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"Free tier" hides three different things: free and always-on, free but asleep, and free as a coupon with an expiry date. Here's the honest map. Full guide with tables: https://stacktested-nw.netlify.app/guide-hosting.html
The $0 column, honestly
- Cloudflare Pages/Workers: unlimited static bandwidth, 100k worker req/day. Catch: 10ms CPU per request, serverless only.
- Vercel Hobby: 100GB bandwidth, 1M function invocations. Catch: personal non-commercial use only. Charge money and you're on Pro at $20/user/mo.
- Netlify Free: 300 credits/mo, custom domains + SSL. Catch: a production deploy costs 15 credits; blow the limit and the whole account pauses.
- Render free: one 512MB web service, 750 hrs/mo. Catch: sleeps after 15 idle minutes, ~1 minute to wake. Demo yes, users no.
- Railway: $5 trial credit for 30 days. Catch: not a free tier, a coupon. Then $5/mo + usage.
- Fly.io: short trial, card required after. No free allowance for new users.
What a real side project costs per month
One small full-stack app + Postgres, low traffic, Sept 2026 prices:
- Cloudflare Workers + D1: $0-5
- Railway Hobby: ~$5-10
- Hetzner VPS + Docker (self-managed): ~$7 fixed
- Render Starter + managed Postgres: ~$13
- Vercel Pro + serverless DB: $20+
My picks
- Landing page this weekend: Cloudflare Pages. Free, fast, no sleep.
- Next.js app you'll iterate on: Vercel Hobby while it's personal. Budget the $20 Pro the day you charge money.
- App with users and a DB: Railway for git-push simplicity, Hetzner if you can run Docker and want the lowest fixed bill.
- Must never sleep: rule out everything that spins down. Pay the $5-7 or self-host.
What this is based on
Docs-based research from vendor docs and free-tier roundups, checked Sept-Oct 2026. Not hands-on uptime testing. Free tiers are the most volatile part of this industry; confirm before you build on one.
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