Every platform here lets you ship a real side project without a credit card. Our bar was strict: the free tier has to support an actual project — custom domain, enough headroom for real traffic — not a trial in disguise.
All scores are research-based: official docs, pricing pages, and public developer feedback. We don't do paid placements. Pricing changes fast — confirm on the official site before committing.
The only free tier that doesn't punish success: unlimited free bandwidth on Pages, 500 builds/mo, and Workers at 100K requests/day free. Deploy the frontend here and stop thinking about it.
Pages free (500 builds/mo); Workers Free $0 (100K requests/day); Workers Paid fr
300 credits/mo free with commercial use allowed, unlimited deploy previews, Forms, and Identity. The most polished way to ship a static site or JAMstack app for $0.
Free ($0, 300 credits/mo, commercial use OK); Personal $9/mo; Pro $20/mo flat fo
$1/mo usage credit, push-to-deploy, and managed Postgres/MySQL/Redis in the same project. The fastest free route from repo to a real app with a real database.
Free $0 ($1/mo usage credit); Hobby $5/mo (includes $5 usage); Pro $20/mo (inclu
100 GB free bandwidth and the deepest Next.js integration anywhere. Caveat: the Hobby plan is non-commercial, so monetized projects start at Pro ($20/seat/mo).
Hobby free (100 GB bandwidth, non-commercial); Pro $20/seat/mo (1 TB bandwidth)
Free web services with managed Postgres from $7/mo when you outgrow them. Services sleep when idle on free — fine for demos and side APIs, not for always-on production.
Free tier (sleeps when idle); Starter web services from $7/mo; managed Postgres
Start free on Cloudflare for frontends and Railway for anything with a database. Pay the moment the free caps cost you iteration speed or users — Netlify Personal at $9/mo and Railway Hobby at $5/mo are the cheapest upgrades in the business.
Yes, for low-traffic projects. Cloudflare Pages and Netlify's free tiers comfortably handle thousands of monthly visitors; the catch is always the caps — credits on Netlify, bandwidth on Vercel, sleep on Render.
Cloudflare, Netlify, and Vercel don't require one to start free. Railway and Render ask only when you upgrade or exceed free allowances — check the current signup flow, as this changes.
Bandwidth/credit caps on Netlify and Vercel, idling on Render's free tier, and metered usage on Railway once you add a database. Set spend limits wherever the platform offers them.
When free caps start costing you iteration speed or users — or when the project makes its first dollar. $5–20/mo buys a meaningfully calmer life.