A virtual private server costs only a few dollars a month, but for a side project, a student app, or a prototype, even that can feel like too much, especially when ten small projects multiply the bill. Free hosting tiers solve this, but they differ wildly in what free actually means: some give you a real always-on server, others give you a container that sleeps, and some give you credits that quietly expire.

This guide compares three realistic free options for small projects and names the trap in each, so you can choose by how your project actually behaves rather than by a marketing page.