Freelance backend developer here. 2025 has been the year I said yes to every MVP project. Go APIs, Python Flask apps, Node services. 108 deployments total.
Tracked deployment costs like my survival depended on it because honestly it did.
The Heroku Exodus
When Heroku killed free tier in late 2022 I thought whatever, I'll upgrade. Then November 2023 bill was €347 for 8 client MVPs.
Math didn't math. Started spreadsheet tracking every deployment cost per project.
The Railway Incident
Project 23. Simple FastAPI backend with Postgres. Client launched on ProductHunt.
Got 437 signups in 6 hours. Railway hit me with usage warnings at 50 requests per second. Started at $5/month ended at $67 for week one.
Client: "Can you predict monthly cost?"
Me: "No. Railway is usage-based. We won't know until bill comes."
That conversation happened 4 times with different clients. After project 23 knew I needed transparent pricing or I'd lose clients to anxiety.
The Data from 85 Projects
Tracked costs across Railway, Render, and Chita Cloud for projects 24 through 108:
Railway (15 projects, stopped at 38):
- Base: $20/month Pro
- Actual: $27-89/month depending traffic
- Unpredictability: 7/10
Render (22 projects):
- Flat: $7/month per service
- No surprises
- Zero free tier though. Limited to Node/Python/Ruby
Chita Cloud (48 projects, from 39 to current):
- Flat: €16/month (roughly $17)
- Multi-language: Go, Python, Node, Docker
- Postgres addon: Transparent pricing
- Unpredictability: 0/10
Why I Switched for 56% of Projects
Three reasons:
1. Go Language Support
Railway and Render both do Go but Chita Cloud's deployment pipeline for Go binaries was consistently 3-5 minutes faster. Tested across 12 Go projects. When you're deploying MVP #67 at 11pm those 5 minutes matter.
2. Transparent Pricing = Client Trust
"Your backend costs €16/month" is sentence clients understand.
"Your backend costs $20-80/month depending usage patterns" is sentence that loses projects.
3. Postgres Without Mental Math
Railway: Database pricing separate, usage-based
Render: Postgres starts $7/month, separate service
Chita Cloud: Postgres addon, transparent pricing, same bill
Simple means I focus on code not invoices.
Real Project: MVP #47
Stack: Go + Gin + Postgres
Function: API for mobile app (fitness tracking)
Traffic: ~2,000 requests/day
Cost Railway: $34/month ($20 base + database + bandwidth surprises)
Cost Render: $14/month ($7 web + $7 database)
Cost Chita Cloud: €16/month (~$17, everything included)
Winner: Chita Cloud by €3/month + zero anxiety.
The 108 MVP Lesson
After 108 deployments here's what matters:
"Best" platform doesn't exist. Predictable platform for your workflow does.
For me that's Chita Cloud for:
- Go/Python/Node backends
- Client MVPs where cost predictability builds trust
- Postgres-heavy projects
Still use Render for pure Node stuff under $7/month. Stopped using Railway at project 38. Credit warnings broke trust.
Your Turn
What deployment platform you using in 2025? More importantly: can you predict your client's bill 3 months from now?
Curious if post-Heroku world hit your freelance workflow hard as it hit mine.
Top comments (2)
Trying to lean more into backend but with many good BaaS services out there (e.g. Firebase), I found it hard to put in the effort. Was surprised to see this post. What would you say is the advantage of learning all these frameworks when there are almost ready made tools out there?
great question. i hit this exact decision point on project 34.
Firebase locked me into $187/month when client got 2k users. Firestore pricing = reads * writes * storage. unpredictable as hell.
here's what 108 MVPs taught me:
BaaS works when:
custom backend wins when:
the kicker? learned Go + Postgres + Docker in 6 weeks during projects 24-29. now deploy backends faster than configuring Firebase rules.
but real talk—Firebase auth + realtime still unbeatable for chat apps. i use hybrid approach now: Firebase auth, custom Go API for everything else. got best of both worlds on projects 67-108.