Suggestions for simple cloud deployment platform

I was in same boat couple years ago, backend stuff fine but deployment felt like learning whole new language. What helped me was starting super small, not even touching docker at first. Just get your app running on a VPS manually then slowly add complexity Railway is nice for what you want, the auto-deploy from github is smooth and they handle the database setup pretty clean. But if you want to learn deployment skills at same time maybe look at dokku, it's like having your own mini heroku on a cheap VPS. You push code with git and it builds everything for you The 5-8 euro range is totally doable, hetzner has some cheap options if they available in your region. I run few spring boot apps on a 6 euro machine and it handles them without breaking a sweat One thing I learned the hard way, don't try to learn kubernetes for hobby projects. That rabbit hole goes deep and you'll spend more time on yaml than actual coding

hetzner has some cheap options HAD...

2 vCpus and 4Gb of ram for $7 a month IS GOOD compared to all other providers (besides contabo the goat)

If you want free. Fan out to many services as possible. Keeping everything on one platform would inevitably drive up whatever free allowance you have. I have a few side projects hosting on various places. Neon and supabase for postgres, fly.io and cloudflare worker to host apps, cloudflare r2 and tigris for s3... Managing many services would inevitably harder. But if you want 100% free, that's the cost. There's even techniques like using multiple email services using a round-robin drivers

Railway is probably the right first test if your goal is to ship side projects without turning deployment into a second hobby. For Spring Boot + Postgres, i'd keep the decision boring: one managed app host, one managed Postgres, GitHub auto deploys, env vars in one place, and backups turned on before you put anything real there. If you want to learn the VPS path later, do it after you have one working deploy. Then compare Railway/Fly/Render against a tiny VPS with Dokku or Coolify. Starting with raw nginx + systemd + postgres + ssl all at once is where people get stuck.

Railway 100% with cloudlfare for CDN & Storage

get a vps from contabo for $6 it has 8Gb which is great

Railway is genuinely the right call for your use case, SpringBoot and Postgres deploy in minutes without touching any config files, and the pricing stays well under your budget for hobby traffic

Railway or Fly.io. Both are 'git push and it just works.' Railway is simpler for full-stack, Fly.io has better global edge deployment. Cheaper than Heroku, less headache than AWS.

For Spring Boot + Postgres under $20/month, I’d choose based on what you want to own. If the priority is getting one working deployment, use a managed app host plus managed Postgres. Before committing, check database backups, sleep/resource limits, egress charges, and how you roll back a bad release. If the priority is learning or controlling the server, use a small VPS with a deployment layer such as Dokku or another control plane. Avoid taking on raw nginx, systemd, TLS, Postgres maintenance, and deployment automation simultaneously. Whichever path you choose, test four things early: deploy from Git, health-check the application, restore a database backup, and return to the previous release. I work on Appaloft, which focuses on the own-server/control-plane path, so I’m biased there—but for a first hobby deployment, a managed PaaS may genuinely be the better starting point.

I'd probably just go with Railway if I were you. I wouldn't bother forcing yourself down the VPS route unless you actually want to learn Linux, nginx, networking, etc. Cheaper, sure, but if you mostly want to get your side projects live without deployment becoming the whole hobby, Railway makes more sense.

Go with vercel, I just dropped my railway account