Free Cloud Zone
Your casual guide to free(ish) cloud goodies. Build, ship, and learn without dropping cash upfront.
We earn commissions when you shop through the links below.
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
Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you sign up through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
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 | Free Tier | CI/CD | Custom Domain | SSL | Limits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Amplify Hosting<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | AWS | Static or full‑stack frontends ~1 000 build minutes/mo; 5 GB CDN storage; 500 000 SSR req + 100 GB‑hr compute 15 GB data transfer out/mo free Multiple sites per project | 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<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | AWS | Bucket static website + optional CloudFront Uses AWS Free Tier credits (up to $200 for new accounts, usable over 6 months) plus always-free monthly quotas where available Unlimited buckets/objects | Deploy via CLI/SDK/third-party tools | Yes | Yes | N/A | Custom domains via CloudFront/Route 53; HTTPS at CDN/proxy |
| Azure Blob Storage static site<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Microsoft Azure | Static website feature of Azure Storage Uses Azure free account ($200 credit for 30 days); storage quotas are 12-month free services for new customers, not always-free Unlimited containers/blobs | Deploy via CLI, AzCopy, or CI | Yes | Yes | N/A | Custom domains & HTTPS via Front Door or CDN |
| Azure Static Web Apps Free<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Microsoft Azure | Static + optional serverless API 500 MB storage/app (250 MB/env); 15 000 files 100 GB bandwidth/subscription/mo (stops if exceeded) Up to 10 apps per subscription 2 custom domains/app with free SSL | 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<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Cloudflare edge network | Static & JAMstack hosting 500 builds/mo, 20 min timeout, 20 000 files/site, 25 MiB asset limit Up to 100 projects per account (free plan); unmetered bandwidth via Cloudflare CDN | 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<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | DigitalOcean cloud | Static sites only Free tier: up to 3 apps using static-site components; 1 GiB outbound data per app free | Git‑based CI/CD with automatic deploys | Yes | Yes | 3 static-site apps; 1 GiB outbound/app free; extra transfer $0.02/GiB | Custom domains with managed TLS |
| Firebase Hosting (Spark)<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Google Firebase / GCP | Static & SPA hosting 10 GB stored content 360 MB/day data transfer out (~10 GB/month) Multiple sites per project | Deploy via CLI or any CI; preview channels available | Yes | Yes | 10 GB stored content, 360 MB/day (~10 GB/month) transfer | Integrates with Firestore, Functions, etc. |
| Fly.io<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Multi-region edge VMs | Free trial: up to 2 hours of Machine runtime or 7 days, whichever comes first. No credit card required to start. After trial, credit card required to continue. Some free allowances persist: first 10GB volume snapshots/month, first 10 single-hostname SSL certs, inbound data transfer, shared IPv4, IPv6. | Deploy via flyctl with multi‑region placement | Yes | Yes | Trial-limited: 2 hours / 7 days; no recurring free allowance; some free allowances persist post-trial | Custom domains & TLS built in |
| GitHub Pages<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | GitHub infrastructure | Static sites (one per user/org + unlimited project sites) ~1 GB repo storage (soft); Actions minutes separate | Optional CI via GitHub Actions | Yes | Yes | ~1 GB repo storage (soft) | Published soft limits: sites <=1 GB, repo <=1 GB recommended, 100 GB/month bandwidth, 10 builds/hour, 10-min deploy timeout; not meant for high-traffic use |
| GitLab Pages<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | GitLab infrastructure | Static sites (one per project) Storage & CI minutes limited by free tier | First‑class GitLab CI/CD pipelines deploy to Pages | Yes | Yes | Storage & CI minutes limited by free tier | No explicit bandwidth quota; intended for docs/personal use |
| Heroku<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Heroku (Salesforce) | **No permanent free tier**; only temporary trials or credits | Git-based deployments | Yes | Yes | N/A | Requires paid dyno for static hosting |
| Google Cloud Storage + CDN<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Google Cloud Platform | Static hosting via bucket + Load Balancer/Cloud CDN Uses GCP storage, load‑balancer, and CDN quotas 5 GB-months regional storage (US regions only), 100 GB egress/mo Unlimited buckets/objects | Deploy with gsutil/CLI/your own CI | Yes | Yes | 5 GB-months regional storage (US regions only), 5,000 Class A + 50,000 Class B ops, 100 GB egress/mo | Custom domains & HTTPS via Load Balancer with managed certs |
| Railway<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Railway.app | Static or containerized full‑stack apps Small monthly credit pool for services (front‑ends consume it) Bandwidth/storage draw from same credit pool | Git‑based auto‑deploys with ephemeral previews | No | Yes | Free: $1/mo credits, 1 project / 3 services, no custom domains; Free Trial: $5 one-time (30 days) | Containers, Postgres, Redis, cron, etc. |
| Render Static Sites<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Render PaaS | Static sites with a free tier (limited build/storage) 5 GB included bandwidth (Hobby $0 plan); free web services sleep after 15 min idle; static sites don't sleep | Git-based auto deploys, previews, render.yaml config | Yes | Yes | 5 GB included on Hobby ($0); up to 25 services | Multiple sites allowed |
| Netlify<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Multi-cloud platform | Static & JAMstack hosting 300 credits/mo; production deploys cost 15 credits each Unlimited sites/projects Custom domains with free HTTPS | Git‑based CI/CD with previews | Yes | Yes | 300 credits/mo (hard limit); bandwidth 20 credits/GB, production deploys 15 credits each | Netlify Functions, identity, forms, partner integrations |
| Vercel<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Multi-cloud platform | Static, SSR, and SPA hosting Builds included on Basic machines (Hobby, no fixed minute cap); 1M function invocations; 100 GB Fast Data Transfer/mo Unlimited Deployments; 200 projects max; 50 domains/project; free HTTPS | Deep Git integration with preview deployments | Yes | Yes | Builds included (Basic machines); 1M function invocations; 100 GB Fast Data Transfer/mo; 200 projects; Unlimited Deployments | 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<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Azure Functions | 1M/month (legacy Consumption) or 250K/month (Flex Consumption) | 400K GB-s (Consumption) or 100K GB-s (Flex) | 10 minutes max (Consumption); Flex Consumption default 30 min | Varies | Free grants (Consumption legacy / Flex Consumption) |
| Cloudflare<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Workers | 100K requests/day | 10ms CPU/request | 10ms CPU | Included | Always-free |
| DigitalOcean<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Functions | Metered via 90K GiB-s free; 600/min per namespace | 90K GiB-seconds/month | 15 minutes | Included | Always-free |
| Firebase<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Cloud Functions | 2M/month | 400K GB-seconds/month | 540 s (1st gen); up to 60 min (2nd gen on Cloud Run) | Varies | Free tier on Blaze plan (Spark cannot deploy Cloud Functions) |
| Netlify<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Functions | Credit-based (Free = 300 credits/mo; 2 credits per 10K requests) | 10 credits per GB-hour (credit-based) | Credit-based execution (no fixed default published) | Included in credits | Free (credit-based, since Sep 2025) |
| Supabase<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Edge Functions (Deno) | 500K Edge Function invocations/month (Free) | Included | No hard timeout published; free projects pause after 1 week inactivity | Included (Deno runtime) | Always-free (with usage caps) |
| Vercel<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Vercel Functions | 1M/month | 360 GB-hours provisioned memory/month (Fluid compute) | 300 s max (Hobby) | Included | Free (Hobby) |
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<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | App Runner | None (no App Runner free tier) | Pay-as-you-go ($0.064/vCPU-hr active, $0.007/GB-hr provisioned) | Usage-based (no free tier) | 2 GB | Not free - closed to new customers since 2026-04-30, existing services operational (pay-as-you-go, Free Tier credits only) |
| AWS<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Lambda | 1M/month | 400K GB-seconds/month | 15 minutes | Varies | Always-free |
| Azure<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Container Apps | 2M requests/month | 180K vCPU-sec + 360K GiB-sec/month | Scale-to-zero (free usage applies when scaled to zero) | 0.25 vCPU / 0.5 GiB min container size | Free Tier |
| Fly.io<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Fly Machines | Free trial: up to 2 hours Machine runtime or 7 days | Up to 2 vCPU / 4 GB per machine (trial) | Trial ends after 2 hours or 7 days | Up to 4 GB RAM (trial) | Trial only (no recurring free tier) |
| Google Cloud<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Cloud Functions | 2M/month | 400K GB-seconds/month | 540 seconds | Varies | Always-free |
| Google Cloud<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Cloud Run | 2M requests/month | 240K vCPU-sec + 450K GB-sec/month | Scale-to-zero (request-based billing) | 1 GB | Free tier (2M requests/mo, 450K GB-sec, 240K vCPU-sec, 1 GB egress) |
| Heroku<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Eco Dynos | None | 512 MB RAM | sleeps after 30 min inactivity | 512 MB RAM | Eco is PAID - $5/month for 1,000 Eco dyno hours pool (no free tier since Nov 2022) |
| Railway<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | App Deployment | Free Trial $5 one-time (30 days); Free plan $1/mo credits | 512 MB RAM | Per-second usage billing; no always-on guarantee on free plans | 0.5 GB per service cap | Free Trial + Free plan |
| Render<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Web Services | Unlimited requests (within plan limits) | 500 MB RAM | Spins down after 15 min idle; 750 free instance hours/mo/workspace | 500 MB RAM | Free (0.1 CPU / 512 MB, sleeps after 15 min) |
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<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | RDS | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, SQL Server (Express) | 1 db.t3.micro or db.t4g.micro | 20 GB | 750 hrs/month | 20 GB free | Credit-based Free Plan (new accounts) / legacy 12-month (older accounts) |
| Azure<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | PostgreSQL/MySQL | PostgreSQL, MySQL | 1 Burstable B1MS | 32 GB | 750 hrs/month | 32 GB free | 12-month free |
| Azure<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | Azure SQL Database | SQL Server | 10 serverless databases | 32 GB each | 100K vCore-seconds/month | 32 GB each | Always-free |
| Google Cloud<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | Cloud SQL | MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server | None (free tier discontinued) | None - only 30-day trial instance | Not available (always-free offer retired) | None | No always-free tier (discontinued; 30-day trial only) |
| Neon<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL (Serverless) | 100 projects (10 branches per project) | 1 GB/project, 20 GB account total | 100 CU-hours per project | History window 6 hours, up to 1 GB-month | Always-free |
| Render<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL | 1 free instance | 1 GB | Shared resources | Not included (paid plans only) | Free (30-day expiry) |
| Supabase<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL (fully managed, Supabase-owned) | 2 projects (pause after 1 week inactivity) | 500 MB | Included | Not included on Free (Pro: daily backups, 7 days) | Always-free |
NoSQL
| Provider | Service | Type | Storage | Read Capacity | Write Capacity | Tier Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | DynamoDB | Key-Value | 25 GB | 25 provisioned RCU | 25 provisioned WCU | Always-free |
| Azure<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | CosmosDB | Document, Key-Value | 25 GB | 1,000 RU/s provisioned | 1,000 RU/s provisioned | Always free (lifetime; 1 free-tier account per subscription, provisioned throughput only) |
| Firebase<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | Realtime Database | JSON Database | 1 GB | 100 concurrent connections | 10 GB download/month | Always-free (Spark) |
| Google Cloud<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {db.data.lastVerified}</span> | 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<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | EBS | Block Storage | 30 GB | 2M I/Os/month | Included | Credit-based Free Plan (up to $200 / 6 months) for new accounts; legacy 12-month for older accounts | $0.10/GB-month |
| AWS<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | S3 | Object Storage | 5 GB | 20K GET, 2K PUT | 100 GB/month (account-wide always-free outbound transfer; S3 card lists 1 GB out) | Always-free | $0.023/GB storage, $0.0004/GET request |
| Azure<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Blob Storage | Object Storage | 5 GB | 20K read + 10K write operations | Included | 12-month free | $0.0208/GB storage (Hot LRS, East US, first 50 TB tier) |
| Firebase<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Storage | Object Storage | 5 GB (5 GB-months, us-central1/us-west1/us-east1) | 20K uploads + 50K downloads/day (legacy appspot) or 5K uploads + 50K downloads/month (firebasestorage.app) | 100 GB/month (firebasestorage.app) or 1 GB/day (legacy appspot) | Always-free (Spark) | $0.026/GB (appspot legacy, then $0.12/GB download); GCS $0.020/GB (firebasestorage.app) |
| Netlify<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | File Storage | Object Storage | Not published - Blob storage under credit-based usage (no fixed 10 GB quota) | Metered (2 credits/10K requests) | Metered (20 credits/GB) | Free (credit-based, 300 credits/mo) | Draws from monthly credits |
| Google Cloud<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Cloud Storage | Object Storage | 5 GB | 5,000 Class A + 50,000 Class B operations/month | 100 GB/month outbound (North America, excl. China/Australia) | Always-free | $0.020/GB storage, $0.12/GB egress |
| Supabase<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Storage | Object Storage | 1 GB | Unlimited | 5 GB egress + 5 GB cached egress/month included | Always-free | 100 GB included on Pro, then $0.0213/GB |
| Vercel<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Blob Storage | Object Storage | 1 GB | 10K simple + 2K advanced/month | 10 GB/month | Free (Hobby) | $0.023/GB, $0.40/million simple ops, $5.00/million advanced ops |
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<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Authentication | 25,000 MAU | Extensive Provider Support | Limited | Free tier | from $35/month (Essentials, B2C); B2B from $150/month |
| AWS<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Cognito | 10,000 MAU (Lite/Essentials tier, default for new pools) | Multiple Identity Providers | Limited | Free tier of a paid service (Essentials) | $0.015/MAU above 10K (Essentials); Lite tiered $0.0055/MAU first 90K then $0.0046/MAU; Plus $0.020/MAU no free tier |
| Firebase<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Authentication | 50,000 MAU | Email, Password, Google, Facebook, GitHub, Phone | First 10 SMS/day free, then billed per SMS (US ~$0.01) | Always-free (Spark) | $0.0025-0.0055/MAU overage |
| Supabase<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Auth | 50,000 MAU | Email, OAuth, Magic Links, Phone | Not included; requires a paid third-party SMS provider (Twilio, MessageBird, Vonage) | Always-free | Pro from $25/month (100,000 MAU included), then $0.00325/MAU |
Email & SMS
| Provider | Service | Free Tier Allowance | Daily Limit | Domains | Tier Type | Pricing After Free Tier | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | SNS (Email) | 1,000 emails/month | Unlimited | Included | Always-free | $2.00 per 100,000 notifications (~$0.02/1K) | Active |
| AWS<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | SNS (SMS) | None (SNS free tier covers requests/HTTP/email only) | Unlimited | N/A | No free tier (paid SMS only) | ~$0.00774/SMS (US long code); varies by country/route (AWS End User Messaging) | Active |
| Mailgun<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Email API | 100 emails/day (~3K/month) | 100/day cap | 1 custom domain | Forever free | $15/month (10K/month) | Active |
| SMTP2GO<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Email API | 1,000 emails/month | 200/day cap | 5 sender domains | Forever free | $10/month (10K/month) | Active |
| Twilio<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | SMS | Product-specific trial units - 100 SMS, 100 WhatsApp, 3,000 emails, 75 voice min; expires in 30 days | Variable | N/A | Trial | from $0.0083/SMS (US); varies by country/channel | Trial-based |
Real-time Messaging & Pub/Sub
| Provider | Service | Messages/Month | Connections | Channels/Topics | Tier Type | Pricing After Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ably<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Realtime Messaging | 6M/month | 200 concurrent | 200 channels | Free tier | $2.50/million messages overage |
| Firebase<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Realtime Database | Bandwidth-based | 100 concurrent | Unlimited | Always-free | $5/GB storage overage (1 GB free); $1/GB download after 10 GB/mo free |
| Pusher<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Channels (Pub/Sub) | 200K/day (6M/month) | 100 concurrent | Unlimited | Sandbox free | $49/month Startup (1M msgs/day); Growth $699/month (40M msgs/day) |
CDN, DNS & Additional Services
| Provider | Service | Free Tier Offering | Features | Tier Type | Pricing After Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | CloudFront (CDN) | Always Free: 1 TB data transfer out/mo, 10M HTTP(S) requests, 2M CloudFront Function invocations | Global CDN | Always-free (credits-based Free Tier program since 2025) | $0.085/GB egress |
| Cloudflare<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | CDN | Unlimited bandwidth | DDoS protection, SSL, DNS | Always-free | Included in free tier |
| Google Cloud<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Cloud CDN | No free tier - Cloud CDN is not part of the Google Cloud Free Tier; new customers get $300 in free credits (90 days) | Cache optimization | No free tier ($300 trial credit only) | $0.08/GiB (NA cache egress, first 10 TiB; ranges $0.02-$0.20/GiB by region) |
| Netlify<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | CDN | 300 credits/month (~15 GB bandwidth at 20 credits/GB) | Global, auto-compression | Free (credit-based) | Included in free tier |
| Vercel<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Edge Network | Included | Global edge compute | Free (Hobby) | Included in free tier |
Automation
CI/CD platforms for automating builds, tests, and deployments.
| Provider | Service | Free Tier Details | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| CircleCI<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | CircleCI | 30,000 credits/month Docker, Linux, Windows, Arm, macOS, self-hosted runners; 30x concurrency; 5 active users | Credit-based system |
| Cloudflare<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Pages CI/CD | 500 builds/month, 1 build at a time, 20-min build timeout Direct Git integration; 100 custom domains/project | Pages functions bill through Workers free allowances (100K req/day) |
| GitHub<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | GitHub Actions | 2000 free minutes/month 500 MB storage | Unlimited for public repos; private repos 2000 min/month |
| GitLab<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | GitLab CI/CD | 400 free minutes/month Unlimited private repos | 400 min limit on shared runners |
| Netlify<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Build & Deploy | Credit-based: 300 credits/mo; prod deploys 15 credits each; compute 10 credits/GB-hr Automatic deploys from Git | Build timeout not re-confirmed post-credits; usage draws from credit pool |
| Vercel<span class="verified-badge">✓ verified {item.data.lastVerified}</span> | Build & Deploy | Hobby: Unlimited deployments; 1M function invocations/mo; 4 hrs Fluid Active CPU/mo; Basic machines for builds; Automatic previews on every commit | Basic machines included; pay $0.007/min after included quota; 45-min build time limit no longer applies |
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.
Scenario 4
Backend API with Containers
RenderNeonDigitalOcean FunctionsAWS SNS
Persistent backend for WebSockets or cron jobs, serverless database with scale-to-zero, plus notification services.
Note: Render free Postgres databases expire after 30 days; free web services spin down after 15 min idle; paid Compute from $7/mo for persistence.
Scenario 2
Full-Stack Web Application
VercelSupabaseFirebase AuthMailgun
Complete product-ready stack with serverless backend, PostgreSQL database, user authentication, and email notifications.
Production Ready: Scales from 0 to production with predictable pricing.
Scenario 3
Real-time Collaborative App
FirebaseFirestoreRealtime DB
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.
Scenario 1
Static Website with Email
NetlifyMailgunCloudflare
Perfect for marketing sites, documentation, or blogs. No backend compute required – just Git-powered deployments.
Free Forever: $0/month indefinitely with ~15GB bandwidth (300 Netlify credits) and 100 daily emails.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to common questions about free cloud tiers.
What is the best free tier for React apps?
Vercel and Netlify are the best free tiers for React apps. Vercel offers 100GB bandwidth/month and automatic deployments from Git. Netlify provides 100GB bandwidth, 300 build minutes/month, and serverless functions. Both support React out of the box with zero configuration.
What's the best free database for side projects?
Supabase offers the best free database for side projects with 500MB PostgreSQL storage, unlimited API requests, real-time subscriptions, and built-in authentication - all free forever. Alternatives include Neon (serverless PostgreSQL, 0.5GB storage) and PlanetScale (MySQL, 5GB read/write).
Are free tiers really free?
Most free tiers are free indefinitely with usage limits. Examples: Vercel's Hobby tier, Netlify's Free tier, and Supabase's Free tier are free forever. Others like AWS (12 months) and Azure ($200 credit for 30 days) are temporary. Always check the provider's pricing page for current limits.
What happens if I exceed free tier limits?
It depends on the provider. Some will charge you automatically (Railway, Render), others will suspend your service (Heroku eco, some AWS services), and a few will throttle performance (Cloudflare Workers). Always set up usage alerts and understand the overage policy before deploying.
What are the best Heroku alternatives?
Top Heroku alternatives with free tiers: 1) Railway - $5 free credit, supports Docker & Git deployments, 2) Render - Free web services with 750 hours/month, 3) Fly.io - Free allowance for small apps, 4) Platform.sh - No free tier but $10 trial, 5) Qoddi - Free tier available. All support popular languages and Git-based deployments.