The Problem
My DevOps pipeline was costing $50/month:
- GitHub Actions: $10
- Vercel Pro: $20
- Monitoring: $20
The Solution
I replaced everything with free alternatives:
CI/CD: GitHub Actions (Free)
- 2,000 minutes/month for free accounts
- Unlimited for public repositories
- docs.github.com/actions
Hosting: Vercel Free
- Unlimited static sites
- 100GB bandwidth
- vercel.com
Monitoring: Uptime Robot
- 50 monitors
- 5-minute intervals
- uptimerobot.com
Database: Supabase Free
- 500MB storage
- 50K MAU authentication
- supabase.com
AI Coding: MonkeyCode Free
- Multiple AI models
- Self-hosted option
- monkeycode-ai.net
The Results
| Metric | Before | After | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Cost | $50 | $0 | $50 |
| Annual Cost | $600 | $0 | $600 |
The Pipeline
# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
name: Deploy
on:
push:
branches: [main]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- run: npm install
- run: npm run build
- uses: amondnet/vercel-action@v20
with:
vercel-token: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
vercel-org-id: ${{ secrets.ORG_ID }}
vercel-project-id: ${{ secrets.PROJECT_ID }}
Key Takeaways
- Free tiers are generous — Most services offer enough for small projects
- Combine services — Use multiple free tiers together
- Monitor usage — Stay within free limits
- Upgrade when needed — Only pay when you outgrow free tier
What's Your DevOps Setup?
Share your free DevOps pipeline in the comments! 👇
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