Free-tier scenario
Free web app hosting: what breaks first
A static site, a sleeping demo API, and an always-on application are different workloads. A useful free comparison starts with that split.
The short answer
Static assets fit durable free hosting best. Dynamic demos can fit sleep-based or credit-based runtimes. An always-on application with persistent state should be modeled at its paid floor from the start.
Compare current free offers
29 provider offers, with the limits that matter
Start with the limit your app is most likely to hit. A large allowance is not useful if the service sleeps, the trial expires, or the paid step is unpredictable. Unknown details stay marked as unclear instead of being treated as free or unlimited.
Checked against provider pages on .
Free offer
Sleep behavior unclear 30-day $5 trial, then perpetual Free with $1 monthly non-rollover credit No card required Some details unclearFirst limit to check
If App Sleeping is mandatory, an outbound-idle service sleeps after more than 10 minutes. Otherwise a 512 MB always-on service exhausts $1 in about 6 days.Paid option
Hobby: $5/monthFree offer
Sleeps after 15 minutes Web service is perpetual; free Postgres expires after 30 days. No card requiredFirst limit to check
An otherwise idle web service sleeps after 15 minutes.Paid option
Starter web service: $7/monthFree offer
Sleeps after 5 minutes 2 VM-hours or 7 days, whichever arrives first No card requiredFirst limit to check
An always-on Machine reaches the 2 total VM-hour limit.Paid option
Pay As You Go: price depends on usageFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual Hobby plan No card requiredFirst limit to check
For a commercial app, eligibility fails before resource use because Hobby permits no commercial projects.Paid option
Pro: $20/monthFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual with 300 recurring credits per month No card requiredFirst limit to check
The shared team meter reaches 300 credits and pauses all projects.Paid option
Personal: $9/monthFree offer
Sleeps after 60 minutes perpetual Card requiredFirst limit to check
An idle app sleeps after 60 minutes; an active app is constrained by 0.1 vCPU.Paid option
Eco micro: $2.68/monthFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual Sandbox Card requiredFirst limit to check
The third service exceeds the two-service Sandbox cap.Paid option
Pay-as-you-go nf-compute-20: $5.40/monthFree offer
Does not sleep Free self-hosted control plane is perpetual; hosted Dev trial is 14 days. No card requiredFirst limit to check
A hosted application reaches the 14-day trial boundary. Free includes control of one self-owned server but not its infrastructure.Paid option
Dev: $5/monthFree offer
Sleep behavior unclear Signup credit exists, but amount and expiry are unpublished. No card required Some details unclearFirst limit to check
Credit exhaustion is the likely category, but no numeric threshold is published.Paid option
Consumption pricing: price depends on usageFree offer
Does not sleep Always Free resources are perpetual; trial credit is $300 for 30 days. Card requiredFirst limit to check
For a quiet app, idle reclamation risk arrives after seven days below all published thresholds.Paid option
Pay As You Go: price depends on usageFree offer
Does not sleep Always Free allocation is perpetual; $300 trial credit expires after 90 days. Card requiredFirst limit to check
The 1 GB monthly outbound allowance is exceeded by a 10 GB reference workload.Paid option
Paid billing account: price depends on usageFree offer
Does not sleep Free Plan lasts up to 6 months with $100 signup credit and up to $100 earnable credit. Card requiredFirst limit to check
The fixed six-month deadline arrives even if credit remains.Paid option
Paid Plan: price depends on usageFree offer
Does not sleep $200 credit expires after 30 days; selected services remain free for 12 months after upgrade. Card requiredFirst limit to check
The 30-day credit deadline arrives even if credit remains.Paid option
Pay as you go: price depends on usageFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual No card requiredFirst limit to check
An invocation needing 11 ms CPU exceeds the 10 ms Free cap.Paid option
Workers Paid: $5/monthFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual No card requiredFirst limit to check
A single build fails when it reaches the 20-minute timeout.Paid option
Pro: $25/monthFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual No card requiredFirst limit to check
A 512 MB always-on process exceeds 350 GB-hours of monthly memory.Paid option
Pro: $20/monthFree offer
Does not sleep Free web app requires renewal each month. No card requiredFirst limit to check
A web app that is not manually renewed reaches its one-month expiry.Paid option
Developer: €10/monthFree offer
Sleeps after 15 minutes Starter is perpetual, but a free published app must be republished after 30 days. No card requiredFirst limit to check
An idle app scales down after 15 quiet minutes.Paid option
Core: $20/month-equivalentFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual Spark allocation No card requiredFirst limit to check
The 10 GB reference transfer exactly consumes the monthly transfer allowance.Paid option
Blaze: price depends on usageFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual No card requiredFirst limit to check
Commercial-hosting eligibility fails before deployment for an online business, e-commerce site, or commercial SaaS.Paid option
No paid GitHub plan removes the Pages commercial-hosting restriction.Free offer
Sleep behavior unclear perpetual No card required Some details unclearFirst limit to check
A 512 MB reference container cannot fit in the 256 MB Free shape.Paid option
Shared Container: $5/monthFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual Hobby allocation Card requirement unclear Some details unclearFirst limit to check
A 512 MB always-on process exhausts 3 GB-hours after about 6 hours.Paid option
Plus: $12.90/monthFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual static hosting Card requirement unclear Some details unclearFirst limit to check
One 20-minute build per day exactly consumes 600 build minutes in 30 days; the next minute bills $0.05.Paid option
Static site usage overage: $0.05/build minuteFree offer
Does not sleep perpetual free static apps Card requiredFirst limit to check
A 10 GB reference load exceeds the 1 GiB per-app transfer allowance.Paid option
Additional static app: $3/monthFree offer
Does not sleep 15-day trial followed by recurring project and user credit No card requiredFirst limit to check
The full trial reaches day 15; afterward resources remain billable despite the project and user credit.Paid option
Upsun usage pricing: price depends on usageFree offer
Does not sleep Credits expire during a specified trial period, but the current offer does not publish the duration. Card required Some details unclearFirst limit to check
The trial-period deadline is likely to arrive before a $5 Nanode consumes $100, but the current duration is unpublished.Paid option
Nanode 1 GB: $5/monthFree offer
Does not sleep Vendor conflict: 31 calendar days versus end of the following month. Card required Some details unclearFirst limit to check
The expiry clock arrives before a $0.00744 per hour xSmall instance consumes $250.Paid option
xSmall Compute: $0.01/hourFree offer
Does not sleep Campaign-dependent credit is valid for up to 30 days. Card required Some details unclearFirst limit to check
Day 30 is the only campaign-independent numeric boundary.Paid option
Cloud Compute: price depends on usageFree offer
Does not sleep $100 credit expires after 30 days. Card requiredFirst limit to check
The 30-day deadline arrives before one $4 Basic server consumes $100.Paid option
Basic: $4/month11 familiar names that do not qualify as a current free offer
| Provider | Why it is not listed above | Provider's page |
|---|---|---|
| Heroku Free dynos | Free dynos were withdrawn on 2022-11-28. A paid Eco dyno is not a current free web-hosting offer. | Heroku's page |
| Platform.sh Old free trial (now Upsun) | Platform.sh now sends new users to Upsun, so the offer is listed once, under Upsun. | Platform.sh's page |
| Alibaba Cloud Product free trials | Alibaba Cloud's free trial is $90 of credit for Elastic Compute Service (ECS), open only to new users of its computing products. It is a temporary credit for a server you run yourself, and we have not confirmed which sizes it covers or for how long, so it is not listed here. | Alibaba Cloud's page |
| IBM Cloud Lite plans | IBM Cloud's Lite plans do not include a service you can deploy a public web app to. | IBM Cloud's page |
| Cloudflare R2 Free allocation | R2 is object storage. Its free allowance does not run or publish a web app on its own. | Cloudflare's page |
| Glitch Project hosting | Glitch shut project hosting on 2025-07-08 and no paid hosting escape remains. | Glitch's page |
| Supabase Free | Supabase's free plan is a Postgres database with backend services, not a place to deploy a whole web app. | Supabase's page |
| Neon Free | Neon's free plan is a Postgres database; it does not run web apps. | Neon's page |
| Adaptable | We could not reach Adaptable's site or docs, so we cannot say what its free plan includes today. | No page to link |
| Qovery Current platform trial | Qovery deploys into your own AWS, Google Cloud, Azure or Scaleway account. Its trial does not say the servers underneath are free. | Qovery's page |
| Cloud 66 Free | Cloud 66's Free plan manages deployments; you pay separately for the servers or cloud account underneath. | Cloud 66's page |
Compare the options
Match the offer to your workload
| Workload | Start with | Verify |
|---|---|---|
| Static site | Static edge hosting | Build and bandwidth allowance |
| Sleeping demo API | Credit or sleep-based runtime | Wake time and persistent state |
| Always-on app | Paid runtime floor | Database, egress, support, recovery |
What changes the answer
What changes the answer
- 01Separate static delivery from server runtime.
- 02Keep the database and persistent files in the same cost model.
- 03Test build minutes, bandwidth, sleep, and custom-domain rules.
- 04Record the export path before data or platform features create lock-in.
Bill and sources
At these inputs: the same formula, assumptions and sources every visitor sees.
Static assets fit durable free hosting best. Dynamic demos can fit sleep-based or credit-based runtimes. An always-on application with persistent state should be modeled at its paid floor from the start.
Formula
Durable monthly cost = runtime floor + database + storage + transfer + operations labor after temporary credits
Assumptions
- One custom domain
- No paid support
Explicit unknowns
- Offer continuity
- Traffic growth
- Build and bandwidth profile
Sources and freshness
- Provider pages we used checked