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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Netlify Has a Free Tier — 100GB Bandwidth, Serverless Functions, and Instant Deploys

#netlify #webdev #jamstack #free

A freelancer I know had a problem: their client wanted a marketing site with a contact form, but the budget was zero for hosting. Not "low budget" — actually zero.

Netlify solved it. The site's been running for three years on the free tier. Contact form submissions go to Netlify Forms. Deploys happen on git push. The client has no idea they're paying nothing.

What You Get Free

No credit card. Generous limits that handle real traffic:

  • 100GB bandwidth/month — handles ~50K-100K page views depending on page size
  • 300 build minutes/month — ~30-60 deploys of a typical site
  • 125K serverless function invocations/month — API routes without a server
  • 100 form submissions/month — Netlify Forms, no backend needed
  • Instant rollbacks — one click to any previous deploy
  • Deploy previews — every PR gets its own URL
  • Custom domains — unlimited, with automatic HTTPS
  • Split testing — A/B test different branches
  • CDN — global edge network, no config

Quick Start 

# Install Netlify CLI
npm install -g netlify-cli

# Login
netlify login

# From your project directory
netlify init

# Deploy (or just push to GitHub)
netlify deploy --prod
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Or: connect GitHub repo on netlify.com → auto-deploys on every push. Zero config for most frameworks.

Real Example: React App + Serverless API 

// netlify/functions/hello.js
export default async (req, context) => {
  const name = new URL(req.url).searchParams.get('name') || 'World';
  return new Response(JSON.stringify({
    message: `Hello, ${name}!`,
    timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
  }), {
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
  });
};
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Deploy a React app with netlify.toml:

[build]
  command = "npm run build"
  publish = "build"

[functions]
  directory = "netlify/functions"

[[redirects]]
  from = "/api/*"
  to = "/.netlify/functions/:splat"
  status = 200
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Push to GitHub → live at your-site.netlify.app/api/hello?name=Dev in 60 seconds.

What You Can Build

1. JAMstack site — static HTML/React/Vue/Svelte with serverless functions for dynamic parts.

2. Portfolio with contact form — Netlify Forms handles submissions. No backend, no email service setup.

3. Documentation site — Docusaurus, MkDocs, VitePress. Auto-deploys from GitHub, global CDN.

4. Marketing landing pages — A/B test different versions with split testing. Free.

5. Webhook-triggered builds — rebuild your static site when CMS content changes. Headless CMS → Netlify webhook → fresh deploy.

Free Tier Limits

100GB bandwidth. Generous for most sites. Heavy image sites or viral traffic will hit this.

300 build minutes. ~5-10 minutes per build is typical. If you deploy 30+ times/month on a slow-building framework, watch this limit.

125K function invocations. Fine for contact forms, auth, light API work. Not for high-traffic APIs.

No background functions on free tier. Functions must respond in 10 seconds. Long-running tasks need a different approach.

1 concurrent build. Free tier builds are queued. Team pushing frequently will wait.

Why Netlify Wins for Static + Serverless

Vercel is excellent for Next.js. Cloudflare Pages is fastest. But Netlify's combination of forms, functions, split testing, and deploy previews on the free tier is unmatched.

If your app is "static site + a few API endpoints" — which covers most marketing sites, portfolios, docs, and landing pages — Netlify's free tier is the best deal in hosting.

Need custom web automation? Email spinov001@gmail.com

More free tiers: 39+ Free APIs Every Developer Should Bookmark

Also in this series: Fly.io Free Tier | Railway Free Tier | Render Free Tier

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