Fly.io vs Pantheon
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Fly.io and Pantheon.
Quick Verdict
4.0/5
Fly.io
0 reviews
3.6/5
Pantheon
0 reviews
Fly.io is rated higher (4.0 vs 3.6). Fly.io runs Docker containers on bare metal in 35+ cities globally. Machines run close to users — sub-50ms latency from most locations. Supports any language and framework. Pantheon is a WebOps platform for Drupal and WordPress with Git-based workflows, multi-environment (dev/test/live), autopilot updates, and a global CDN. Used by publishers and agencies.
Fly.io Deploy apps globally with sub-50ms latency | Pantheon WebOps platform for Drupal and WordPress | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.6 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | usage-based | freemium |
| Starting price | From $2.19/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | Latency-sensitive applications — APIs, real-time apps and globally distributed backends — run by teams comfortable with a CLI-first platform and pay-as-you-go pricing | Agencies and publishers running portfolios of Drupal or WordPress sites where updates, regressions and deployments are the real cost. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 1 vCPU | — |
| RAM | 0 GB | — |
| Storage | 0 GB | — |
| Bandwidth | 0 TB/mo | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.9% | 99.95%✓ |
| Data-center count | 17✓ | 4 |
| €/vCPU/mo | €2.19 | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | Netherlands, Sweden, France, Germany, UK, US, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Singapore, Australia | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tiermanaged optionipv6eu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterapi accessprivate networking | free tiermanaged optionus datacentereu datacenterteam features |
| Visit Fly.io → | Visit Pantheon → | |
Fly.io
Pros
- + Fully published pricing for every billed resource, with worked example bills
- + Cheap always-on compute — $2.19/30 days for the smallest Machine in the cheapest regions
- + 17 regions on Fly's own hardware with Anycast routing and per-second billing
- + Strong ecosystem: Managed Postgres, Fly Kubernetes, Tigris S3-compatible object storage, Upstash extensions on one invoice
- + Concrete Enterprise SLA terms (99.9%, 15-minute urgent response) published openly
Cons
- - Free tier replaced by a tight trial (2 VM hours or 7 days)
- - Managed Postgres starts at $38/month — services are priced like a managed PaaS, not like the VMs
- - CLI-first workflow with real conceptual overhead (Machines, Apps, fly-replay, 6PN networking)
- - Uptime SLA only covers Enterprise plans; SLA downtime definition excludes hacking and virus attacks
- - Region count has shrunk from the widely quoted 35+ to 17, and prices vary by region
Pantheon
Pros
- + Workflow is the product: dev/test/live Git deploys, Multidev, Autopilot with visual regression
- + Free sandbox sites and a $0 Silver workspace for small teams
- + Site regions in US, EU, Canada and Australia — EU keeps data and backups in-region
- + Automatic nightly/weekly backups on paid sites, backed by Terminus CLI and API
- + Google Cloud infrastructure with Fastly global CDN included
Cons
- - Workspace fee plus per-site plans gets expensive across a portfolio
- - Uptime SLA (99.95%) only on Elite; Performance tiers sold with no SLA
- - Opinionated CMS-only platform — no root, no arbitrary runtimes
- - Migration lock-in: Multidev, Autopilot and backups tooling must be rebuilt elsewhere
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