Compare / Fly.io Machines vs Deno Deploy
Fly.io Machines vs Deno Deploy
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Fly.io checked 2026-09-15, Deno Deploy checked 2026-09-15.
The short version
Deno Deploy wins more of our comparison points, but Fly.io Machines still fits if dockerized apps that want low cost, fine control, or multi-region placement describes you.
Price Tie
Deno Deploy costs less while you're starting out, but Fly.io Machines works out cheaper once traffic grows.
Ease Deno Deploy
Deno Deploy is easier to get running: connect GitHub for builds on every push or run deno deploy from the CLI; framework presets configure common JavaScript stacks automatically.
Control Fly.io Machines
Fly.io Machines gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.
Free tier Deno Deploy
Deno Deploy has a free tier; Fly.io Machines doesn't.
Features Deno Deploy
Deno Deploy comes out ahead on 6 of the 15 features we track, versus 2.
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
| Fly.io Machines | Deno Deploy | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Dockerized apps that want low cost, fine control, or multi-region placement. | JavaScript and TypeScript sites, full-stack framework apps, and APIs that benefit from built-in previews, databases, cron, caching, and telemetry. |
| How deploys work | fly launch builds the image and deploys it; configuration lives in fly.toml and the flyctl CLI. | Connect GitHub for builds on every push or run deno deploy from the CLI; framework presets configure common JavaScript stacks automatically. |
| The tradeoff | You operate more of the stack yourself unless you pay for Managed Postgres. | It runs the Deno runtime, not Node itself, and its two-region managed footprint and metered Active CPU, memory, and egress trail broader competitors for heavy traffic. |
| Free tier | None | Free: 1M requests, 20 GiB egress, 10 Active CPU hours, 150 GiB-hours of memory time, 10 active apps, 5 custom domains, and 1 GiB of KV storage per month. |
What you'd realistically pay
Fly.io Machines Deno Deploy
| Project stage | Fly.io Machines | Deno Deploy | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈$3/mo shared-cpu-1x, 256 MB — About $2.02/month in Amsterdam if always on; less with scale-to-zero. | Free Free — A small app can stay inside the monthly allowance; it pauses if any enforced Free limit is exhausted. | Deno Deploy |
| Steady traffic | ≈$6/mo shared-cpu-1x, 1 GB — About $5.92/month in Amsterdam, plus egress at $0.02/GB. | ≈$20/mo Pro — Includes 5M requests, 200 GiB egress, 50 Active CPU hours, and 750 GiB-hours of memory time. | Fly.io Machines |
| Growing | ≈$12/mo Two 1 GB Machines — Two machines for availability; databases and egress on top. | ≈$30/mo Pro + request usage — A representative 10M-request month is $20 plus $10 request overage, before any CPU, memory, storage, or egress overage. | Fly.io Machines |
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.
Deno Deploy pricing notes
- Pro overages are $2 per million requests, $0.20 per GiB of egress, $0.10 per Active CPU hour, and $0.025 per GiB-hour of memory.
- Active CPU bills only while code runs — waiting on requests or network I/O does not consume the CPU meter.
- Pro includes 5 GiB of sandbox volume storage and 5 GiB of Deno KV; extra storage and KV operations have separate usage rates. Free has no volume storage.
- Free has no paid overage: applications pause when an allowance is exhausted. Free and Pro do not include a reliability SLA.
Our ratings
Ease of use Deno Deploy
Pricing clarity Deno Deploy
Free tier Deno Deploy
Scaling
Control Fly.io Machines
Feature by feature
Fly.io Machines wins 2, Deno Deploy wins 6, with 7 even.
Deploy workflow
| Fly.io Machines | Deno Deploy | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Partial No native git integration; the documented path is flyctl in GitHub Actions. | Yes Link GitHub and every pushed commit triggers an integrated build with streamed logs and caching. |
| Preview deploys | Partial PR apps work via the official GitHub Action, not out of the box. | Yes Every Git branch has its own timeline and URL, and every revision receives an immutable preview URL. |
| Official CLI | Yes flyctl does everything: launch, deploy, scale, ssh, logs. | Yes The deno deploy command creates, configures, and deploys applications from a terminal or CI pipeline. |
| Instant rollbacks | Partial Redeploy any previous image; no one-click dashboard rollback. | Yes A timeline can be locked to any previous revision to restore it without rebuilding the application. |
Platform
| Fly.io Machines | Deno Deploy | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Custom domains with free managed certificates. | Yes Custom domains include automatic Let’s Encrypt certificates; wildcard domains require Pro or higher. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | Partial Anycast routing sends users to the nearest region, but there is no static-asset CDN. | Yes A built-in HTTP edge cache respects standard cache headers and supports tag-based global invalidation. |
| Serverless functions | No Machines are micro-VMs, not functions. | Yes JavaScript and TypeScript applications run in isolated serverless environments that start on demand. |
| Docker containers | Yes A Docker image is the deployment unit. | No Deno Deploy builds source code for its own Deno runtime and does not accept arbitrary Docker images. |
| SSH / shell access | Yes fly ssh console opens a shell in any running Machine. | No There is no interactive SSH shell; use build logs, runtime logs, traces, metrics, or the CLI. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, London, and more. | Yes Applications can run in the managed Europe execution region, although database residency depends on the selected database. |
Runtime & operations
| Fly.io Machines | Deno Deploy | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Yes Machines autostart and autostop with traffic; scale counts per region. | Yes The platform automatically starts multiple isolated application instances across or within regions as traffic requires. |
| Scale to zero | Yes Stopped Machines cost only their storage. | Yes Idle apps shut down after about 20–30 seconds per the pricing page, so memory time stops while scaled to zero. |
| Scheduled jobs | Partial Scheduled Machines run on fixed intervals; full cron needs a workaround. | Yes Deno.cron jobs are discovered at deploy time, scheduled by the platform, and monitored in the dashboard. |
| Managed database | Yes Managed Postgres (MPG) includes HA, backups, failover, and pooling from $38/month; unmanaged Fly Postgres is Unsupported. | Yes Provision Deno KV or managed Prisma Postgres, or attach an externally hosted PostgreSQL database. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Yes Built-in metrics (Grafana), live logs, and log shipping. | Yes Logs, OpenTelemetry traces, request and outbound-call metrics, filtering, and dashboards are included. |
Watch out for
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.
Deno Deploy
- Applications run on Deno rather than Node itself. Node and npm compatibility is broad, including native add-ons and subprocesses, but framework-specific edge cases still exist.
- The managed platform currently has two execution regions, the US and Europe; Deploy Classic had a broader footprint before it shut down in July 2026.
- Free and Pro have no published reliability SLA; a 99.95% SLA is reserved for Enterprise.
- Free-tier apps pause when the monthly allowance is exhausted; there is no paid overage on Free.
- Active CPU bills only while code runs, not while waiting on I/O, but Free includes only 10 Active CPU hours per month.
Read the full reviews: Fly.io and Deno Deploy. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.