I Cut My Rails Hosting Costs by 70%: Migrating from Heroku to Railway

Paul Works — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:59:09 +0000

I Cut My Rails Hosting Costs by 70%: Migrating from Heroku to Railway

For a while, I was hosting a small Rails API on Heroku with JawsDB as the MySQL database.

It worked perfectly. Heroku’s developer experience is still one of the best out there.

But for a small personal project, I realized I was paying more than necessary.

So I migrated the app and database to Railway and reduced my hosting costs from roughly ~$20/month to ~$6/month — about a 70% reduction.

The best part: the migration took less than 30 minutes.

Here’s exactly how I did it.

TL;DR

I migrated a Rails API from Heroku + JawsDB to Railway.

Results:

Hosting cost reduced from ~$20/month → ~$6/month
Migration took ~20–30 minutes
No downtime
Database migrated using one streaming command

My Original Setup

My stack looked like this:

Rails API
   │
Heroku Dyno
   │
JawsDB (MySQL)

Approximate monthly cost:

Service	Provider	Cost
App hosting	Heroku	~$7–10
MySQL	JawsDB	~$10–12
Total		~$20/month

Again, not huge — but for side projects, I prefer keeping infrastructure simple and inexpensive.

The New Setup

After migrating:

Rails API
   │
Railway App
   │
Railway MySQL

New cost breakdown:

Service	Provider	Cost
App hosting	Railway	~$3–4
MySQL	Railway	~$2
Total		~$6/month

That’s roughly a 70% cost reduction.

Migration Strategy

The migration consisted of four steps:

Link the Railway project
Export the database from JawsDB
Import the data into Railway MySQL
Update the Rails configuration

No downtime was required.

Step 1: Link Your Railway Project

First install and authenticate with the Railway CLI.

Then run:

railway link

What this does:

Connects your local repo to your Railway project
Allows the CLI to run commands against that project
Creates a .railway folder locally

This step only needs to be done once per repository.

Step 2: Dump Data from JawsDB and Import into Railway

Instead of creating a dump file and importing it later, you can stream the database directly.

Here’s the command I used:

mysqldump \
-h [jawsdb-host] \
-u [jawsdb-user] \
-p[jawsdb-password] \
--no-tablespaces \
--set-gtid-purged=OFF \
--single-transaction \
[jawsdb-database] \
| railway run -s MySQL mysql \
-h $MYSQLHOST \
-u $MYSQLUSER \
-p$MYSQLPASSWORD \
$MYSQLDATABASE

This command:

Exports the database from JawsDB
Pipes the output directly into Railway MySQL

Why These Flags Matter

`--no-tablespaces`

JawsDB runs on AWS RDS, which restricts certain privileges required for dumping tablespaces.

This flag avoids that issue.

`--set-gtid-purged=OFF`

Prevents replication metadata from causing conflicts during import.

`--single-transaction`

Creates a consistent snapshot of the database while exporting.

This works well for InnoDB tables, which most Rails apps use.

Why Streaming the Database Is Powerful

The pipe (|) streams the SQL output directly into Railway.

JawsDB → mysqldump → pipe → Railway MySQL

Benefits:

No intermediate dump files
Faster migration
Lower disk usage
Works well for large databases

Step 3: Verify the Migration

After the import, verify the migration with:

railway run -s MySQL mysql \
-h $MYSQLHOST \
-u $MYSQLUSER \
-p$MYSQLPASSWORD \
$MYSQLDATABASE \
-e "SHOW TABLES;"

If the migration worked correctly, you should see your tables:

users
transactions
posts
comments

Step 4: Update Rails Configuration

Previously, my Rails app used the JawsDB DATABASE_URL.

Railway automatically provides environment variables:

MYSQLHOST
MYSQLPORT
MYSQLUSER
MYSQLPASSWORD
MYSQLDATABASE
MYSQL_URL

The simplest Rails configuration is:

production:
  adapter: mysql2
  url: <%= ENV['MYSQL_URL'] %>

After pushing the code, Railway automatically redeployed the application.

Heroku vs Railway (Quick Comparison)

Here’s a quick comparison based on my experience migrating a small Rails API.

Feature	Heroku + JawsDB	Railway
Hosting model	App dynos + add-ons	App + services in one platform
Database	JawsDB MySQL add-on	Native managed MySQL
Cost (small project)	~$20/month	~$6/month
Deployment	Git push	Git push / GitHub integration
Environment variables	Supported	Supported
CLI tools	Heroku CLI	Railway CLI
Database migration	Manual dump/import	Easy via `railway run`
Infrastructure management	Managed	Managed
Static outbound IP	Not guaranteed	Not guaranteed
Best suited for	Mature production apps	Side projects & small apps

Final Thoughts

Heroku still offers one of the best developer experiences.

But for small projects or side tools, simplifying infrastructure and reducing costs can make sense.

For my Rails API, moving to Railway:

simplified my stack
reduced hosting costs by ~70%
required minimal migration effort

If you're running a small Rails project with MySQL on Heroku, exploring Railway might be worth considering.

Question for Other Developers

If you're hosting side projects:

Are you still using Heroku?
Or have you moved to platforms like Railway, Fly.io, or Render?

I'd love to hear what your stack looks like.

DEV Community: Paul Works

I Cut My Rails Hosting Costs by 70%: Migrating from Heroku to Railway

I Cut My Rails Hosting Costs by 70%: Migrating from Heroku to Railway

TL;DR

My Original Setup

The New Setup

Migration Strategy

Step 1: Link Your Railway Project

Step 2: Dump Data from JawsDB and Import into Railway

Why These Flags Matter

--no-tablespaces

--set-gtid-purged=OFF

--single-transaction

Why Streaming the Database Is Powerful

Step 3: Verify the Migration

Step 4: Update Rails Configuration

Heroku vs Railway (Quick Comparison)

Final Thoughts

Question for Other Developers

`--no-tablespaces`

`--set-gtid-purged=OFF`

`--single-transaction`