Compare options with a decision table

Help me choose between three options by building a comparison table and then giving a recommendation. Criteria: monthly cost, learning curve, scalability, ecosystem, and fit for a 2-person team building a SaaS MVP. Options: (1) Next.js + Postgres on Vercel/Neon, (2) Ruby on Rails on Render, (3) Django + Postgres on Railway. Score each criterion 1-5 with a short reason, then recommend one and say when you'd pick a different one. Keep the whole answer under 450 words.

Criterion	(1) Next.js + Postgres (Vercel/Neon)	(2) Rails on Render	(3) Django + Postgres (Railway)
Monthly cost	3: Neon and Vercel free tiers work, but commercial use on Vercel needs Pro (about $20/seat), so two seats plus DB is roughly $40+	4: Predictable pricing, roughly $15-30/mo for a web service and small Postgres	4: Low entry cost (about $5-20/mo), but usage-based billing can spike
Learning curve (5 = easiest)	3: Familiar to JS developers, but server components, caching, and serverless quirks add complexity	4: Convention over configuration and generators get you far, though Ruby is less common	4: Readable Python, batteries-included admin and auth
Scalability	4: Serverless frontend scales automatically, but DB connection limits and background jobs need extra setup	4: Scales well vertically; background jobs via Sidekiq are standard	4: Scales well; background jobs via Celery add setup
Ecosystem	5: Largest package and hiring pool; many auth, payments, and UI libraries	4: Mature SaaS gems (Devise, Pay, Stripe integrations), smaller talent pool	4: Strong packages (allauth, DRF, built-in admin), smaller frontend ecosystem
Fit for 2-person MVP	4: One language across the stack, but splitting frontend and backend work is less clean	5: One person can ship full-stack features quickly; Hotwire covers interactivity without a separate SPA	4: Fast to build with admin and ORM, but interactive UI usually needs extra tooling

Criterion

(1) Next.js + Postgres (Vercel/Neon)

(2) Rails on Render

(3) Django + Postgres (Railway)

Monthly cost

3: Neon and Vercel free tiers work, but commercial use on Vercel needs Pro (about $20/seat), so two seats plus DB is roughly $40+

4: Predictable pricing, roughly $15-30/mo for a web service and small Postgres

4: Low entry cost (about $5-20/mo), but usage-based billing can spike

Learning curve (5 = easiest)

3: Familiar to JS developers, but server components, caching, and serverless quirks add complexity

4: Convention over configuration and generators get you far, though Ruby is less common

4: Readable Python, batteries-included admin and auth

Scalability

4: Serverless frontend scales automatically, but DB connection limits and background jobs need extra setup

4: Scales well vertically; background jobs via Sidekiq are standard

4: Scales well; background jobs via Celery add setup

Ecosystem

5: Largest package and hiring pool; many auth, payments, and UI libraries

4: Mature SaaS gems (Devise, Pay, Stripe integrations), smaller talent pool

4: Strong packages (allauth, DRF, built-in admin), smaller frontend ecosystem

Fit for 2-person MVP

4: One language across the stack, but splitting frontend and backend work is less clean

5: One person can ship full-stack features quickly; Hotwire covers interactivity without a separate SPA

4: Fast to build with admin and ORM, but interactive UI usually needs extra tooling

Compare options with a decision table

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Compare options with a decision table

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