How do Heroku, Railway and Render compare for deploying applications?

Quick answer: Heroku, Railway, and Render all offer the same core pitch — point them at a git repository and they build, deploy, and give you a server address — but differ on pricing model and add-on ecosystem; the right one usually comes down to which pricing plan and database/add-on options fit your budget, not a functional gap between them.

Platform as a service — Heroku gives you a very easy way of deploying your application. You give it a git repository, you've got some special config in there, and it installs it for you and gives you a server address — happy days, minimal effort on your part, and there it is.

There are a couple of other companies that do a similar thing — Railway and Render. Both look different, both work slightly differently, and both have simpler payment plans, and as a platform as a service they'll give you the extra add-ons you want — want that database? Sure, just add it on. Want more CPU? Sure, just add it on.