VPS & Cloud Servers: Free Tiers & Pricing Compared (2026)
| Service | Free tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hetzner Cloud Hetzner | No | EU/US/Singapore regions, great value; strict signup verification |
| DigitalOcean Droplets DigitalOcean | No | New users often get 60-day credit (verify) |
| Vultr Vultr | Unverified | Has a free-tier plan (waitlist; verify) |
| Akamai Linode Akamai | No | New-user credit (verify) |
| Oracle Cloud Free Tier Oracle | Yes | Always Free: Ampere A1 ARM 4 OCPU/24 GB; capacity hard to get, idle accounts may be reclaimed |
| RackNerd RackNerd | No | Cheap annual promo VPS (mostly promo pages) |
| Amazon Lightsail AWS | Yes | Some bundles free for the first 3 months |
| AWS Free Tier AWS | Yes | New-user credits + some always-free services (policy changed in 2025) |
| Google Cloud Free Tier | Yes | $300 trial + always-free e2-micro (select US regions) |
| Azure Free Account Microsoft | Yes | New-user credit + 12 months of selected free services |
| Contabo Contabo | No | Cheap high-RAM VPS |
| BandwagonHost (搬瓦工) IT7 Networks | No | China-optimized routes (CN2 GIA), popular with Chinese devs |
| Tencent Cloud Lighthouse (Intl) Tencent Cloud | No | Tencent Cloud Lighthouse international; cheap overseas regions |