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Best Free Hosting for Side Projects 2026: 12 Platforms With Generous Free Tiers
Your side project deserves to be live — not stuck on localhost. These 12 platforms let you deploy for $0 with genuinely useful free tiers. No credit card required for most. Here's what you actually get before paying a cent.
The Complete Free Hosting Landscape
| Platform | Best For | Free Tier Limits | Card Required? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Next.js, frontend, static | 100GB bandwidth, 6000 build min/mo | No |
| Cloudflare Pages | Static sites, JAMstack | Unlimited bandwidth, 500 builds/mo | No |
| Netlify | Static sites, forms | 100GB bandwidth, 300 build min/mo | No |
| GitHub Pages | Static sites, docs | 100GB bandwidth, 10 builds/hr | No |
| Render | Web services, APIs, DBs | 1 web service (512MB), 1 Postgres (1GB) | No |
| Railway | Full-stack apps, databases | $5 credit/month (~200 hrs) | No |
| Fly.io | Docker containers | 3 VMs (256MB each), 3GB storage | Yes |
| Koyeb | Docker, global edge | 1 web service (512MB), 2GB SSD | No |
| Supabase | Backend (DB + Auth + Storage) | 500MB database, 50K users, 1GB storage | No |
| Neon | Serverless Postgres | 0.5GB storage, 100 compute hrs | No |
| Turso | Edge SQLite database | 9GB storage, 1B row reads | No |
| Cloudflare Workers | Edge functions, APIs | 100K requests/day, 10ms CPU/req | No |
Recommended Stack Combinations
| Project Type | Free Stack |
|---|---|
| Static blog / portfolio | Cloudflare Pages (unlimited bandwidth) + GitHub (source) |
| Next.js full-stack app | Vercel (frontend) + Supabase (auth + DB) + Upstash (Redis) |
| API service | Cloudflare Workers (edge) or Render (longer timeout) |
| Docker-based app | Fly.io (3 free VMs) or Koyeb (no card needed) |
| Full backend + DB | Render (web service + Postgres) or Railway (app + DB) |
What to Watch Out For
- Cold starts on free tiers: Render and Koyeb put free services to sleep. First request takes 30-60 seconds. Use a cron job to keep them warm.
- Build minute limits: Vercel (6K min) and Netlify (300 min) have limits. A complex monorepo can burn through these fast.
- Database backups: Most free DB tiers don't include automated backups. Set up your own.
- Custom domain SSL: All these platforms support custom domains, but some require a paid plan for team features or analytics.
Bottom line: You can ship a production-quality side project for $0/month in 2026. Cloudflare Pages for static, Vercel for Next.js, Render for APIs, Supabase for backend, and Cloudflare Workers for edge functions. No credit card required for any of the above. See also: Hosting Comparison and SaaS Bootstrapping Guide.
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