OpenClaw VPS vs Fly Machines
Fly.io's serverless-ish micro-VM API for on-demand workloads. Below: side-by-side pricing, isolation model, and honest guidance on when each platform fits your assistant workload.
Quick Summary
Choose OpenClaw VPS if you want:
- +AI bots need 24/7 availability, pay-per-second doesn't fit the workload
- +No cold-start penalty on inbound messages
- +Capped monthly price beats unpredictable infrastructure usage billing
Choose Fly Machines if you want:
- +Batch workloads that scale to zero
- +CI/build farms with bursty compute
- +Dev environments spun up on demand
Public pricing signal
per-second compute billing when running
Free or trial note: No ongoing free tier, $5 starter credit
Billing model
usage-based
Region note: 30+
What to compare before buying
Channels
OpenClaw VPS supports public web chat and Telegram today, with private web chat through Tailscale on paid bots. Check competitor channel claims against your must-have channel.
AI provider billing
OpenClaw VPS is BYOK: you bring your own AI provider key and pay that provider directly for AI provider charges.
Support and recovery
Compare who handles updates, monitoring, broken channels, failed starts, and billing questions after the first deploy works.
Fit
Choose Fly Machines when its strengths match your actual need. Choose OpenClaw VPS when you want one useful hosted bot with a clear cap.
Where Fly Machines is strong
- +Pay-per-second when machines are running
- +Programmatic API to start/stop VMs on demand
- +Firecracker isolation per machine
What to check before buying
- +Cold-start latency when scaling from zero, bad for real-time bots
- +Operational complexity moves to your orchestration code
- +Billing unpredictable for chatty workloads
Facts checked from public pages
- +Fly Machines bills by the second while machines are running
- +Fly Machines uses Firecracker micro-VMs for isolation
- +Fly Machines can incur cold-start latency when scaling from zero
Ready to host one OpenClaw bot without the server work?
Start with a 7-day Pro trial. Bring your own model key, use public web chat or Telegram, and keep the bot after trial for up to $20/month.
Start 7-day trialAlready using Fly Machines? Compare the public details before you switch. Visit Fly Machines.