From Vercel to Railway: Why I Switched My Entire Infra in 20 Minutes

Choosing the right infrastructure for your MVP can mean the difference between burning cash or scaling smart. Here’s what happened to me.

The Setup

I’m building something ambitious in travel tech. The stack is complex but necessary:

Python (FastAPI) backend with AI capabilities
Astro for the main frontend
React for the admin dashboard
Express for a deeplinking service (started with Next.js, realized it was overkill)

The million-dollar question: Where do I deploy all this without going broke?

The Vercel Trap

First choice: Vercel. I’m a sucker for revolutionary products, and Vercel is amazing for frontend. Deployed Astro, React, considered Next.js.

The catch: My AI-powered backend needs real compute power.

Sure, you can technically run backend on Vercel with Edge Functions, but I’ve read the horror stories. $90,000 invoices in a single month. That doesn’t just kill a startup—it kills any mid-sized company.

The Frustrating Hunt

I burned hours configuring:

AWS

✅ Robust and scalable
❌ Complex setup for an MVP
❌ First Paint: 2.3s
❌ Steep learning curve

GCP

✅ Great AI tools
❌ Overkill for starting out
❌ First Paint: 1.9s
❌ Tedious setup

Render

✅ Simpler than AWS/GCP
❌ Still requires manual config
❌ Mediocre performance

Plot Twist: Railway

I arrived at Railway skeptical. 20 minutes later, everything was live.

The Numbers That Blew My Mind

First Paint Screen (same code, same app):
- Vercel:  1.70s
- AWS:     2.30s  
- GCP:     1.90s
- Railway: 0.54s 🚀

3x faster than Vercel. Zero optimizations.

Why Railway Won

1. Zero Config, Full Power

# Didn't write any of this. Railway auto-detected:
- Python backend → Found requirements.txt
- Astro frontend → Found package.json  
- Environment vars → Simple UI
- SSL → Automatic

2. CI/CD in 5 Minutes

Connected GitHub. Every push to main deploys automatically. No Actions, no scripts, no pain.

3. Monorepo Native

My structure:

/
├── backend/     # Python + FastAPI
├── frontend/    # Astro
├── admin/       # React
└── deeplink/    # Express

Railway detected each service and deployed them independently. On Vercel, I’d need 4 separate projects.

4. Predictable Costs

Start: $5 free credits (enough for prototypes)
Scale: Pay what you use
Bandwidth: Yes, it gets expensive. But if you hit those limits, you have traction to justify it

The MVP Reality Check

You don’t need Kubernetes on day one. You don’t need Netflix’s infrastructure to validate your idea.

What you actually need:

Fast deploys
Decent performance
Controlled costs
Ability to scale when it works

Railway gave me all of that in 20 minutes vs days of configuration elsewhere.

For You

If you’re building an MVP, especially on a tight budget:

Start simple → Railway for everything
When you have traction → Consider AWS/GCP
If you outgrow Railway → Congrats, that’s a good problem

Try Railway with $5 free →

Railway isn’t perfect. But it’s perfect for this stage of my startup.

When I’m making millions, maybe I’ll migrate to AWS. Today, I need to ship fast and sleep well.

What infrastructure do you use for MVPs? Hit me up at jlopezlira@gmail.com