Given the recent news about Heroku bringing an end to free dynos and PostgreSQL databases, what other free platforms can I use to host Django (Python) powered web applications for free.
Given the recent news about Heroku bringing an end to free dynos and PostgreSQL databases, what other free platforms can I use to host Django (Python) powered web applications for free.
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Services which come closest to Heroku's convenience with free tiers are Fly and Render. Render seems to offer Postgres on a free plan. Another option is Railway which AFAICT doesn't have a free tier, but basic usage is quite cheap.
Check out this list for more services with free tiers (not just PaaS like Heroku): github.com/ripienaar/free-for-dev
Bear in mind that free databases on Render are deleted after 90 days. That's not 90 days of inactivity, just 90 days after creation. They say it's a temporary measure and the are going to change it in the future (which I hope for), but for now it's not really a viable alternative for Heroku.
Good point! So it may be better to look at external DBaaS providers. For Postgres/relational databases there's aforementioned CockroachDB, and some others like PlanetScale, ElephantSQL, and YugabyteDB (Managed).
Supabase is vanilla postgres and very generous free tier
Thanks for the tip. I didn't consider Supabase for their managed database but I will check it out.
I don't consider Supabase as a Heroku-equivalent replacement, since it supports only short-lived database / edge functions and triggers. Heroku and the likes can run a “traditional”, persistent application server.
Damn, thanks for the tip! 👌🏻
AFAICT = As far as I can tell
Because it took me longer that it should have to figure that out.
good tips
can confirm Supabase is incredible.
It ticks all the boxes
There is also a python client library for use with Django (or you can connect to it the same way you would any other PostgreSQL db since it's just vanilla pg under the hood)
Thank you for letting me know this.
You could try Vercel.com. It supports Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby. And you can add your own preferred language if you want. It is very similar to Heroku. You could follow the link below to setup and deploy Django to Vercel.
devmaesters.com/blog/15
Vercel is very solid
I've been working on my own cloud platform since 2 years ago because none cloud services (even heroku) is good enough to me. It has a free option (1GB storage) for everybody and it support Django and/or other languages.
signed up, but there is an error setting up ssl
also can you update rust or allow access to rustup?
thanks
That SSL error means the static files path aren't adjusted properly in NginX. I should write docs for that. Fire up an email if you need help to solve that.
Rust can be installed with SSH/without sudo: webinstall.dev/rustlang/
ah ok, thanks!
and nope, had already tried that, but rust is already installed, and rustup isn't available.
Supabase is indeed a fantastic choice! It provides a simple interface for working with Postgres database, and the free tier makes it an accessible option for developers of all skill levels ⚡️
Agree! Supabase is 🔥
Supabase ftw
⚡️⚡️⚡️
Sounds interesting. I would look into it. Thanks a lot.
By browsing this GitHub repository github.com/ripienaar/free-for-dev, I found out that this web hosting Deta offers free hosting service and unlimited applications & database. However, at the present time, it supports only Node.js and Python with micro-frameworks such as Express, Bottle.py, Flask, FastAPI etc. I did not try it yet. It is people from Germany who are building this Deta platform.
Deta is nice, but you need to specifically design your app around their platform, like their serverless containers (Micros) and NoSQL database (Base). So Django and Postgres from the original question are nonstarters.
I just want to give some clue for people who want a free alternative to Heroku, not just to host Django and Postgres.
Talking about Deta Micros, it just two lines of code, that is it.
The rest is the regular Python language and framework.
For Deta NoSQL database, there are only 6 methods to interact with the database.
Data entry in Deta Base is JavaScript object called "document" like in many other NoSQL databases.
Hey, David.
Specifically for Django, check out appliku.com/.
Builds are super fast for Django.
PostgreSQL, Redis.
A whole year of free hosting with AWS Free tier. As far as I know, GCP also offers a free tier.
It works with any cloud provider, so you can pick Hetzner later and save an insane amount of money compared to AWS, DO, and others.
I started working on Appliku 3 years ago and posted the story here dev.to/kostjapalovic/tired-of-depl....
Thank you. I would look into it.
The question that you should not overlook:
I think the problem is the business model free and "Pedos, Crypto and Nazis"
That sucks especially for students who owed heroku to have a simple way to show their work to the world
I understand the rush to ask this question, but this ignores the structural issue which is the dark side of the internet:
Pedos, Crypto and Nazis
Every free tier offering, every free CI service, every free cloud service, every free storage situation, ... is being targeted by people highly motivated to let the free tier offering do their super illegal things, super morally répréhensible things and super wasteful "proof of work" "get rich quick" bitcoin shit.
So your alternative which is free today might well take the same decision tomorrow.
The other important question is "how do people offering free stuff make money in the long run?".
There is no way around this question and it's especially difficult if you also have to waste a lot of resources fighting pedos, crypto and Nazis.
You have a real point here. Fighting illegal content is a problem.
At Qoddi we solved it by a strict scoring using anti-fraud API + by requesting a credit card on file to use our free tier along with automated and human moderation.
It's not perfect but we think free tier are very important for two types of people:
1/ future paying users that want to try Qoddi before using paid ressources,
2/ Students and people that wants to learn code and don't want to pay for non-production apps.
I think being able to provide a free tier for those two types of users is very important.
It costs money sure, but we provide ressources that are in line with those two usages: limited amount of RAM, shared CPU and no custom domains. If you need more you probably have a production app and our first size costs only $6 a month.
Offering a free tier is cheaper than spending a lot on Google Adwords for users that will not be able to test our service before moving prodution ressources to us, in my opinion it's worth it and we don't have any plan to suspend or remove our free plan in the future.
Alex.
You could use Netlify which will create a static site?
answers.netlify.com/t/can-i-deploy...
If you're looking to host python apps quick and easy, I'd suggest replit.com for that. If you would like a more secure and powerful environment in terms of uptime, I'd suggest qovery.com for putting your app on AWS and hosting it in the cloud
Thanks for the shout-out @allobrox !
For those asking - yes Supabase is just Postgres, and you can connect directly using the pg connection string, so it works perfectly with all of your existing postgres tools and ORMs
Just wanted to share my django migration experience from Heroku to qoddi.com and Fly.io free tiers. They both need a credit card but free tier can be used for small applications.
qoddi.com
Probably the easiest way to migrate a django project from heroku:
Good
Less good
Fly.io
More complicated to setup, lacking doc/tutorials as compared with Heroku. But has all the features that I used with Heroku free tier with ssl as a bonus.
Good
Less good
My app is now on fly.io and I am quite happy
+1 for Supabase
For a database, Supabase is a great alternative with a generous free tier, it has a 7 day suspension in case of inactivity (the project can be re-enabled manually in their dashboard). For other backend services I don't really know anything.
How to Set Up Your Own Heroku-like Cloud (PAAS) in 10 Minutes
When building new projects, it’s usually annoying to repeatedly set up stuff like web servers, databases, etc. It’s often expensive or tedious to set up and manage. That’s where open-source PAASs came in. They are free and often have an easy to use app/database deployment & web server manager.
paulonteri.com/thoughts/how-to/set...
My team and I were in search of an answer for this question few months back. Being a startup, most options available out there were either too simple (not scalable) or too complicated (requires a dedicated DevOps engineer). Our search ended up in the creation of Patr.
What Patr has achieved is simplicity and scalability at an affordable price. In your case, It would hardly take you a minute to deploy your Django application on Patr. The free plan offers a multitidue of benefits ranging from free databases, static sites, deployments to RBAC and DDOS Protection. We are also working on including Buildpacks in our In-house CI.
That being said, we are still at beta and are open to feedbacks and feature suggestions.
I'm actually working on a new project that's mostly desgin to support scaling products on more traditional cloud vendors. If that's the case you can check Nopeus
I'm also planning on releasing Nopeus Cloud as a vendor with a free tier soon. I would love to learn more if you have specific requirements.
railway can free for 500 hours
I think use digitalocean is also a nice option for pay service.
If not I think use serverless, like aws lambda, digitalocean functions, google cloud functions or azure functions..these can reduce cost
HarperDB has a free tier available which allows you to store data, host custom Fastify-powered controllers (Custom Functions) and even host static HTML like a bundled web app. It's pretty great for full-stack projects as it can handle everything and really simplifies the project. You can also use it locally but the Cloud Instances they offer work well.
I've been using the free tier for a few months now and I don't have any complaints.
If you are looking to move out of Heroku for AWS - then Qovery is the best option out there with more than 200 hundreds companies that have moved out of Heroku for AWS with Qovery.
ps: I am co-founder of Qovery.
No one has mentioned convox.com
PaaS that automates your K8s based deployments with zero downtime, and stays free forever (for up to 2 workflows).
Only upgrade to a paid plan (predictable cost unlike Heroku) once you gain confidence in the system
When it comes to databases I'd like to point out that serverless becomes a thing. There is a serverless MongoDB (they also have a free tier) and a serverless Aurora DB (from AWS) which costs $0.22 per 1 million requests. It is not free, so it might not be what you are looking for but it's the next best thing. Hope this helps
The free-tier alternative to Heroku that I am using is Back4app Containers. I started using this platform when Heroku ended its free service and never looked back. It is not only about the free plan but running Docker files, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Node.js support also makes it a perfect PaaS solution for users.
Smooth UI and integration with GitHub repositories also make it a top-notch platform to run, deploy and host containerized applications. New developers can also utilize this CSP without having any particular skills.
Koyeb is an alternative to Heroku for deploying Django web apps. You can deploy and 2 services with the monthly free credit.
You can sign up and start getting started here: app.koyeb.com/
If you are looking for an alternative to Heroku Enterprise; then checkout Qovery which provides the Heroku-like experience on top of AWS.
Disclaimer: I am one of the Qovery co-founders.
I like Digital Ocean App Platform. The other day I found Hostman but have not tried yet.
Switch to oracle "forever free" tier
oracle.com/in/cloud/free/#always-free
medium.com/geekculture/how-to-crea...
Google Cloud free tier
I use Coolify, Is a really cool and simple self hosted solution, I even use it with my college students.
You could try Cyclic. What Vercel is to Next.js is what Cyclic is to Node.js. Just connect you github repo and press Deploy.
thanks for share with us :)
I am sure that Azure and AWS offers a free plan too
use Vercel.
I recommend replit.com as it’s an IDE as well as somewhere where you can host websites for free.
qoddi.com is compatible with most of heroku buildpacks and our free tier includes 3 apps.
you can use alwaysdata
deta.sh/
cyclic.sh - its like vercel but for backend
I can t believe no1 mentioned glitch.com/ .
Amazing service from them (and I don t get paid to say this :D)
This also might be of use to you.
render.com/blog/migrate-django-fro...
I’ve done some research to find alternatives to heroku, and created an article based on that. If anyone interested: dmnk.hashnode.dev/free-heroku-alte...
Serverless can help you utilize a free AWS tier significantly easier than using AWS directly.
Have a look at pythonanywhere.com/pricing/
deta.sh/
why you can try deta.sh/
Kinsta is also a Heroku alternative, not free as the ones mentioned in the list but it comes with $20 free credit you can use to test the service.
Dokku running on a VM from any cloud
deta.sh
qoddi.com is compatible with most of Heroku's buildpacks, we have databases and Django in our free tier, our apps never sleeps are not deleted. Let me know if you need help!
You could try Dokku. An open source PAAS alternative to Heroku. Link: dokku.com/
pythonanywhere is great and offers Django hosting app implemented (Flask as well).
if you are looking for self hosted PaaS, tsuru is a good open source alternative to heroku tsuru.io
This service is also very nice! i don't know if they're still having free trials but for big application is cheaper than Heroku!
doprax.com/