Both platforms let you run Docker containers without managing servers. But they're very different in practice — here's how they actually compare.
Fly.io is an edge platform designed for globally distributed apps — it runs your containers across dozens of regions and routes traffic to the nearest one. stacknode.sh is simpler: deploy a Docker container, mount a volume if you need storage, optionally grab a static IP, and pay by the hour for what you use. No regions to think about, no CLI framework required.
For most developers running a bot, a side project, a database, or a small API, the global edge stuff is overkill. That's where stacknode.sh fits much better.
stacknode.sh charges $0.015 per CPU core per hour and $0.002 per GB of RAM per hour — only while your container is running. A 2-core, 8 GB container running all month costs about $1.86.
Fly.io bundles CPU and RAM into preset "Machine" sizes. Their smallest shared-CPU machines start cheap, but dedicated CPUs scale up fast. Add volume storage ($1.94/GB/month), outbound bandwidth fees, and a static IP ($2/month) and real-world bills climb quickly — often 5–10× what the same workload costs on stacknode.sh.
stacknode.sh also has no bandwidth fees. Fly.io charges for outbound data after a free tier. That alone can be a surprise bill for apps with any meaningful traffic.
Fly.io's volumes are region-locked — if you need to move your app or scale across regions, your data doesn't follow automatically. Managing snapshots is manual and can be error-prone.
stacknode.sh volumes are straightforward: each one is 10 GB, billed at a flat $0.0014/hr (~$1.01/month). Mount it to your container, and the data survives restarts, stops, and redeployments without any extra configuration.
On Fly.io, a dedicated IPv4 is $2/month and is shared at the app level. On stacknode.sh, you allocate a dedicated static IP per container for $0.00152/hr (~$1.09/month), charged only while it's allocated. Useful for game servers, bots, APIs, or anything that needs a consistent public IP.
This is a big one. Fly.io has a concept of "standby machines" that can keep your app in a semi-running state — and billing for it — even when you think it's stopped. Plenty of developers have been caught off guard by this.
stacknode.sh is simple: stopped containers don't accrue compute charges. You only pay while things are running. Volumes do bill continuously (since your data is still stored), but that's expected and clearly documented.
One more difference: stacknode.sh accepts Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Solana. No credit card required. Fly.io requires a card for most plans.
| stacknode.sh | Fly.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Compute billing | Per hour, running only | Per second, incl. standby |
| Bandwidth fees | None | Yes, after free tier |
| Persistent volumes | 10 GB flat, ~$1/mo | $1.94/GB/mo, region-locked |
| Static IPv4 | Dedicated, ~$1.09/mo | App-level, $2/mo |
| Stopped container charges | No | Possible |
| Payment methods | BTC, LTC, BCH, SOL | Credit card |
| Multi-region edge | No | Yes |
| Free trial | $0.10 credit, no card | Limited free tier, card req. |
Fly.io makes sense if you genuinely need your app to run close to users across multiple continents — think a multiplayer game or a global API where 50ms matters. Their CLI-first workflow and managed Postgres are also well-suited if you're already deep in that ecosystem.
For everything else — a Discord bot, a self-hosted tool, a database, a staging environment, a side project — stacknode.sh is simpler and significantly cheaper.
Fly.io is a capable platform for specific use cases. But for the average developer who just wants to run a Docker container reliably, with persistent storage and a predictable bill, stacknode.sh is the better fit. It doesn't try to do everything — and that's exactly why it works well.
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