Cloud service providers have revolutionized the way businesses and individuals store, manage, and access data and applications. These providers offer a range of services, from storage and computing power to machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. One aspect that attracts many users is the availability of free tiers, which allow users to explore and test the services without incurring immediate costs. In this article, we will provide an overview of the free tiers offered by various cloud service providers.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Free Tier
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a generous free tier that allows users to explore and experiment with a variety of services. The AWS Free Tier includes services like Amazon S3 for storage, Amazon EC2 for compute power, and Amazon RDS for managed databases. These free services come with usage limits, such as a specific amount of storage or a limited number of compute hours, but they provide an excellent opportunity to get hands-on experience with AWS services.
AWS
Homepage: AWS Free Tier
Always Free
- Amazon DynamoDB (NoSQL): 25 GB of storage
- AWS Lambda (FaaS): 1 Million free requests per month
- Amazon SNS: 1 Million publishes
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Free Tier
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) also provides a free tier that enables users to try out their services. The GCP Free Tier includes offerings like Google Compute Engine for virtual machines, Google Cloud Storage for object storage, and Google Cloud Functions for serverless computing. Google sets specific usage limits for each service, and once the limits are exceeded, users will be billed for the additional usage. However, the GCP Free Tier provides an excellent starting point for those interested in exploring Google’s cloud services.
Google Cloud
Homepage: Google Cloud Free Tier
Always Free
- Compute VM: 0.25 vCPU, 1G RAM (only on us-west1, us-central1 and us-east1)
- 1GB of network egress (except China and Australia)
- 5GB Storage (only on us-west1, us-central1, us-east1, asia-east1 and europe-west1)
Microsoft Azure Free Tier
Microsoft Azure offers a comprehensive free tier for users to test and evaluate their cloud services. The Azure Free Tier includes services like Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Storage, and Azure Functions. Users can utilize a specified amount of compute hours, storage space, and other resources within the free tier limits. It’s important to note that some Azure services may have separate free offerings beyond the initial free tier, providing even more options for users to experiment with.
Azure
Homepage: Azure Free Tier
Free for Limited-time
- US$200 credit for 30 days
- Popular services are free for 12 months
Always Free
- 54+ other services free always
Other Cloud Service Providers
In addition to the major players mentioned above, there are several other cloud service providers that offer free tiers. These include IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud. Each provider has its own set of services available in their free tiers, allowing users to explore and experience their respective offerings.
Comparing other free tier offers of the major cloud providers like Oracle Cloud, DO, Alibaba, Hetzner, etc.
- Oracle Cloud
- Alibaba Cloud
- IBM Cloud
- Scaleway
- DigitalOcean
- Hetzner Cloud
- Render
- Netlify
- Jfrog
- Salesforce
- Openshift
- Linode
- Container Hosting Service
- Fly.io
- Railway
1. Oracle Cloud
Homepage: Oracle Cloud Free Tier
Free for Limited-time 30-day free trial
- US $300 credit for 30 days
- Up to eight instances across all available services
- Up to 5 TB of storage
Always Free
- Compute: (Note- 1 Oracle OCPU = 2 vCPUs)
- 2 AMD-based VMs: 1/8 OCPU = 0.25 vCPU with 1 GB RAM each
- 4 Arm-based VMs: 24 GB RAM total, 3,000 OCPU hours, and 18,000 GB memory hours per month
- 2 Block Volumes Storage, 200 GB total
- 10 GB Object Storage – Standard
- 10 GB Object Storage – Infrequent Access
- 10 GB Archive Storage
- 10TB of network data egress/month per originating region
- Resource Manager (managed terraform)
- 5 OCI Bastions
- 2 Oracle Autonomous Databases incl. Oracle Application Express (APEX), Oracle SQL Developer, etc., each with 20GB of storage
- NoSQL Database with 25GB storage per table, up to 3 tables
- 4 Load Balancers: 1 Flexible (10Mbps) and 3 Network
- Monitoring and Notifications
2. Alibaba Cloud
Homepage: Alibaba Cloud Free Trial
Try Over 40 Products for Free Worth $450-$1300 USD.
Now up to 12 Months Usage for Elastic Compute Services.
3. IBM Cloud
Homepage: IBM Cloud Free Tier
Free for Limited-time
- US$200 credit for 30 days
4. Scaleway
Homepage: Scaleway
Free for Limited-time
- sometimes they give away free credits
Always Free
5. DigitalOcean
Homepage: DigitalOcean
Free for Limited-time
- $100 credit for 60 days from do.co/hf100
6. Hetzner Cloud
Homepage: Hetzner Cloud
Free for Limited-time
- sometimes they give away free credits
7. render
Homepage: render
Free for Limited-time
- sometimes they give away free credits
Always Free
- static site hosting
8. Netlify
Homepage: Netlify
Free for Limited-time
- sometimes they give away free credits
Always Free
- static site hosting
9. jfrog
Homepage: Jfrog Free Tier
Free for Limited-time
- Self-Hosted 30 day trial
Always Free
2GB Storage 10GB Transfer/month 2,000 CI/CD Minutes/month
10. Salesforce
Homepage: Salesforce Free Tier
Free for Limited-time
- Your FREE 30-Day Trial Now!
Always Free
When you download Listware for Salesforce, you are given 1,000 free credits which you can use during a free 30-day trial of the app.
11. Openshift
Homepage: Interactive Learning Portal
Try out Openshift 4 cluster for free
Openshift 4: Try Openshift 4 cluster for free
12. Linode
Homepage: Linode
Free for Limited-time
- US$100, 60-day free trial requires a valid credit card. free-credit-100
13. Container Hosting Service
Homepage: Container Hosting Service
Currently Free
- Container Hosting Service Try Open Source Container Hosting Service for free
14. Fly.io
Homepage: Fly.io
Always free on all plans:
- Up to 3 shared-CPU-1x 256mb VMs (Apps or Machines)
- 3GB persistent volume storage (total)
- 160GB outbound data transfer
15. Railway
Homepage: Railway
Always Free:
- 512 MB RAM and shared CPU/container
- 1 GB Disk (split between your services)
- $5 or 500 hours of usage (deploys shut off when the first limit is reached)
Conclusion
Free tiers provided by cloud service providers offer a valuable opportunity for users to test and familiarize themselves with various cloud services and capabilities. Whether you are an individual developer, a startup, or a business, these free tiers allow you to assess the suitability of different providers and services for your specific needs. It’s important to review the terms and usage limits of each provider’s free tier to understand the scope and limitations. With the availability of free tiers, users can make informed decisions and leverage the power of the cloud to drive their projects and businesses forward.
source: github.com
