free tier cloud that's actually usable, not bait and switch
only services i've personally run something real on past the "you're approaching your limit" email. cut Fly.io off this list after they killed the free tier in 2024 and half the internet still recommends it like it's 2022
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1
100k requests/day free, forever, no card. D1 gives you 5gb sqlite on top of that. this is the one i'd point a beginner at first
2
quietly halved the ARM allowance this year (4 OCPU/24gb down to 2/12gb) but still the most real compute you'll get for $0
3
serverless postgres, branching is the actual feature. free tier storage is generous enough for a real side project db
4
sqlite at the edge. good enough rows/month that i haven't hit the wall on two different projects
5
spins down after 15 min idle, wake-up is slow enough to notice. fine for a demo link, not for a client call
7
postgres + auth + storage bundled. project pauses after a week of no traffic, just ping it
8
2000 free minutes/month on private repos, unlimited on public. easy to forget this counts as "free cloud compute" but it is
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