Gateways vs Railway
Railway is built for fast developer workflows: create a project, deploy services, attach managed resources, and move quickly on Railway’s platform. It is a strong option when speed from idea to running service is the main requirement. Gateways is built for teams whose infrastructure belongs in their own AWS, Azure, or GCP accounts. It gives those teams a diagram-first console for projects, environments, resources, connections, activity, and APIs.At A Glance
| Decision area | Gateways | Railway |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure boundary | Your cloud accounts | Railway platform |
| Primary workflow | Operate cloud resources and environments | Deploy services quickly |
| Best fit | Platform teams, cloud governance, multi-cloud ownership | Developers optimizing for fast app deployment |
| System model | Resources, relationships, environments, activity | Services, templates, project-level deploys |
Choose Railway When
- Your goal is the fastest path from code to a running service.
- A hosted developer platform is enough for your operational needs.
- You want to avoid direct management of AWS, Azure, or GCP resources.
Choose Gateways When
- Your workloads must run in cloud accounts your organization owns.
- You need a shared view of infrastructure across projects and environments.
- You want developers, operators, and stakeholders aligned around the same resource graph.
- You want the speed of a product UI without losing direct access to the underlying cloud resources, SSH, billing, and provider controls.
- You need APIs and activity history for the same infrastructure visible in the console.