What it actually costs to run a one-Rails-app SaaS per month

Short summary

Rails SaaS hosting costs vary from $5/month (Kamal + Hetzner, self-managed) to $40/month (Render PaaS), but real surprises come from Stripe fees, object storage, email, monitoring, and analytics that founders typically underestimate. The post provides 2026 line-item pricing across four hosting platforms with tailored recommendations by founder situation. Concrete numbers enable accurate budgeting from MVP through growth stage.

• •Four hosting options: Fly ($10–20/mo), Kamal+Hetzner ($5–8/mo), Hatchbox ($15–20/mo), Render ($30–40/mo)
• •Hidden costs: Stripe 2.9%+transaction fees, storage ($0–5/mo), email ($0–15/mo), monitoring ($0–20/mo), analytics ($0–15/mo)
• •Recommendations vary: Fly for no-ops founders, Kamal+Hetzner for Rails-native workflow, Render for PaaS simplicity

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.