Best Completely FREE Cloud Hosting Services [2025]

Many hosting providers claim to offer free cloud hosting, but there’s always a trade-off, isn’t there? First off, you’re unlikely to find forever-free cloud hosting. Secondly, if you do, you’re probably going to have to submit to resource limits barely suitable for a small site or performance that isn’t up to par.

So, what’s the next best thing?

Free trials. Yes, many of the best free cloud hosting services actually let you try out their platforms risk-free and without any tricks or false promises. I’ve tested the biggest cloud platforms and cut the list down to the best options offering free trials, free tiers, and basic free hosting plans.

Keep in mind, though, that every free cloud hosting platform or trial has limitations. You’ll likely be working with a tiny number of resources, and you might not get customer support or other useful features.

For serious projects, I’d recommend a free trial with an upgrade to a paid option if you’re satisfied with the hosting. Luckily, 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, but it’s also one of the most customizable cloud hosts out there.

You can get access to Kamatera’s high-quality cloud hosting through its 30-day free trial, or keep reading to discover which cloud 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, focused on the following features:

• 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 one country, 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. I looked for hosts that also offer generous free trials and free tiers so you can test out their services before upgrading. What differentiates these guys from the rest is that these trials 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 cloud hosting providers on this list, you always have room to grow.
• Developer-friendly features. To develop the best websites or 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.

Quick Look at Our Best Free Cloud Hosts

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

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

Like many dedicated cloud hosts, Kamatera not only offers per-month billing but also 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 offer “forever-free” cloud hosting, 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 that cPanel or Plesk come preinstalled.
• Free static IP. Every server comes with a free public static IP, adding to the overall value. You can also add up to 4 IPs to your plan for an extra fee.
• 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 to see our performance tests.

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 $2.49.

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 for unoptimized websites.

Though it doesn’t offer a truly free cloud server plan, 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 each cloud hosting plan.
• Low server occupancy. Unlike most budget cloud hosts, HostArmada doesn’t overload its servers to ensure reliable performance. It also employs KVM virtualization for additional stability and security.
• Unlimited MySQL databases. You get access to unlimited MySQL databases with all HostArmada’s cloud plans. Though this might be a pretty standard feature for VPS or dedicated plans, it’s one of the few hosts to offer it with shared plans, including its entry-level Start Dock plan.
• Free daily backups. HostArmada provides 7 free backups per day with its starter shared cloud hosting plan. That number increases if you choose a higher-tier plan.

For more on cloud hosting features, see our expert HostArmada review.

3. Cloudways: 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, Linode, Vultr, 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. Plus, you get a 3-day free trial (no card required) and can ask for a refund for unused pre-paid funds up to 3 months after cancellation.

For a truly hands-off WordPress experience, Cloudways offers one-click installs, restores, and backups, making it quick and simple to get your site up and running. Its Autonomous autoscaling solution also handles spikes in traffic and load balancing without any human intervention. If you’re planning to invest in growing your WordPress site, this host makes a great cloud option.

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.
• Support levels. While you can add advanced support to your Cloudways plan for an extra monthly fee, its beginner-friendly standard support is probably more than enough – plus it’s free and available 24/7. This includes infrastructure and platform support. There’s also a well-stocked knowledge base if you’re a DIYer.
• CloudWaysBot. This is 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 pay by the hour.

Need more info on Cloudways managed hosting? Check out our expert review.

4. ScalaHosting: Beginner-Friendly Cloud Hosting With an Anytime Money-Back Guarantee

ScalaHosting is a great option if you’re switching to 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 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 cloud hosting service, its Entry Cloud plan is one of the more affordable options on the market. Also, thanks to ScalaHosting’s anytime money-back guarantee, you can cancel and get a refund for any unused resources.

Features

• SPanel. ScalaHosting offers its proprietary version of cPanel – called SPanel – with all its cloud hosting plans. SPanel offers all the functionality of cPanel, plus real-time security monitoring, outbound spam monitoring, and direct access to 24/7 live chat support.
• 10Gbps redundant network. Thanks to its 10Gbps redundant network, ScalaHosting guarantees 99.9% uptime. It will seamlessly redirect heavy traffic during surges.
• Free server backups. ScalaHosting provides free snapshot backups of your server with all its self-managed cloud plans and daily offsite backups on all managed cloud plans.
• 1-click installer. To simplify the process of configuring your server, there are over 400 different apps and scripts available through ScalaHosting’s 1-click installer. You also get free updates and cloning and staging tools.

Our full ScalaHosting review has more on user-friendly features.

5. 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 and t3.micro instance that come with the free tier can run either Linux (including SLES and RHEL) 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. AWS also offers free trials of Lightsail and a forever-free Lambda cloud server plan.

Features

• Burstable CPU performance. The free t2.micro/t3.micro instances offer 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 get 750 hours per month of a MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, or SQL database with 20 GB 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 in-depth Amazon Web Services review.

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

In our expert review of Liquid Web, the host 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 cloud hosts for customer support in the field.

That excellent service may stem from the fact that Liquid Web specializes in high-performance hosting. It’s not as customizable as Kamatera’s cloud hosting, but you can upgrade storage, bandwidth, and CPUs individually, as needed. The only time you’ll need to upgrade is when you reach your RAM limits. Granted, Liquid Web isn’t the most budget-friendly host, but you do get a 30-day money-back guarantee to try out its services.

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. The host offers three support tiers, including self-managed, core-managed, and fully managed. I’d suggest the latter option if you want a hands-off, white glove hosting experience.

Features

• Configuration choices. You can choose your OS (Linux or Windows), your OS template (Ubuntu 20.04/22.04, Debian, Rocky 8/9, AlmaLinux 8/9, and Windows 2022/2019), and your control panel (cPanel, Plesk, WHMCS, or InterWorx), giving you the freedom to work without a learning curve.
• Freebies. All plans include free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates and root access. Managed cloud plans also include a free site migration and 100 GB of free Acronis backups.
• 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.
• 30-day refund. Liquid Web will refund you for your hosting plan should you choose to cancel within this 30-day period.

To get all the details on Liquid Web’s customer support, read our expert review.

Notable Web Hosts With Free Cloud Hosting Plans

7. Oracle

You can trial Oracle’s cloud server for free or opt for a forever-free service like its Compute Instances. If you go for the free trial, you’ll get a $300 credit toward any of its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services. And if you sign up for its developer-friendly free cloud hosting service, you can choose from an AMD or Arm VM setup.

For forever-free cloud hosting, the resources are quite generous: 200 GB total block storage, 10 GB object storage, two autonomous databases (20 GB each), and 10 TB outbound data transfer per month. You’ll just need some expertise to set it all up and get the most out of it.

8. Google Cloud

If you know your way around a server, 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 30GB of storage and 1 GB of bandwidth.

Unfortunately, there are strings attached to this great free cloud server deal. Your 1 GB of bandwidth excludes traffic to China and Australia and you can only deploy the e-2 micro in a handful of US data centers (Oregon, Iowa, and South Carolina). If that’s enough power and geographic reach for you, then Google Cloud is definitely worth considering.

9. Red Hat OpenShift

Popular with student developers, Ret Hat’s value is a bit diminished now that it no longer offers an “always free” cloud server starter plan. However, you can get a 60-day free trial that you can continuously renew after a 90-day period. 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. If you trial a managed Dedicated trial cluster, you’re also liable for Google Cloud infrastructure costs. Still, the platform is a good option for quick development and can efficiently handle almost any test project or student project you can think of.

10. Microsoft Azure

The good news is that you can get a lot of hosting power with Microsoft Azure’s free cloud server setups. Along with 12 months of free usage, you can set up a fully functional MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQL database with 32 GB storage. That should allow just about anyone to host whatever site you want. Students can also get a free annual $100 credit for MS hosting throughout their studies, which is renewable for every year you’re a student.

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 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:

You can try Kamatera’s cloud instances free for 30 days, with customizable resources up to $100 in value. While it isn’t permanently free, it offers the most reliable and scalable solution on the list, letting you instantly upgrade or downgrade resources to match your exact needs. It’s one of our top choices 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.

FAQ

What is the best free cloud server hosting service?

That depends on your needs – every free cloud hosting service comes with its 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. MS Azure also offers free cloud hosting for students, though credits are limited to $100 per year.

What’s the difference between free trials and free cloud hosting?

Free trials allow you to test the service before committing and often let you try out the web host’s best cloud plans for free. In contrast, free cloud hosting is much rarer and often comes with severe resource limitations. Security concerns and lack of customer support are another issue. If you read the fine print, you may be liable for overage fees and other charges on free hosting plans should you exceed your limits, too.

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 offers a 3-day free trial and an “anytime” money-back guarantee for all unused funds. If you’re open to other types of free or budget hosting, take a look at our list of the best free web hosts in 2025.

Can I get free cloud hosting without a credit card?

Most free cloud hosting providers are only temporarily free and hope that you’ll purchase one of their paid services. Therefore, they require a credit card to sign up. There is one exception – Microsoft Azure offers students a $100 credit for free cloud services without the need for a credit card. If you’re willing to try out managed hosting for the top cloud providers, you can try Cloudways’ comprehensive 3-day trial without a credit card.