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Dime a Dozen, or Not

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Recently Heroku announced that they would discontinue their free hosting plans Novemeber 28, 2022. A popular site for over a decade, Heroku blamed "abuse" for the change but did say they would announce a student plan at a later date.

Where now to send our full stack projects and portfolio site, as well as a safe testing ground? Luckily, there are still more than a few options to consider that won't cost you a dime.

  1. Vercel
  • Works with 30+ frameworks
  • Seamless Git repo imports
  • Continuous deployment with Git
  • Easy to develop and preview sites before setting to production
  • HTTPS-enabled custom domains
  • Share and collaborate with a team
  • I use Vercel for this site, and I can vouch for how easy it was to set up and publish using a free Hobbyist account.
  1. GitHub Pages
  • Custom URLs
  • Edit and push directly from Git repos
  • You get one site per GitHub account and organization, and unlimited project sites
  • Blogging with Jekyll
  1. AWS
  • Multiple free tier products to use
  • 10 minute tutorials
  • Proven security and functionality
  • Largest community of users
  1. Netlify
  • Automated builds from Git
  • Quick deploy from GitHub and GitLab to global Edge network
  • Access full platfrom from your local terminal
  • Offers templates for quick start
  1. Google Cloud
  • 20+ free popular products, including Compute Engine and Cloud Storage
  • Smart analytics
  • Quickstarts and sample products
  1. Render
  • Auto deployment and updates from Git
  • Built-in DDoS protection
  • Works with PostgreSQL
  • Offers private services
  1. Railway
  • Tailored for engineers
  • GitHub repo deployments
  • Built-in databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis and MongoDB
  • Templates and tutorials