# Meridian vs Fly.io for Shopify apps > Meridian and Fly.io compared for hosting a Shopify app: cost of production and staging, environments, rollbacks, database and the Shopify tools Meridian adds. Source: https://www.the-meridian.ai/compare/fly ## Meridian vs Fly.io An honest analysis of both platforms, to help you make the right decision. ### One app, production and staging. The setup Meridian Lite comes with: two environments, production and development (used as staging), each with its own database. On Fly.io both machines are priced running all the time. Meridian Lite $69 / month Hosting, plus environments, rollbacks, previews, backups, Shopify webhooks over Pub/Sub, Shopify API alerts, vulnerability scans, plans and billing, CRM, email, App Store tracking and support. Fly.io, hosting only $45 / month Two always-on 512 MB Machines at $3.69 and one Managed Postgres Basic cluster at $38 holding both databases. No platform fee. Support plans from $29 a month. Fly.io prices from [docs.fly.io/about/pricing](https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing), checked on 10 October 2026. Prices in USD, excluding tax. ### Side by side. | | Meridian | Fly.io | | --- | --- | --- | | **Pricing** | | Pricing model | Per app: Lite $69, Pro $169 a month, Enterprise on quote. | No platform fee. Every Machine, volume, database and gigabyte is billed by use, per second. | | Going over | **No overage bill. At the bandwidth limit the app slows down until the month resets or you move it up a size.** ✓ | Everything is metered, so the bill follows usage. Bandwidth is $0.02/GB in North America and Europe. | | Hosting alone, per app | $69 a month, everything below included. | **About $45 a month for production and staging with Managed Postgres.** ✓ | | Support | **Included: community Slack on Lite, live support on Pro, dedicated support on Enterprise.** ✓ | Community forum free. Standard $29 and Premium $199 a month, 99.9% SLA on Enterprise. | | **Build and host** | | What you write | Your own app in your GitHub repository, such as Shopify's React Router template. | Your own app, with a launch guide for Shopify CLI apps. | | Database engine | Managed MySQL. PostgreSQL is coming. | **Managed PostgreSQL.** ✓ | | Environments | **Development and Production on every plan, Staging on Enterprise.** ✓ | No built-in environments. Staging is a separate app, ideally in a separate organization. | | Preview per pull request | **Every pull request gets its own preview deployment.** ✓ | Review apps through a GitHub Actions workflow you add. | | Rollbacks | **Instant rollback to any previous successful deployment, no rebuild.** ✓ | No rollback command: redeploy an earlier image from the command line. Old images can be pruned. | | Backups | Daily, kept 7 days on Lite, 30 on Pro. Restores included. | Managed Postgres backed up automatically and kept 10 days, with point-in-time restore to a new cluster. | | Vulnerability scan | **Every production deploy is scanned for known vulnerabilities.** ✓ | An experimental command-line scan you run yourself. | | Hosting region | EU (Belgium) by default. EU or US on Enterprise. | **18 regions, including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and Stockholm, chosen per app.** ✓ | | Custom domains | Self-serve on any environment, with the certificate handled for you. | Automatic certificates, the first 10 free. | | Scaling up one app | **Hosting sizes per app, from $79 a month, without changing plan.** ✓ | Machines start and stop with traffic. Scaling on metrics means deploying Fly's autoscaler as your own app. | | **Shopify** | | Webhooks | **Delivered over Google Cloud Pub/Sub, with a delivery log showing each delivery, its status and retries.** ✓ | No Shopify webhook handling in its documentation. Its Shopify guide says to keep production Machines running. | | Shopify API changes | **Alerts when a change or a pinned API version affects your code, with the file, line and a suggested fix.** ✓ | Not in Fly.io's documentation. | | Pricing plans and feature gates | **Plan Builder: define plans and gate features with the SDK, no billing code to write.** ✓ | Not in Fly.io's documentation. | | Usage-based billing | **Track usage events with the SDK. Meridian meters and bills them with the plan.** ✓ | Not in Fly.io's documentation. | | **Growth tools for public apps** | | CRM and segments | **Every store in one place, with segments, notes and custom fields.** ✓ | Not in Fly.io's documentation. | | Revenue analytics | **MRR, churn, retention and trials, out of the box.** ✓ | Not in Fly.io's documentation. | | Email campaigns | **An email builder, sent from your own domain.** ✓ | Not in Fly.io's documentation. | | Automations | **A visual builder: triggers, conditions and actions, without code.** ✓ | Not in Fly.io's documentation. | | Affiliate programs | **Run your own affiliate program: members, commissions and payouts.** ✓ | Not in Fly.io's documentation. | | App Store keywords and reviews | **Track your keyword rankings and every new review.** ✓ | Not in Fly.io's documentation. | | **AI** | | MCP for coding agents | **Meridian MCP connects Cursor, Claude Code and Claude Desktop to your apps: catalog, deploys, logs, with your own permissions.** ✓ | An experimental MCP server in its command-line tool: apps, logs, machines, secrets, volumes. | | **Security and trust** | | SSO and audit logs | On Enterprise. | Google or GitHub single sign-on on every account. Audit logs not in its documentation. | | Certifications | None published yet. | **SOC 2 Type 2, and a HIPAA package for $99 a month.** ✓ | | Data processing agreement | Not available yet. | **Published, pre-signed.** ✓ | A highlighted cell marks the side that comes out ahead on that row. Rows without one depend on what you need. ### Sources Every Fly.io value comes from Fly.io’s own pages, checked on 10 October 2026. Prices and features change, so check them before you decide. Meridian’s values come from our [pricing](https://www.the-meridian.ai/pricing) and [documentation](https://help.the-meridian.ai). - [docs.fly.io/about/pricing](https://docs.fly.io/about/pricing) - [fly.io/pricing](https://fly.io/pricing) - [docs.fly.io/js/shopify](https://docs.fly.io/js/shopify) - [docs.fly.io/postgres](https://docs.fly.io/postgres) - [docs.fly.io/blueprints/staging-prod-isolation](https://docs.fly.io/blueprints/staging-prod-isolation) - [docs.fly.io/blueprints/review-apps-guide](https://docs.fly.io/blueprints/review-apps-guide) - [docs.fly.io/blueprints/rollback-guide](https://docs.fly.io/blueprints/rollback-guide) - [fly.io/mpg](https://fly.io/mpg) - [docs.fly.io/blueprints/working-with-docker](https://docs.fly.io/blueprints/working-with-docker) - [docs.fly.io/reference/regions](https://docs.fly.io/reference/regions) - [docs.fly.io/networking/custom-domain](https://docs.fly.io/networking/custom-domain) - [docs.fly.io/reference/autoscaling](https://docs.fly.io/reference/autoscaling) - [docs.fly.io](https://docs.fly.io) - [docs.fly.io/flyctl/cmd/fly\_mcp](https://docs.fly.io/flyctl/cmd/fly_mcp) - [docs.fly.io/security/sso](https://docs.fly.io/security/sso) - [fly.io/compliance](https://fly.io/compliance) [Spotted something out of date? Tell us](https://www.the-meridian.ai/contact-sales) ### Questions. #### Is Meridian cheaper than Fly.io? Not for hosting alone. One app with production and staging is about $45 a month on Fly.io and $69 on Meridian Lite. On Fly.io you build the rest: staging as a separate app, preview workflows, rollbacks from the command line, webhook handling and Shopify API upgrades. Meridian includes them, with support and no overage bills. #### Can I move my app from Fly.io to Meridian? Yes. Meridian builds and runs the same kind of app from your GitHub repository. Meridian's managed database is MySQL, so a PostgreSQL or SQLite app switches Prisma's provider and runs its migrations once. Migration help is included on Enterprise. ### Ready to ship your next Shopify app? Book a personal walkthrough of Meridian. [Schedule a demo](https://www.the-meridian.ai/contact-sales) [Start building](https://app.the-meridian.ai/register)