At some point, almost every developer looking for a modern deployment platform comes across Fly.io.
It looks exciting. Global deployments. Edge-first architecture. Containers running close to users. Compared to traditional VPS hosting or raw cloud setups, Fly.io feels like a big step forward.
And it is, in many ways.
But after evaluating Fly.io for real production use, not just demos or side projects, we realized something important.
Clever infrastructure does not always translate to an easy or predictable developer experience.
That realization is what pushed us to start with Kuberns instead.
This article explains why.
Why Fly.io Feels Like the Future at First
Fly.io solves a real problem. It brings applications closer to users by running workloads across multiple regions. Latency drops. Routing feels intelligent. The architecture makes sense, especially if you care deeply about global performance.
For certain edge-heavy workloads, this approach is powerful.
But power is not the same as simplicity.
And that difference only becomes clear after you spend time maintaining an app on Fly.io, not just deploying it once.
The Day-to-Day Fly.io Experience
The biggest misconception about Fly.io is that it fully abstracts infrastructure.
It does not.
It reshapes it.
Instead of managing servers, you manage machines. Instead of ignoring regions, you actively choose them. Instead of scaling being invisible, it becomes something you think about regularly.
You are responsible for:
- Deciding where your app runs
- Managing machines and volumes
- Understanding cold starts and traffic routing
- Handling state across regions
- Revisiting configuration as usage changes
None of this is broken. It is just work.
Over time, deployments stop feeling boring, and boring is exactly what production deployments should be, which is why many teams eventually start evaluating Fly.io alternatives that prioritise simplicity and predictability instead of adding more layers to their deployment stack.
Where Fly.io Starts Feeling Heavy
The friction does not show up immediately.
It shows up when:
- Your app becomes stateful
- Traffic patterns change
- You add more services
- Costs start fluctuating
- You manage more than one project
Persistent volumes introduce design decisions. Scaling introduces behavioral quirks. Debugging introduces operational thinking.
At that point, you are no longer just shipping features. You are managing infrastructure again, just with better tooling than before.
For many teams, that defeats the purpose of choosing a modern platform in the first place.
Cost Predictability Is a Real Concern
Fly.io pricing is usage-based across machines, regions, storage, and network traffic.
That flexibility is great in theory, but in practice, it makes costs harder to reason about as systems grow. Small architectural changes can impact billing in ways that are not immediately obvious.
For startups and agencies, this matters a lot.
Infrastructure costs should be predictable and boring, not something you constantly monitor in fear of surprises.
What We Wanted Instead
After stepping back, the question became simple.
Do we want a platform that gives us more control, or a platform that gives us more time?
Most teams do not need to fine-tune regions or manage machine behavior. They need their application to deploy reliably, scale automatically, and stay affordable without constant tuning.
That is where Kuberns stood out.
Why We Chose Kuberns from the Start
Kuberns takes a different approach to cloud deployment.
You connect your repository. The platform handles the rest.
Deployment, scaling, monitoring, and infrastructure optimisation are automated by default. You do not configure regions manually. You do not manage machines. You do not design scaling strategies upfront.
The goal is simple.
Deploy with ease and focus on building your product.
Under the hood, Kuberns runs on optimised AWS infrastructure and passes the savings directly to users, offering up to 40 percent lower infrastructure costs without requiring cloud expertise.
That combination, automation plus cost predictability, is what made the decision easy.
When Fly.io Still Makes Sense
Fly.io is not a bad platform.
If you need deep control over edge placement, custom networking behaviour, or region-specific logic, Fly.io can be a strong fit.
But most applications do not fail because latency was a few milliseconds higher.
They fail because teams moved slowly, spent too much time on operations, or lost focus on the product.
For those teams, starting with complexity is rarely the right move.
The Smarter Default in 2026
In 2026, cloud platforms should fade into the background.
If deployment constantly demands attention, the platform is doing too little for you.
That is why we recommend starting with Kuberns, especially if you care about speed, simplicity, and predictable growth.
Fly.io looks clever on paper.
Kuberns feels right in production.
And that difference matters more than architecture diagrams ever will.
Top comments (0)