Railway vs. Bolt
Bolt (bolt.new) is an AI-powered development tool that generates full-stack web applications from prompts. Railway is an intelligent cloud provider that deploys and hosts your code. While they serve different purposes, there is some overlap:
- Deploy web applications
- Provide hosting with public URLs
- Environment variable support
These tools can complement each other: use Bolt for code generation, then deploy on Railway for production hosting.
What they do
Bolt
Bolt generates code from prompts directly in the browser. You describe what you want, and it builds a full-stack application for you. Once generated, you can deploy through Bolt's built-in hosting, export the code to GitHub, or download it as a zip file.
Bolt is a code generation tool first and a hosting platform second. It is well suited for rapid prototyping and getting an application started quickly.
Railway
Railway deploys and hosts code from any source, including GitHub, the CLI, or Docker images. You bring the code, and Railway handles the infrastructure.
Railway does not generate code for you. Instead, it focuses on giving you full control over how your application runs in production.
Infrastructure control
Bolt
Bolt provides basic hosting for the applications it generates. There is no support for multi-service architecture, managed databases, private networking, persistent volumes, or cron jobs. If your application needs a database, you typically rely on an external service.
Railway
Railway gives you full control over your infrastructure. A single project can contain multiple services (API, frontend, workers, cron jobs) plus managed databases, all communicating over private networking.
Key infrastructure capabilities include:
- Managed databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB with backups and database views.
- Persistent volumes for data storage.
- Private networking between services.
- Custom Dockerfiles for full build control.
- Cron jobs for scheduled tasks.
- Horizontal scaling with multiple replicas.
Production readiness
Bolt
Bolt's hosting is designed for getting your generated application online quickly. It offers limited observability and does not include health checks, zero-downtime deployments, or rollbacks.
Railway
Railway is built for production workloads. Deployed services include:
- Observability with integrated metrics and logs.
- Health checks to verify service availability.
- Zero-downtime deployments so updates don't interrupt traffic.
- Instant rollbacks to revert to a previous deployment.
- Pre-deploy commands for running migrations or setup steps.
- Custom domains with fully managed TLS.
Pricing
Bolt
Bolt uses subscription-based pricing with plans that include a set number of prompts. You pay for access to the AI code generation features.
Railway
Railway uses usage-based pricing. You pay for compute time and the resources your services consume.
There are no prompt limits or generation caps. You pay only for the infrastructure your applications use.
Summary
| Category | Bolt | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Primary function | AI code generation with basic hosting | Cloud hosting with full infrastructure control |
| Code source | Generated from prompts in the browser | Bring your own code from GitHub, CLI, or Docker |
| Multi-service projects | Single application deployment | Multiple services, workers, and cron jobs in one project |
| Database support | Relies on external database services | Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB |
| Private networking | Not available | Included at no extra cost |
| Persistent storage | Not available | Persistent volumes supported |
| Health checks | Not available | Supported with configurable endpoints |
| Zero-downtime deploys | Not available | Supported when health checks are configured |
| Rollbacks | Not available | Instant rollback to any previous deployment |
| Observability | Limited | Integrated metrics and logs |
| Pricing model | Subscription-based with prompt limits | Usage-based, pay for compute time and resources consumed |
| Best for | Rapid prototyping and generating application code quickly | Production hosting with full infrastructure control |
When to use each
- Use Bolt when you want AI to generate code quickly for prototyping or getting a project started.
- Use Railway when you need production hosting with full infrastructure control, managed databases, and multi-service architecture.
- Use both together: generate your application with Bolt, export the code to GitHub, and deploy it on Railway for production.
Migrate from Bolt to Railway
To get started, create an account on Railway. You can sign up for free and receive $5 in credits to try out the platform.
For a step-by-step walkthrough, see Migrate from Bolt to Railway.
Need help or have questions?
If you need help along the way, the Railway Discord and Help Station are great resources to get support from the team and community.
Working with a larger workload or have specific requirements? Book a call with the Railway team to explore how we can best support your project.