10 Best Completely FREE Cloud Hosting Services [2024]

Many companies claim to offer free cloud hosting, yet few offer anything worth using. What good is a “free” service when what you get is disappointingly unreliable and excruciatingly slow? The best free cloud hosting services actually let you try their platforms, without any trickery or false promises.

That’s why we tested the biggest free cloud platforms thoroughly, cutting them down to the top eight.

Keep in mind, though, that every free cloud hosting platform has limitations. You’ll likely be working with a tiny amount of resources, and you won’t get the possible customer support.

For serious projects, I’d recommend a paid option. It is possible to pay budget prices and still get the full power of the cloud. My top pick is Kamatera. Not only does it offer cloud hosting plans at incredible value for its price, Kamatera is also one of the most customizable cloud hosts out there.

You can get access to Kamatera’s high-quality cloud hosting now, or keep reading to discover which host is the best fit for both you and your budget.

What We Look For in the Best Free Cloud Hosting Services

To put together this list of the best free cloud hosting services, my team and I focused on the following features during our tests:

• Reliability and uptime. It’s easy to give away cloud hosting like candy, but it takes the best, most cutting-edge infrastructure to make it really shine. These companies provide reliable, redundant servers, which translates to high uptime and blazing-fast speeds.
• Multiple deployment locations. The best clouds aren’t made of a few servers located in Bangladesh, but of thousands of servers, located all over the globe, working together. Almost all services on this list provide multiple deployment options, ensuring that you’ll always have a nearby location promptly serving your visitors.
• Access to resources. As I said before, free cloud hosting does come with limitations. What differentiates these guys from the rest is that the free tiers come with enough resources to actually test the service.
• Scalability. With sub-par hosting, success is actually your biggest fear. It’s hardly scalable, so once you get some traffic, your website is going to grind to a halt. With the companies on this list, you always have room to grow.
• Developer friendly. To develop the best apps in the least amount of time, you need a service that makes things easier. All the services on this list are developer-oriented, but a couple really go the extra mile in streamlining the process.

1. Kamatera – 30-Day Free Trial to Build and Test a Custom Cloud Instance With Impressive Speed

Despite the lack of a “forever-free” plan, Kamatera offers very good overall value. For under $4.00 per month, Kamatera offers fully-customizable cloud instances with impressive performance.

Like many cloud hosts, Kamatera charges by the hour. This gives you full control over your server’s overall pricing – you can quickly scale your server up or down to meet your exact needs and budget. You can try this out for yourself with Kamatera’s free 30-day trial, which lets you build and scale a custom cloud instance (up to $100 in monthly value).

Additionally, our performance tests revealed loading times of a single second, along with perfect uptime. Kamatera may not be “forever-free,” but it’s more affordable than much of the competition while offering comparable performance.

Features

• Rapid setup. It takes less than a minute to set up a new cloud instance, allowing you to start development almost immediately.
• Optional preinstalled OS. To save some time, Kamatera’s cloud instances can come preinstalled with popular OSs. These include various Linux distributions and multiple versions of Windows Server. You can also request cPanel or Plesk to be preinstalled.
• Free static IP. Every server comes with a free public static IP, adding to the overall value.
• Cheap automatic backup solution. For a small added fee, your server’s storage will be automatically backed up every day. This is stored in an offsite storage array to further protect against data loss.

Check out our expert Kamatera review for more details.

2. HostArmada: Outstanding Shared Cloud Performance at Affordable Prices

HostArmada offers an incredible variety of cloud hosting plans, including shared cloud hosting, managed VPS, and a wide variety of cloud hosting plans optimized for platforms like WordPress, Magento, and Node.js. It’s also one of the most affordable cloud hosting providers by far, with plans starting at $2.99.

However, the main reason why it’s so high on this list is that HostArmada offers exceptionally good performance for shared hosting. Thanks to its state-of-the-art NGINX and LiteSpeed server software, HostArmada delivers outstanding loading speeds even on un-optimized websites.

Though it doesn’t offer a forever-free option, you do get a 45-day money-back guarantee with all HostArmada plans. This means you get plenty of time to test it out before deciding to commit.

Features

• Free website transfers. HostArmada offers one free website transfer with its starter shared cloud hosting plan, and that number increases depending on your plan of choice.
• Unlimited parked domains. HostArmada lets you associate unlimited domain names with your website on all shared cloud hosting plans.
• Unlimited MySQL databases. You get access to unlimited MySQL databases with all of HostArmada’s cloud plans. Though this might be a pretty standard feature for cloud VPSs, it’s one of the few hosts to offer it with shared plans.
• Limited daily backups. HostArmada provides 7 free daily backups with its starter shared cloud hosting plan. Once again, that number increases if you choose a higher-tier plan.

Read our expert HostArmada review for more details.

3. Cloudways – Put All Your Cloud Hosting Needs in One Place

Cloudways isn’t your typical cloud host. It stands out by offering managed cloud hosting for other cloud hosting platforms. Specifically, Cloudways offers managed DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud hosting services. You just install your content management system (CMS) and launch your project. Your setup and maintenance are taken care of.

This makes Cloudways a good choice for less-experienced cloud hosting users. Notice I didn’t say “beginner.” Despite being a managed service, you still have to know your way around a server (at least a little bit). However, Cloudways makes using your server as easy as possible.

Cloudways offers one-click installs, restores, and backups for WordPress, making it quick and simple to get your site up and running. There’s also a well-stocked knowledge base for when you need some help, as well as beginner-friendly support agents.

Features

• Serious security. Cloudways provides free SSL certificates, OS patches, two-factor authentication, auto-healing servers, a firewall, and more to keep your site and server secure.
• Free site migration. One free site migration is included in each plan, so you don’t have to learn the ins and outs of moving your site to a new server.
• CloudWaysBot. A personal smart hosting assistant that keeps you up-to-date on the status and health of your server via Slack, an API, or email.
• Payment options. You can choose from monthly payments (a bit of a rarity in the cloud hosting world) or paying by the hour.

Need more information on Cloudways cloud hosting? Check out our expert review.

4. Liquid Web: Possibly the Best Customer Service in Cloud Hosting

In our expert review of Liquid Web, the company scored one of the highest customer service and support scores we’ve awarded. We were particularly impressed with its fast, helpful live chat support and massive knowledge base. That makes it one of the best companies for customer support in the cloud hosting field.

That excellent service may stem from the fact that Liquid Web specializes in cloud and dedicated server hosting. Granted, Liquid Web isn’t the most budget-friendly host but what you’re really paying for is flexibility. You can do almost anything you want to with your server and if you mess up, that great support is there to bail you out.

Liquid Web expects its site owners to know enough to do some tasks independently. It’s not the hosting platform for beginners but for the DIY crowd – or at least the sort of DIY crowd. While not as customizable as Kamatera, Liquid Web does allow you some options. You can upgrade storage, bandwidth, and CPUs individually, as needed. The only time you need to upgrade is when you reach your RAM limits.

Features

• Choices. You can choose your server (Linux or Windows,) OS (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, or CloudLinux,) and your control panel (cPanel, Plesk, or InterWorx) giving you the freedom to work without a learning curve.
• Freebies. All plans include 100GB of free backups, as well as free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate, site migration, and root access.
• Automatic site monitoring. Should your site or server experience an issue, the Liquid Web team will get it up and running again without you ever having to do anything.
• Prorated refunds. Liquid Web will refund you the unused portion of your hosting plan should you choose to cancel. For instance, if you pay for a year and only stay 3 months, you’ll get back the remaining 9 months of fees.

To get all the details on Liquid Web, including that great customer support score, read our expert review.

5. ScalaHosting – Beginner-Friendly Cloud Hosting With an Anytime Money-Back Guarantee

ScalaHosting is a great option if you’re switching to dedicated cloud hosting for the first time. It’s easy to use, deploys almost immediately, and offers high-quality 24/7 customer support. In our in-depth testing of different hosting providers, ScalaHosting surprised us with its outstanding performance and 100% uptime.

All of ScalaHosting’s self-managed cloud plans include full-root access, so developers get complete control over their server’s configuration. If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of managing your own remote server, ScalaHosting also offers completely managed cloud VPS options at affordable monthly rates.

Though it doesn’t have a fully free plan, its Entry Cloud plan is one of the more affordable options on the market. Also, thanks to ScalaHosting’s anytime money-back guarantee, you’ll never have to pay for unused resources.

Features

• SPanel. ScalaHosting offers its proprietary version of cPanel – called SPanel – with all of its cloud hosting plans. SPanel offers all the functionality of cPanel, plus more that is unique to this platform.
• 10Gbps redundant network. ScalaHosting guarantees 100% uptime thanks to its 10Gbps redundant networks, which seamlessly redirect heavy traffic during surges.
• Free server backups. ScalaHosting provides free snapshot backups of your server with all of its self-managed cloud plans and daily offsite backups on all managed cloud plans.
• 1-click installer. Scala offers single-click installers for over 400 different apps and scripts to simplify the process of configuring your server.

Read our expert ScalaHosting review for more details.

6. Amazon Web Services (AWS) – Fast, Reliable, Secure, and Free to Try

Amazon’s cloud computing platform offers a wide array of services, from cloud instances and storage solutions to machine learning and quantum technologies. For web hosting, the best fit would be AWS’ EC2 service, which offers a huge list of cloud instances that are fast, reliable, and instantly scalable.

The best part? You can try a basic EC2 instance free for 12 months. This is because it’s part of the AWS free tier, which offers many cloud services without fees. Keep in mind there are some limitations – for example, you’re restricted to 750 computing hours per month with the free EC2 instance. But this is still plenty of time to get a lot of value out of AWS.

The t2.micro instance that comes with the free tier can run either Linux or Windows and is fit for low to moderate performance needs. This won’t be enough for a production-ready site, but you’ll be able to install and test WordPress, as well as advanced frameworks like Django and Node.js.

Features

• Burstable CPU performance. The free t2.micro instance offers 1 GB RAM and 1 vCPU. The CPU is burstable, meaning that in periods of low traffic, you’ll only have access to around 10% of the CPU. In periods of heavier traffic, it can burst to deliver the full performance of the CPU core.
• Complete control. EC2’s instances are completely customizable, which puts a lot of responsibility on you. The interface isn’t the prettiest, either, so prepare to work overtime to get everything perfectly configured.
• Free storage & database services. As part of the AWS free tier, you’ll also have access to 5 GB of object storage and 30 GB of block storage. You’ll also get 750 hours per month of a MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, or SQL database with 20GB SSD storage capacity.
• Easily scalable into high-performance machines. Once you have an account active with AWS, you can always add more computing instances. Just pick an instance size and location and deploy it within minutes.

Want to know more? Check out our Amazon Web Services review.

Other Notable Hosts for Cloud Hosting

7. Heroku – Streamlined Cloud Services for Developers At Low Prices

For the serious web developer, Heroku offers a playground for all your development needs. Using isolated Linux containers called Dynos, Heroku provides you with a fully managed runtime environment. Deploy your code from Docker or Git and Heroku does the rest, building and running your web app for you.

The one big drawback is that Heroku doesn’t offer free Dynos. Fortunately, the fees for the Basic Dyno are low. And since you pay as you go, a test run could theoretically only cost you a few cents.

8. Google Cloud – Get an “Always-Free” Cloud Instance on One of the Biggest Platforms

Google Cloud isn’t ideal for beginners. I also wouldn’t recommend it to site owners whose audience is primarily outside the US. That said, you can have the power and performance of Big G on your side with the always-free e-2 micro cloud instance. You’ll receive a total of 40GB of storage – 30GB SSD, 5GB of US-based cloud storage, and 5GB for the sole purpose of site snapshots.

Unfortunately, there are strings attached to this great free deal. You only get 1 GB of bandwidth and can only deploy the e-2 micro in a handful of US data centers. If that’s enough power and geographic reach for you, then Google Cloud is definitely worth considering.

9. Red Hat OpenShift – Powerful Cloud Instance Available Free for a Limited Time

Popular with student developers, Ret Hat’s value is a bit diminished now that it no longer offers an “always free” starter plan. However, you can get a 30-day free trial to play around with 4 vCPUs and 2 GB RAM. You’ll also be automatically enrolled in the Red Hat Developer Program. Members receive access to a library of development tutorials and beta Red Hat products.

The two big issues with Red Hat are that there is no uptime guarantee, and support is limited in both time and approachability. Still, the platform is a good option for quick development and can efficiently handle almost any test project or school app you can think of.

10. Microsoft Azure – Free Virtual Machines for 12 Months with Generous Resources

The good news is that you can get a lot of hosting power with Microsoft Azure’s free setups. You receive just 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM, but you can then attach a fully functional 32 GB MySQL database and two 64 GB SSDs to it. And it comes with 15 GB of data transfer, all for free. That should allow just about anyone to host whatever site you want.

The bad news is that Microsoft Azure is slow (sloths have been known to be speedier). Its performance in our tests was well below that of even AWS and Google Cloud. It’s still a decent option given the generous resources it offers, but it’s hard not to be disappointed that all that great stuff isn’t backed by good performance speeds.

Which is the Best Free Cloud Hosting Service for Your Needs?

While all of the above options can offer you access to cloud hosting for free (or at a very low price), not all of them may fit your project. Each of them are limited in different ways, and it really depends on what you’re looking to test and develop.

If you’re still not sure, here are my recommendations:

Kamatera’s custom-built cloud instances are available to try free for 30 days, letting you test a server worth up to $100/month in value. While it isn’t permanently free, it offers the most customizable and scalable solution on the list, letting you instantly upgrade or downgrade resources to match your exact needs. It’s our top choice for cloud hosting

If you want top quality without breaking the bank, HostArmada offers unparalleled performance for shared cloud hosting. You also get a very generous 45-day money-back guarantee, so you can try the service for yourself before making any long-term commitments.

If you need managed cloud hosting, Cloudways is the way to go. If you prefer working with Google Cloud, AWS, or DigitalOcean but aren’t able to do it all on your own, Cloudways offers you freedom without the stress and hassle.

Still stuck? Here’s a nifty table to help you out.

FAQ

What is the best free cloud hosting service?

That depends on your needs – every free cloud hosting service comes with their own set of pros and cons. However, our recommendations above are definitely among the best possible choices. Each of them lets you access a fast, reliable, and secure cloud instance for free (or for a negligible cost). Overall, we like Kamatera the best.

Which cloud hosting service is free for students?

All of our top free cloud hosting services are suitable for students, but some offer more benefits than others. For instance, Red Hat OpenShift offers a Developer Program that comes with plenty of tutorials, guides, and useful documentation to guide you through its platform and key concepts.

What’s the best free cloud hosting service for developers?

Cloudways is a great choice for developers, as it provides easy server management, full root access, and a one-click installer to help you configure your server. It’s not free, but it does offer an “anytime” money-back guarantee for all unused resources.

Can I get free cloud hosting without a credit card?

Most free cloud hosting providers are only temporarily free, or otherwise hope that you’ll purchase one of its paid services. Therefore, they require a credit card to sign up. There is one exception – Microsoft Azure offers free cloud services to students without the need for a credit card.