Compare / Laravel Cloud vs Fly.io Machines
Laravel Cloud vs Fly.io Machines
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Laravel Cloud checked 2026-08-06, Fly.io checked 2026-08-06.
The short version
Laravel Cloud 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 Laravel Cloud
Laravel Cloud is easier to get running: connect a Git repository or run cloud ship; Laravel Cloud builds the supported runtime and deploys every push with zero downtime.
Control Fly.io Machines
Fly.io Machines gives you more control over the stack — the flip side of the convenience trade.
Free tier Laravel Cloud
Laravel Cloud 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
| Laravel Cloud | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Laravel teams that want the framework, database, queues, scheduler, cache, and deploy workflow managed as one platform. | Dockerized apps that want low cost, fine control, or multi-region placement. |
| How deploys work | Connect a Git repository or run cloud ship; Laravel Cloud builds the supported runtime and deploys every push with zero downtime. | fly launch builds the image and deploys it; configuration lives in fly.toml and the flyctl CLI. |
| The tradeoff | The excellent Laravel experience comes from an opinionated runtime, so arbitrary containers and server-level access are out. | You operate more of the stack yourself — especially the database. |
| Free tier | New Starter subscriptions get their first month free; after that, Starter costs $5/month and includes $5 in monthly usage credit. | None |
What you'd realistically pay
Laravel Cloud Fly.io Machines
| Project stage | Laravel Cloud | Fly.io Machines | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈$5/mo Starter — The $5 subscription includes $5 of monthly usage credit; a small app and database that scale to zero can stay inside it. | ≈$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 Starter + always-on Flex 1GB — One always-on Flex 1GB app instance reaches a $12 monthly compute cap; the $5 usage credit offsets the $5 Starter fee. | ≈$6/mo shared-cpu-1x, 1 GB — About $5.92/month in Amsterdam, plus egress at $0.02/GB. | Fly.io Machines |
| Growing | ≈$68.90/mo Growth + medium SaaS resources — The official medium-SaaS example is about $53.90 in usage; add the $20 Growth fee and subtract its $5 usage credit. | ≈$12/mo Two 1 GB Machines — Two machines for availability; databases and egress on top. | Fly.io Machines |
Laravel Cloud pricing notes
- Every paid plan includes $5 in monthly usage credits, which reset each billing cycle.
- Flex compute bills per second while awake, scales to zero when idle, and is capped at 28 days of runtime per billing cycle.
- Each compute size earns a data-transfer allowance; overage is $0.10/GB.
- Managed databases, caches, queues, object storage, and WebSockets have separate usage charges.
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.
Our ratings
Ease of use Laravel Cloud
Pricing clarity
Free tier Laravel Cloud
Scaling
Control Fly.io Machines
Feature by feature
Laravel Cloud wins 4, Fly.io Machines wins 4, with 7 even.
Deploy workflow
| Laravel Cloud | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | Yes Connect a Git repository and every push to the configured branch deploys automatically. | Partial No native git integration; the documented path is flyctl in GitHub Actions. |
| Preview deploys | Partial Starter includes one preview environment; broader preview workflows are available on higher plans. | Partial PR apps work via the official GitHub Action, not out of the box. |
| Official CLI | Yes The cloud CLI deploys apps and manages environments, resources, logs, and commands. | Yes flyctl does everything: launch, deploy, scale, ssh, logs. |
| Instant rollbacks | Partial You can redeploy an older Git commit, but there is no documented one-click rollback workflow. | Partial Redeploy any previous image; no one-click dashboard rollback. |
Platform
| Laravel Cloud | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Custom domains and automatically renewed TLS certificates are included on every plan. | Yes Custom domains with free managed certificates. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | Yes A Cloudflare-powered global edge network caches static assets and cacheable responses automatically. | Partial Anycast routing sends users to the nearest region, but there is no static-asset CDN. |
| Serverless functions | No Laravel Cloud runs server-based application compute rather than serverless functions. | No Machines are micro-VMs, not functions. |
| Docker containers | No The platform builds its own optimized images and does not accept arbitrary Docker images. | Yes A Docker image is the deployment unit. |
| SSH / shell access | No There is no SSH shell; use one-off commands, Tinker, logs, or the CLI instead. | Yes fly ssh console opens a shell in any running Machine. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Frankfurt, Ireland, and London regions are available alongside North America and Asia Pacific. | Yes Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, London, and more. |
Runtime & operations
| Laravel Cloud | Fly.io Machines | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | Partial Growth can autoscale up to 10 replicas; unlimited scaling requires Business or higher. | Yes Machines autostart and autostop with traffic; scale counts per region. |
| Scale to zero | Yes Flex app compute scales to zero when idle and wakes in under 500 milliseconds. | Yes Stopped Machines cost only their storage. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Laravel scheduled tasks are supported and automatically wake sleeping environments. | Partial Scheduled Machines run on fixed intervals; full cron needs a workaround. |
| Managed database | Yes Managed Laravel MySQL and serverless Postgres are provisioned directly from the platform. | Partial Fly Postgres is automated-but-unmanaged; managed options come from partners like Supabase and Upstash. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Partial Application logs and CPU and memory metrics are built in, with retention tied to the plan. | Yes Built-in metrics (Grafana), live logs, and log shipping. |
Watch out for
Laravel Cloud
- Starter costs $5/month plus usage, although its $5 monthly usage credit can cover a tiny app that frequently scales to zero.
- Autoscaling and dedicated worker clusters require the $20/month Growth plan or higher.
- The platform supports a defined set of frameworks and runtimes; it is not a general-purpose Docker host.
- Databases, caches, object storage, and WebSockets bill separately from app compute.
Fly.io
- New pay-as-you-go organizations get no free allowance.
- Fly Postgres is explicitly unmanaged: automated but not a managed database service — backups and failover are your responsibility.
- Per-second compute plus $0.02/GB egress makes bills variable; prices differ by region.
Read the full reviews: Laravel Cloud and Fly.io. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.