Free Cloud Hosting 2026: 14 Platforms Compared, 8 Need No Card

Last verified: 26 September 2026. Every number below was checked against the vendor's own pricing or docs page on that date. Three of the platforms in this list changed their free tier between February and June 2026, so older comparisons (including the March version of this page) are wrong in places.

Free cloud hosting still exists in 2026, but it comes in three different shapes, and most lists of free deployment platforms mix them up. Here is the two-minute answer.

• Static site or portfolio: GitHub Pages or Cloudflare. Free, no credit card.
• Frontend app: Vercel (non-commercial use only) or Netlify (now 300 credits a month).
• Backend, API or Docker container, no credit card: SnapDeploy, Render, or Railway's Free plan. All three sleep or cap hours.
• Backend with a card on file: Google Cloud Run or Azure Container Apps. Same allowance, real usage limits.
• Free cloud server (a VM you manage): Oracle Cloud, now 2 Arm cores and 12 GB, card required.
• Not free any more: Heroku, Fly.io, Glitch. Koyeb now asks for a card.

What changed since March 2026

• Koyeb removed its card-free Hobby plan in February 2026; a valid card with a $29 pre-authorisation hold is now required, and sign-up defaults to the $29/month Pro plan.
• Render replaced its plans on 23 April 2026: the free Hobby workspace now includes 5 GB of bandwidth a month instead of 100 GB. Free web services (750 hours) are unchanged.
• Oracle Cloud cut the Always Free Arm allowance from 4 OCPUs / 24 GB to 2 OCPUs / 12 GB in June 2026, without an announcement; idle instances can be reclaimed.
• Netlify moved all new accounts to credit-based plans on 4 September 2025: 300 credits a month, roughly 15 GB of bandwidth, and projects pause when credits run out.
• Railway brought back a permanent Free plan on 27 August 2025: a 30-day trial with $5, then $1 of credit every month.
• Vercel Hobby now keeps only the three most recent production deployments per project (16 September 2026).
• Hugging Face Docker and Gradio Spaces need a paid plan since July 2026.

Master Comparison Table (verified 26 Sep 2026)

Free Cloud Hosting, a Free Cloud Server, or a Free Deployment Platform?

People search for "free cloud hosting" and mean three different things. Knowing which one you need saves an afternoon.

Free cloud hosting for files and static sites. GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Netlify and Vercel serve HTML, JavaScript and images from a CDN. No server runs for you. This is the only category where "free" has almost no catch.

A free cloud server. A virtual machine you log into and manage yourself. Oracle Cloud's Always Free tier is the only permanent one left with real resources, and it needs a credit card. The big cloud providers' free cloud computing services (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) are allowances on specific services, not a free VM you keep forever.

A free deployment platform (PaaS). Also called a cloud deployment platform: you push code or a Docker image and the platform builds, runs and gives you a URL. SnapDeploy, Render, Railway and Back4App are the free PaaS and container hosting platform options that do not ask for a credit card. Cloud Run and Azure Container Apps do the same job but require a card. This is the category the rest of this page ranks.

What "Free" Actually Means in 2026

Tier 1: Free for static sites, with limits worth reading — GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Netlify and Vercel host static sites and frontends without asking for a credit card. The catches are new: GitHub Pages is only free in public repositories and forbids running a business on it; Netlify's Free plan is 300 credits a month and pauses your sites at zero; Vercel's Hobby plan is for non-commercial use only, and ads count as commercial.

Tier 2: Free containers with real limits — SnapDeploy, Render, Railway's Free plan and Back4App run a backend or Docker container with no credit card. Each one sleeps, caps hours, or caps resources; none of them is a production host for free.

Tier 3: Free only with a card on file — the free-tier cloud options from Google Cloud Run, Azure Container Apps, AWS Lambda and Oracle Cloud, plus Koyeb since February 2026. These free cloud services are real allowances, but you need a valid payment method and you are one misconfiguration away from a bill.

Tier 4: No longer free — Heroku (28 November 2022), Fly.io (allowances removed 7 October 2024; the trial is 2 machine-hours or 7 days), Glitch (hosting shut down 8 July 2025), Cyclic (2024) and Deta Space (2024). Hugging Face Docker Spaces joined this list in July 2026.

Category 1: Static Site Hosting

If your project is a static site, documentation page, portfolio, or frontend application, these are the best free cloud deployment options available.

GitHub Pages

Free for public repositories on GitHub Free: 1 GB site size, a soft limit of 100 GB bandwidth a month and 10 builds an hour, Jekyll built in or GitHub Actions for any generator, free custom domains with HTTPS. GitHub's docs say it is "not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web-hosting service to run your online business". Best for documentation and portfolios.

Netlify

Accounts created since 4 September 2025 are credit-based: the Free plan gives 300 credits a month with a hard limit. Bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB (so about 15 GB if you spend everything on bandwidth), each production deploy costs 15 credits, and all projects pause with a "Site not available" page when credits run out. Serverless functions, deploy previews and custom domains with SSL are included. The old "100 GB, 300 build minutes" numbers only apply to accounts created before that date.

Vercel

The Hobby plan includes 100 GB of fast data transfer, 1 million function invocations, 4 CPU-hours of active compute and 360 GB-hours of memory a month (Fluid compute is the default since April 2025), 200 projects, 100 deployments a day and 50 domains per project. It is restricted to non-commercial personal use; adding ads or getting paid to build the site requires Pro. The obvious choice for Next.js.

Cloudflare Pages and Workers

Requests to static assets are free and unlimited, 500 builds a month, 100 custom domains per project, and the Workers free plan adds 100,000 requests a day plus a D1 database with 5 GB of storage. Cloudflare now says to start new projects with Workers (static assets included) rather than Pages; Pages still works and still accepts new projects.

Category 2: Container and PaaS Platforms

When your project needs a backend — database connections, server-side processing, WebSockets, or Docker containers — these platforms offer free tiers for deploying applications.

SnapDeploy

SnapDeploy deploys a GitHub repository (with or without a Dockerfile) or a public Docker image onto AWS Fargate. Free tier: up to 4 containers, 100 running hours a month, 10 deploys a day (5 per rolling 12 hours), 512 MB / 0.25 vCPU per container, no credit card. Containers sleep after 15 minutes without traffic and wake in about 60 seconds when someone opens them in a browser. Custom domains, WebSockets and 24/7 uptime need Always-On, from $12 a month per container. Managed databases are paid add-ons with a $1, 12-hour trial.

Render

750 free instance hours per workspace a month, 512 MB RAM and 0.1 CPU per web service, no credit card needed. A free service spins down after 15 minutes without traffic and takes about a minute to come back. Since the April 2026 plan change the free Hobby workspace includes 5 GB of bandwidth a month, 500 build minutes and 2 custom domains. The free Postgres database has 1 GB of storage and expires 30 days after creation. Dockerfile builds and WebSockets work on the free tier; free services cannot send outbound SMTP.

Railway

New accounts get a 30-day trial with $5 of usage, no card required. After that the account drops to the Free plan, reinstated on 27 August 2025: $1 of non-rollover credit a month, 1 project, 3 services, up to 1 vCPU and 0.5 GB RAM per service, 0.5 GB of volume storage and no custom domain. Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB and Redis templates are billed from the same credit. Services do not sleep unless you turn the Serverless option on. Hobby is $5 a month with $5 of usage included.

Back4App Containers

A free container with 256 MB RAM, 0.25 shared CPU and 100 GB of transfer, no card required. Back4App's official template notes say a free container runs for 60 minutes per deploy, so treat it as a demo host. The separate Backend-as-a-Service free tier gives a Parse database with 25,000 requests and 250 MB.

Koyeb

One free web service with 512 MB RAM, 0.1 vCPU and 2 GB of SSD, in Frankfurt or Washington only, plus a free Postgres database limited to 5 compute-hours a month. Since February 2026 an account needs a valid card (verified with a $29 pre-authorisation hold that is cancelled immediately) and sign-up defaults to the $29 a month Pro plan, which you can downgrade. The free instance scales to zero after an hour without traffic and wakes in 1 to 5 seconds.

Category 3: Cloud Provider Free Tiers

Google Cloud Run

Request-based services get 180,000 vCPU-seconds, 360,000 GiB-seconds and 2 million requests a month free, aggregated per billing account; instance-based services get 240,000 vCPU-seconds and 450,000 GiB-seconds instead. Deploys any Linux container image, or builds from source without a Dockerfile. A billing account with a card or other payment method is required. Google publishes no cold-start figure for ordinary containers, so we do not either.

AWS Lambda

1 million requests and 400,000 GB-seconds a month, always free. Container images up to 10 GB are supported, but they must implement the Lambda runtime API and live in Amazon ECR, so this is a function model, not a container host. Accounts created after 15 July 2025 choose a Free plan ($100 in credits, closed after six months or when the credits are gone) or a Paid plan; the Lambda allowance applies to both. A payment method is required.

Azure Container Apps

180,000 vCPU-seconds, 360,000 GiB-seconds and 2 million requests per subscription per month on the Consumption plan. An Azure account needs a phone number and a credit or non-prepaid debit card. Pick this over Cloud Run only if your team already lives in Azure.

Oracle Cloud Free Tier

Always Free now means 2 Arm OCPUs and 12 GB of RAM in total (one or two VM.Standard.A1 instances), plus up to two AMD micro VMs and 200 GB of block storage. The 4-OCPU / 24 GB allowance ended on 15 June 2026. Oracle reclaims instances that stay under 20 percent CPU, network and memory for seven days, and "out of host capacity" errors are common in popular regions. A card is required at sign-up. You are your own sysadmin: Docker, SSL, updates and monitoring are on you.

Category 4: Self-Hosted Platforms

Coolify

Open-source (Apache 2.0) and free to self-host on any VPS; the hosted Coolify Cloud costs $5 a month for two servers plus $3 per extra server. Docker and Docker Compose, automatic SSL, databases and backups. Turns a $5 to $10 VPS into a full deployment platform.

CapRover and Dokku

CapRover (Docker Swarm, one-click app templates, still actively released) and Dokku (MIT-licensed Heroku-style buildpacks on one server; Dokku Pro is a one-time $849) are both free software. Same trade as Coolify: a few dollars a month for a VPS and you do the operations.

Decision Framework: Which Free Platform Should You Use?

Static Site or Documentation

GitHub Pages for a public project, Cloudflare for anything that may get a traffic spike. Both are free with no payment method.

Frontend Application (React, Vue, Next.js)

Vercel for Next.js, as long as the site is non-commercial. Netlify if you can live inside 300 credits a month. Cloudflare Workers with static assets if you want no ceiling on requests.

Container Deployment or Backend Service, No Credit Card

SnapDeploy for a Dockerfile or GitHub repo that can sleep between visits; Render if you need 750 hours and a 30-day Postgres to prototype with; Railway's Free plan if $1 of credit a month covers a tiny always-on service.

Full-Stack Application With Database

Railway's trial for a short project, Render for a 30-day prototype, or self-host Coolify on a $5 VPS for anything that must live longer than a month. No platform on this list gives a free database that lasts.

Full Control and Maximum Resources

Oracle's two free Arm cores are still the most raw compute on the list, if you accept the card, the reclamation policy and the sysadmin work. Otherwise Coolify or CapRover on a VPS.

The Honest Truth About Free Cloud Deployment in 2026

The free tiers are shrinking, and the shrinkage now comes with card walls: Koyeb in February, Render's bandwidth in April, Oracle in June, Hugging Face in July. For static sites and frontends, free hosting is still abundant. For backends and containers, "free" means "sleeps, capped, or needs a card", and the honest way to use it is for demos, prototypes and side projects with real users only once the app pays for its own uptime.

Match your needs to the category and read the limits before you deploy. If you are looking for a Heroku alternative or want to stop paying for idle containers, the table above is the starting point. We re-check every row every 60 days; the date at the top tells you when it was last done.

Frequently Asked Questions About Free Cloud Deployment

Is there any truly free cloud hosting in 2026?

Yes. The best free cloud hosting for a static site is GitHub Pages (public repositories), Cloudflare Pages, Netlify's 300-credit Free plan and Vercel's non-commercial Hobby plan cost nothing and ask for no credit card. For a backend or container, the free options are real but limited: SnapDeploy gives 100 running hours a month, Render 750 hours, Railway $1 of credit a month. None of them is meant to run a production app for free.

Which cloud provider has the best free tier?

It depends on what you run. For raw compute, Oracle Cloud's Always Free tier (2 Arm OCPUs, 12 GB RAM, credit card required) is still the largest. For serverless containers, Google Cloud Run and Azure Container Apps offer the same 180,000 vCPU-seconds, 360,000 GiB-seconds and 2 million requests a month, both with a card on file. For functions, AWS Lambda's 1 million requests a month is always free. If you do not want to give a card at all, the answer is Render, SnapDeploy or Railway rather than a cloud provider.

What is the best free deployment platform for a Docker container or backend API?

For a repository with a Dockerfile, SnapDeploy (100 hours a month, 4 containers, sleeps after 15 minutes idle, wakes in about a minute) and Render (750 hours a month, spins down after 15 minutes, about a minute to wake) are the two no-card choices with a real container runtime; either one works as a free deployment server for an API. Railway's Free plan works for a very small always-on service inside $1 of monthly credit. Koyeb still has a free instance but requires a card since February 2026.

Can I deploy to the cloud for free without a credit card?

Yes. GitHub Pages, Cloudflare, Netlify, Vercel, SnapDeploy, Render, Railway (trial and Free plan) and Back4App all create an account without a payment method. Google Cloud, AWS, Azure, Oracle and Koyeb require a card at sign-up; Fly.io lets you try for 2 machine-hours or 7 days, then needs a card to keep anything running.

Is there a free cloud server I can keep forever?

Only Oracle Cloud's Always Free VMs: up to two Arm instances sharing 2 OCPUs and 12 GB, plus two AMD micro instances, with 200 GB of block storage. You need a credit card, capacity in popular regions is often unavailable, and Oracle reclaims instances that sit under 20 percent utilisation for seven days. AWS accounts created after 15 July 2025 get credits for six months instead of a 12-month free VM.

Which free PaaS options are left now that Heroku has no free tier?

SnapDeploy, Render, Railway's Free plan and Back4App on the hosted side. If you want the Heroku workflow on your own $5 VPS, Dokku and Coolify are free software and give you buildpacks or Docker deploys without hour limits.

Do free tiers sleep, expire or get deleted?

Most do, in different ways. SnapDeploy and Render put idle services to sleep after 15 minutes and wake them when a visitor opens them. Render's free Postgres expires 30 days after creation. Railway's trial lasts 30 days, then $1 of credit a month. Back4App's free container runs for 60 minutes per deploy. Koyeb scales to zero after an hour. Netlify pauses every site when the month's credits are used. Oracle reclaims idle VMs. Read the sleep column in the table before you rely on any of them.

Is there free cloud hosting for startups and student projects?

A student project, portfolio or demo fits the free tiers well: GitHub Pages for the site, SnapDeploy or Render for the API. A startup with real users should not run on a free tier at all; the first paid step is cheap. Railway Hobby is $5 a month, Render Starter $7, SnapDeploy Always-On $12 per container, and a Coolify VPS about $5. That is less than the time you lose to cold starts and expiring databases.

Sources (accessed 26 September 2026)

• GitHub Pages limits
• Netlify credit-based pricing plans
• Vercel Hobby plan and fair-use guidelines
• Cloudflare Pages limits and Workers limits
• Render free instances and April 2026 plan change
• Railway free trial and Free plan
• Koyeb pricing FAQ and instances
• Back4App Containers pricing
• Cloud Run pricing, Lambda pricing, Azure Container Apps pricing
• Oracle Always Free resources
• Coolify pricing, Dokku Pro
• SnapDeploy pricing

Related reading: GitHub to production in minutes, standardizing IT deployments across teams, and GitHub-driven deployment for SMEs.