cannot be combined with request-based autoscaling. | Yes Stopped Machines cost only their storage. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Scheduled jobs run every 15 minutes or more and bill only while running. | Partial Scheduled Machines run on fixed intervals; full cron needs a workaround. |
| Managed database | Yes DO Managed Databases (Postgres, MySQL, Redis-compatible) attach directly. | Yes Managed Postgres (MPG) includes HA, backups, failover, and pooling from $38/month; unmanaged Fly Postgres is Unsupported. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Yes Insights graphs, runtime logs, and alert policies built in. | Yes Built-in metrics (Grafana), live logs, and log shipping. |
Watch out for
DigitalOcean
- App Platform containers are small for the money — $12/month buys 1 GiB of RAM, while a $24 Droplet has 4 GiB.
- Managed databases bill separately from both products.
- Bandwidth allowances pool at the team level; overage is $0.02/GiB on App Platform and $0.01/GiB on Droplets.
Fly.io
- New pay-as-you-go organizations get no free allowance.
- Managed Postgres starts at $38/month (Basic) plus $0.28/GB-month storage; unmanaged Fly Postgres is labeled Unsupported on the pricing page.
- Managed Postgres still lacks security patches and version upgrades, extra third-party extensions beyond pgvector and PostGIS, customer-facing alerting, and migration tools.
- Per-second compute plus $0.02/GB egress makes bills variable; prices differ by region.
Read the full reviews: DigitalOcean and Fly.io. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.