Fly.io
Fly.io Inc. · 🐳 Container Hosting
Fly.io transforms containers into micro-VMs that run on their hardware in cities close to your users.
Free-tier constraints
- Offer type
- Trial
- When idle
- Sleeps
- Credit card
- Not required
- Commercial use
- Unknown
- At the limit
- Service stops
- Data expiry
- Not published
Free-tier compatibility
- —Static hosting
- —Serverless
- ✓Long-running processes
- ✓Docker
- ✓WebSockets
- ✓Cron
- ✓Background workers
- ✓Persistent disk
- ✓Custom domains
Overview
Fly.io runs your app as lightweight micro-VMs (Fly Machines) close to your users across 18 documented regions. You give it a Docker image — or a Dockerfile, or a detected app — and Fly deploys it globally with Anycast IPs, private networking and managed Postgres available alongside.
New organizations get a short 7-day trial capped at 2 total VM hours. Trial machines automatically stop after five minutes, and apps stop when the trial is exhausted. Adding a payment method ends the trial and starts usage-based billing. Older organizations may still retain legacy free allowances, but new projects should not plan around them.
It is aimed at developers who want to run real containers — full apps, APIs, even databases — globally distributed, rather than being limited to static sites or single-region servers.
Sources and verification
Checked 2026-08-18Pros
- ✓Runs any Docker container as fast-booting micro-VMs
- ✓Global deployment across 18 documented regions with Anycast IPs
- ✓Private networking and managed Postgres available
- ✓Good for stateful and latency-sensitive workloads
- ✓Scales down to lightweight shared VMs
Cons
- ✕The new-account trial ends after 7 days or only 2 total VM hours
- ✕Requires comfort with Docker and some operations work
- ✕Managed Postgres needs careful sizing and backups
- ✕Pricing can be unpredictable for heavy egress
Best for
- →Containerized full apps and APIs deployed globally
- →Latency-sensitive services running near users
- →Developers comfortable with Docker who want edge compute
Getting started
- 1 Install the flyctl CLI and sign in
- 2 Run fly launch in your project to generate a fly.toml
- 3 Adjust regions, VM size and secrets as needed
- 4 Run fly deploy to ship your container globally
- 5 Optionally attach Fly Postgres and scale machines per region
Related guides
Features
- ✓Global Edge Deployment
- ✓Fly Machines
- ✓Managed Postgres
- ✓Private Networking
- ✓Anycast IPs
- ✓Auto-scaling
Languages
FAQ
New organizations receive a trial lasting up to 7 days or 2 total VM hours. Continuing requires a payment method and usage-based billing; some older organizations retain legacy free allowances.
Fly runs Docker images. The fly launch command can detect common stacks and generate a Dockerfile, but containers are the core model.
Yes. Fly offers managed Postgres, and you can run your own stateful services on persistent volumes.
Deploy these projects to Fly.io
Open-source projects and templates that run on Fly.io's free tier.