Free Cloud Zone
Your casual guide to free(ish) cloud goodies. Build, ship, and learn without dropping cash upfront.
Hey there, fellow builder! If you're a dev tinkering with side projects, learning new stacks, or just trying to ship something without paying upfront, welcome! This spot rounds up the best free and free-tier offerings from cloud providers. We're talking compute power, storage, databases, auth tools, and more – all with zero or super-low cost to get started.
A quick heads-up: "Free" usually means limits (sleeping apps, bandwidth caps, or time-bound credits), and things change (looking at you, Heroku 2022 vibes). Always pop over to the official links for the freshest details – we've included them right in the tables so you can click through easily.
Jump to the free tier category you're interested in:
Frontend Apps & Static Web Sites
Deploy static sites, SPAs, and full-stack frameworks instantly
Run Backend Code
Serverless functions, APIs, and event-driven workloads
Databases
Relational SQL and NoSQL databases for your data
Storage
Object storage, CDN, and file hosting services
Other Services
Authentication, email, messaging, CDN, and CI/CD automation
Architecture Scenarios
Real-world stack examples and getting started guides
Frontend Apps & Static Web Sites
Platforms for hosting static websites, JAMstack apps, and front‑end projects. Most include build/CD, bandwidth, and asset quotas along with free HTTPS and custom domains.
| Provider | Platform | CI/CD | Custom Domain | SSL | Limits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Amplify Hosting | AWS | Built‑in CI/CD with Git branches/environments | Yes | Yes | ~1 000 build minutes/mo, 5 GB CDN storage, 500 000 SSR req, 100 GB-hr compute, 15 GB data transfer/mo | Integrates with full AWS backends (Lambda, DynamoDB, etc.) |
| AWS S3 static website | AWS | Deploy via CLI/SDK/third-party tools | Yes | Yes | AWS Free Tier credits & always-free quotas (storage, requests, egress) | No built‑in CI |
| Azure Blob Storage static site | Microsoft Azure | Deploy via CLI, AzCopy, or CI | Yes | Yes | Azure free trial & always-free quotas (storage, egress) | No first‑class CI; general Azure limits apply |
| Azure Static Web Apps Free | Microsoft Azure | Native GitHub or Azure DevOps CI/CD with 3 preview envs/app | Yes | Yes | 500 MB storage/app, 15 000 files, 100 GB bandwidth/subscription/mo, 10 apps/subscription, 2 custom domains/app | Integrates with Azure Functions & wider Azure services |
| Cloudflare Pages | Cloudflare edge network | Git‑based CI/CD with preview deployments | Yes | Yes | 500 builds/mo, 20 min timeout, 20 000 files/site, 25 MiB asset limit | Integrates with Workers, KV, R2, D1 and other edge services |
| DigitalOcean App Platform | DigitalOcean cloud | Git‑based CI/CD with automatic deploys | Yes | Yes | Limited build/storage and tens of GB bandwidth | Small free tier; upgrade for more usage |
| Firebase Hosting (Spark) | Google Firebase / GCP | Deploy via CLI or any CI; preview channels available | Yes | Yes | 1 GB stored content, 10 GB/month data transfer | Integrates with Firestore, Functions, etc. |
| Fly.io | Multi-region edge VMs | Deploy via flyctl with multi‑region placement | Yes | Yes | Small free instances, modest free egress (tens of GB) | Only a couple of free apps; larger usage needs paid credits |
| GitHub Pages | GitHub infrastructure | Optional CI via GitHub Actions | Yes | Yes | ~1 GB repo storage (soft) | One site per user/org + per repo |
| GitLab Pages | GitLab infrastructure | First‑class GitLab CI/CD pipelines deploy to Pages | Yes | Yes | Storage & CI minutes limited by free tier | One site per project |
| Google Cloud Storage + CDN | Google Cloud Platform | Deploy with gsutil/CLI/your own CI | Yes | Yes | Some always‑free GCS & egress allowances depending on region | No turnkey setup |
| Netlify | Multi-cloud platform | Git‑based CI/CD with previews | Yes | Yes | 300 build minutes/mo, 100 GB bandwidth | Netlify Functions, identity, forms, partner integrations |
| Railway | Railway.app | Git‑based auto‑deploys with ephemeral previews | Yes | Yes | Limited by monthly credit pool | Containers, Postgres, Redis, cron, etc. |
| Render Static Sites | Render PaaS | Git‑based auto deploys, previews, render.yaml config | Yes | Yes | ~100 GB outbound bandwidth | Multiple sites allowed |
| Heroku | Heroku (Salesforce) | Git-based deployments | Yes | Yes | N/A | Requires paid dyno for static hosting |
| Vercel | Multi-cloud platform | Deep Git integration with preview deployments | Yes | Yes | 6 000 build minutes, 1M invocations, 100 GB-hr compute, ~100 GB bandwidth/30-day, 200 projects, 100 deployments/day | Serverless & Edge Functions, storage beta, observability, AI tooling |
Run Backend Code
Run a backend that can respond to API requests or be triggered by events
Serverless Backends
Run code without managing servers. Perfect for APIs, webhooks, and event-driven workloads that scale automatically. You never pay for idle resources.
| Provider | Service | Invocations/Requests | Compute Time | Duration Limit | Memory | Tier Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azure | Azure Functions | 1M/month | 400K GB-seconds/month | 15 minutes | Varies | Always-free |
| Cloudflare | Workers | 100K requests/day | 10ms CPU/request | 10ms CPU | Included | Always-free |
| DigitalOcean | Functions | Unlimited invocations | 90K GiB-seconds/month | 15 minutes | Included | Always-free |
| Firebase | Cloud Functions | 2M/month | 400K GB-seconds/month | 540 seconds | Varies | Always-free (Spark) |
| Netlify | Functions | 125K/month | Unlimited | 26 seconds default | Unlimited | Free (Starter) |
| Vercel | Vercel Functions | 1M/month | 360 GB-hours/month | 900 seconds | Included | Free (Hobby) |
| Supabase | Edge Functions (Deno) | Unlimited requests | Included | Not limited | Unlimited | Always-free |
Hosted Backend Servers
Virtual machine and PaaS vendors for deploying backend applications with more control and longer-running processes.
| Provider | Service | Invocations/Requests | Compute Time | Duration Limit | Memory | Tier Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | App Runner | $25 credit/month | 1 vCPU / 2 GB RAM | Always running | 2 GB | Free Trial |
| AWS | Lambda | 1M/month | 400K GB-seconds/month | 15 minutes | Varies | Always-free |
| Azure | Container Apps | 180K req/month | 250K vCPU-sec + 500K GB-sec | Always running (with min replicas) | 0.5 GB | Free Tier |
| Google Cloud | Cloud Functions | 2M/month | 400K GB-seconds/month | 540 seconds | Varies | Always-free |
| Google Cloud | Cloud Run | 2M requests/month | 2K vCPU-sec + 4K GB-sec memory | Always running (with min instances) | 1 GB | Free Tier |
| Fly.io | Fly Machines | 3 VMs free | 256 MB RAM each | Always running | 256 MB RAM | Free |
| Heroku | Eco Dynos | None | 256 MB RAM | 18 hours/day limit | 256 MB RAM | Eco (Free) |
| Railway | App Deployment | $5 free credit/month | 512 MB RAM | Always running | 512 MB RAM | Free Trial |
| Render | Web Services | Unlimited | 500 MB RAM | Always running | 500 MB RAM | Free |
Databases
Managed SQL and NoSQL databases with free tiers for development and small applications.
Relational (SQL)
| Provider | Service | Type | Instances | Storage | Compute Hours | Backups | Tier Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | RDS | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB | 1 db.t3.micro | 20 GB | 750 hrs/month | 20 GB free | 12-month free |
| Azure | PostgreSQL/MySQL | PostgreSQL, MySQL | 1 Burstable B1MS | 32 GB | 750 hrs/month | 32 GB free | 12-month free |
| Azure | Azure SQL Database | SQL Server | 10 serverless databases | 32 GB each | 100K vCore-seconds/month | 32 GB each | Always-free |
| Neon | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL (Serverless) | Unlimited | 0.5 GB per project, 5 GB total | 100 CU-hours/month | 6 hours PITR | Always-free |
| Render | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL | 1 free instance | 1 GB | Shared resources | Included | Free (30-day expiry) |
| Google Cloud | Cloud SQL | MySQL, PostgreSQL | Included | Partial free allowance | f1-micro included | Included | Always-free |
| Supabase | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL (via Neon) | 1 project | 500 MB | Included | Unlimited | Always-free |
NoSQL
| Provider | Service | Type | Storage | Read Capacity | Write Capacity | Tier Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | DynamoDB | Key-Value | 25 GB | 25 provisioned RCU | 25 provisioned WCU | Always-free |
| Azure | CosmosDB | Document, Key-Value | 25 GB | 1,000 RU/s provisioned | 1,000 RU/s provisioned | 12-month free |
| Firebase | Realtime Database | JSON Database | 1 GB | 100 concurrent connections | 10 GB download/month | Always-free (Spark) |
| Google Cloud | Firestore | Document | 1 GB | 50K reads/day | 20K writes/day | Always-free |
Storage
Object storage, file hosting, and content delivery networks for serving static assets and media.
| Provider | Service | Type | Capacity | Requests Included | Bandwidth/Egress | Tier Type | Pricing After Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | EBS | Block Storage | 30 GB | 2M I/Os/month | Included | 12-month free | $0.10/GB-month |
| AWS | S3 | Object Storage | 5 GB | 20K GET, 2K PUT | 1 GB/month | Always-free | $0.023/GB storage, $0.0004/GET request |
| Azure | Blob Storage | Object Storage | 5 GB | 20K transactions | Included | 12-month free | $0.018/GB storage |
| Firebase | Storage | Object Storage | 1 GB | Unlimited | 10 GB/month | Always-free (Spark) | $0.18/GB storage, $0.12/GB download |
| Google Cloud | Cloud Storage | Object Storage | 5 GB | Included | 1 GB/month | Always-free | $0.020/GB storage, $0.12/GB egress |
| Vercel | Blob Storage | Object Storage | 1 GB | 10K/month | 10 GB/month | Free (Hobby) | $0.023/GB, $0.40/million operations |
| Supabase | Storage | Object Storage | 1 GB | Unlimited | Included | Always-free | $5/month per 100 GB additional |
| Netlify | File Storage | Object Storage | 10 GB | Unlimited | Included | Free (Starter) | Included in free tier |
Other Services
Additional cloud services including authentication, email, messaging, and CDN.
Authentication
| Provider | Service | MAU Free | Methods Supported | SMS/Phone Limit | Tier Type | Pricing After Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auth0 | Authentication | 7,500 MAU | Extensive Provider Support | Limited | Free tier | $29+/month higher tiers |
| AWS | Cognito | 50,000 MAU | Multiple Identity Providers | Limited | Always-free | $0.0055/MAU |
| Firebase | Authentication | 50,000 MAU | Email, Password, Google, Facebook, GitHub, Phone | 10K verifications/month | Always-free (Spark) | $0.0025-0.0055/MAU overage |
| Supabase | Auth | 50,000 MAU | Email, OAuth, Magic Links, Phone | Included | Always-free | Included in tier |
Email & SMS
| Provider | Service | Free Tier Allowance | Daily Limit | Domains | Tier Type | Pricing After Free Tier | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | SNS (Email) | 1,000 emails/month | Unlimited | Included | Always-free | $0.50/1K emails | Active |
| AWS | SNS (SMS) | 100 SMS/month | Unlimited | N/A | Always-free | $0.0645/SMS (US) | Active |
| Mailgun | Email API | 100 emails/day (~3K/month) | 100/day cap | 1 custom domain | Forever free | $15/month (10K/month) | Active |
| SMTP2GO | Email API | 1,000 emails/month | 200/day cap | 1 domain | Forever free | $10/month (10K/month) | Active |
| Twilio | SMS | Trial credits only | Variable | N/A | Trial | $0.0075/SMS | Trial-based |
Real-time Messaging & Pub/Sub
| Provider | Service | Messages/Month | Connections | Channels/Topics | Tier Type | Pricing After Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ably | Realtime Messaging | 6M/month | 200 concurrent | 200 channels | Free tier | $2.50/million messages overage |
| Firebase | Realtime Database | Bandwidth-based | 100 concurrent | Unlimited | Always-free | $1/GB storage, $1/GB download |
| Pusher | Channels (Pub/Sub) | 200K/day (6M/month) | 100 concurrent | Unlimited | Sandbox free | $49/month Growth plan |
CDN, DNS & Additional Services
| Provider | Service | Free Tier Offering | Features | Tier Type | Pricing After Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | CloudFront (CDN) | 1 GB egress/month, 2M requests | Global CDN | 12-month free | $0.085/GB egress |
| Cloudflare | CDN | Unlimited bandwidth | DDoS protection, SSL, DNS | Always-free | Included in free tier |
| Google Cloud | Cloud CDN | Included with Cloud Storage | Cache optimization | Always-free | $0.085/GB |
| Vercel | Edge Network | Included | Global edge compute | Free (Hobby) | Included in free tier |
| Netlify | CDN | 100 GB/month | Global, auto-compression | Free (Starter) | Included in free tier |
Automation
CI/CD platforms for automating builds, tests, and deployments.
| Provider | Service | Free Tier Details | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| CircleCI | CircleCI | 6000 free minutes/month Docker and Linux executors | Credit-based system |
| Cloudflare | Pages CI/CD | Unlimited builds Direct Git integration | 10ms CPU limit for edge functions |
| GitHub | GitHub Actions | 2000 free minutes/month 500 MB storage | Public repos only (private repos limited) |
| GitLab | GitLab CI/CD | 400 free minutes/month Unlimited private repos | 400 min limit on shared runners |
| Netlify | Build & Deploy | 300 build minutes/month Automatic deploys from Git | 15 minute build timeout |
| Vercel | Build & Deploy | 6000 free minutes/month Automatic previews on every commit | 60 second build limit for free tier |
Architecture Scenarios
Real-world tech stack combinations you can build today using these free tiers. Each scenario shows a complete application architecture with $0 monthly cost.
Backend API with Containers
Persistent backend for WebSockets or cron jobs, serverless database with scale-to-zero, plus notification services.
Note: Render free tier expires after 30 days; paid tier ($7-15/mo) for persistent services.
Full-Stack Web Application
Complete product-ready stack with serverless backend, PostgreSQL database, user authentication, and email notifications.
Production Ready: Scales from 0 to production with predictable pricing.
Real-time Collaborative App
Single-provider ecosystem for apps requiring real-time data sync across clients. No inter-service configuration needed.
Zero Config: Integrated auth, storage, hosting, and real-time database.
Static Website with Email
Perfect for marketing sites, documentation, or blogs. No backend compute required – just Git-powered deployments.
Free Forever: $0/month indefinitely with 100GB bandwidth and 100 daily emails.