How Nexos stacks up against Vercel, Netlify, Railway, Fly.io, and Render
Deploy platforms are easy to find. Deploy platforms that give every branch a full-stack environment with a seeded database at a price you can afford — not so much. Here is where Nexos is different.
| Feature | Nexos | Vercel | Netlify | Railway | Fly.io | Render |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Preview URL per branch | ||||||
Full-stack preview (app + Postgres + Redis + S3) Database and cache spun up for every branch, not just the frontend. | ||||||
Persistent DB across pushes (incremental deploys) Your test data survives every push — no re-seeding after a bug fix. | ||||||
pg_dump seed restore per branch | ||||||
Deploy any Dockerfile (no framework lock-in) | ||||||
Per-second billing, no idle charges on paused envs | ||||||
Self-hostable (open agent + control plane) | ||||||
BYO compute (run your own node) | ||||||
Encrypted env vars at rest (AES-256-GCM) | ||||||
Live BuildKit logs over WebSocket | ||||||
Starts at | $0 | $0 | $0 | $5 / mo | $0 | $0 |
Typical cost for 10 preview envs / month Rough estimate for small Node app + small Postgres, 24/7. | ~$12 | ~$400+ | ~$350+ | ~$80 | ~$60 | ~$80 |
Data compiled from public docs and pricing pages. Something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it.
Full-stack, not just frontend
Vercel, Netlify, and Cloudflare Pages were designed for the Jamstack era — static assets plus edge functions. Nexos runs your actual Dockerfile, your actual backend, your actual database.
Persistent databases per branch
The killer feature that nobody else ships. Your Postgres survives every push, so test data and user sessions persist between deploys. Reset when you want, not every time.
Priced like infrastructure
Per-second billing for CPU, RAM, and build minutes. Pause an environment and stop paying for it. No seat tax, no “team plan to unlock basic features” traps.
Head-to-head deep dives
Detailed breakdowns of how Nexos compares to each platform on real-world workflows.
Nexos vs Vercel
Vercel nails the frontend. Nexos gives you the full stack — backend containers, Postgres, Redis — on every branch, without the platform lock-in.
Nexos vs Netlify
Netlify is a CDN-plus-functions play. Nexos runs your real backend containers with a real database on every PR.
Nexos vs Railway
Railway is great for production services. Nexos is purpose-built for ephemeral branch previews with persistent-across-push databases.
Nexos vs Fly.io
Fly gives you VMs around the world. Nexos gives you instant, disposable branch environments with zero ops.
Nexos vs Render
Render charges for every idle preview service. Nexos bills per second with no cost when you pause.
Nexos vs Heroku Review Apps
Heroku invented review apps. Nexos is what they would look like if redesigned today — cheaper, faster, and with seeded databases.
See the difference on your own repo
Connect a GitHub repo, push a branch, and have a full-stack preview URL running in under a minute. Free to start.