Don't pay for servers for your MVP: 3 free platforms (Frontend, Backend, and DB)

#webdev #automation #cloud #serverless

Hey dev! If you are thinking about validating a business idea, launching a side project, or building your first MVP, you don't need to spend a single dollar on initial infrastructure.

Today, I want to share 3 free platforms that allow you to deploy all the essentials of a project (frontend, backend, and database) at zero cost.

1. Supabase (Database)

A serverless cloud service well-known in the community, as its core services include automatic RESTful API configuration without needing a backend language, as well as handling essential logic like authentication, allowing you to focus entirely on your business logic.

While that service is extremely useful, I want to highlight the possibility of having a full PostgreSQL database, compatible with advanced extensions like embeddings or PostGIS.

Free tier capabilities:
- 512 MB of database storage (more than enough to validate an MVP).
- 2 GB of file storage (S3-compatible Storage).

2. Render (Backend)

A serverless cloud service that allows you to deploy multiple services such as your backend, static assets on a global CDN, and more. Personally, I love using their web service feature (the backend), as it is incredibly straightforward due to its seamless GitHub integration.

Support for the most common stacks: From Node or Python to Golang or Rust, and even Docker containers.
⚠️ Something to keep in mind: If your API doesn't receive traffic for a while, the next request will take a few seconds to respond due to an idling period when inactive.
💡 Solution: This is easily fixed by setting up an external cron job that sends a simple request to your endpoint to keep it awake.

3. Cloudflare Workers (Frontend)

This serverless cloud service lets you deploy your frontend easily by integrating your GitHub account, plus you get the robust, standard Cloudflare ecosystem.

Domain management, Web Application Firewall (WAF), global CDN, and DDoS protection.
Its free tier offers close to 1 TB of bandwidth.
⚠️ Something to keep in mind: It doesn't have the best compatibility out of the box with Next.js.
💡 My recommendation: Use Svelte along with the adapter-cloudflare library.

These are my recommendations if you want to deploy simple projects at a low cost, showcase an MVP, or validate an idea without fighting Linux server configurations or putting in your credit card from day one.

What tools do you use to deploy your projects for free?