The world of coding is more accessible than ever, thanks to a treasure trove of free resources tailored for hobbyist developers. These tools—ranging from hosting platforms to databases—empower anyone with a laptop and a dream to build apps, websites, or APIs without breaking the bank. The open-source community and generous free tiers from companies like Vercel (where hacloco.org currently sits for free), Supabase, and Let’s Encrypt mean you can experiment, learn, and deploy real projects at no cost. My favorites? Supabase for its seamless PostgreSQL database and clerk for easy oAuth authentication, perfect for quick throw-away deployments and practice projects. Vercel’s free tier is a gem for deploying Next.js apps with zero hassle. And Let’s Encrypt paired with ngrok keeps your self-hosted sites secure with SSL certificates. These resources level the playing field, letting hobbyists turn ideas into reality. Below, explore a curated list of free services to fuel your next project. As the more and more coding is done by robots, it's becoming increasingly important to understand how to integrate and utilize services, APIs and libraries. This list is a great starting point for anyone looking to get into coding or expand their skill set.
It's a work in progress and will be updated as I find new services. If you have any suggestions, send us a DM on bluesky [@hacloco.org]. Also, it was compiled by an LLM so if you find any errors, let me know.
| Service | Type | Free Tier Details | Size Limits | Rate Limits | Restrictions | Credit Card | Open Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ngrok | Ingress-as-a-Service (Tunneling) | 4 tunnels, 40 connections/min, random subdomains, HTTP/HTTPS/TCP support | None | 40 connections/min | Non-commercial use, random subdomains, no UDP support | No | No (was open-source in v1, now proprietary) |
| UploadThing | File Storage | 2 GB storage, 100 MB max file size, unlimited uploads | 2 GB total, 100 MB/file | None | Non-commercial use, API key required | No | No |
| GitHub Pages | Static Site Hosting | Unlimited public sites, custom domains, HTTPS | 1 GB/repository, 100 MB/file | 100 GB bandwidth/month, 10 builds/hour | Static content only, no server-side code | No | Yes (platform proprietary, content often open-source) |
| Vercel | Static Site Hosting | Unlimited sites, 100 GB bandwidth, 1000 serverless function invocations/day | 1 GB/project | 100 deployments/day, 100k edge function invocations/month | Non-commercial, 3 projects/repository, no SLA | No | No |
| MongoDB Atlas | Database (NoSQL) | 512 MB storage, shared cluster | 512 MB, 16 MB/document | 100 concurrent connections | Shared cluster, no SLA, not for large-scale production | No | Yes (MongoDB open-source, Atlas proprietary) |
| Neon | Database (PostgreSQL) | 3 GB storage, 1 project, 10 branches | 3 GB total, 500 MB/branch | 75 requests/second, 100 compute hours/month | Auto-sleep after 5 days inactivity, 1 project, no SLA | No | Yes (PostgreSQL open-source, Neon proprietary) |
| Let’s Encrypt | SSL Certificates | Unlimited certificates, automated issuance/renewal | None | 50 certificates/week/domain, 5 duplicate certificates/3 hours | Requires domain ownership, no wildcard certificates | No | Yes |
| frp | Tunneling (Self-Hosted) | Fully self-hosted, supports HTTP/HTTPS/TCP/UDP, custom domains | None (depends on server) | None (depends on server) | Requires server setup, manual SSL configuration | No | Yes |
| MinIO | File Storage (Self-Hosted) | S3-compatible object storage, unlimited with self-hosting | None (depends on server) | None (depends on server) | Requires server setup, manual scaling | No | Yes |
| Nextcloud | File Storage/Collaboration (Self-Hosted) | File storage, sync, collaboration, unlimited with self-hosting | None (depends on server) | None (depends on server) | Requires server setup, manual maintenance | No | Yes |
| ZeroSSL | SSL Certificates | 3 certificates/90 days, automated issuance | None | 3 certificates/90 days | Limited to 3 certificates, no wildcard certificates | No | No |
| IBM Cloudant | Database (NoSQL, CouchDB-based) | 1 GB storage, 20 lookups/second, 10 writes/second, 5 queries/second | 1 GB total | 20 lookups/second, 10 writes/second, 5 queries/second | Shared instance, no SLA, not for high-traffic production | No | Yes (CouchDB open-source, Cloudant proprietary) |
| Twilio | Communication APIs | 1000 inbound/outbound SMS, trial phone number, 100 voice minutes | None | 1 message/second, 100 API calls/hour | Trial account, non-commercial, requires verified phone number | No | No |
| Cloudflare Workers | Serverless Platform/APIs | 100,000 requests/day, 10 ms CPU time/request | 1 MB/script | 1000 requests/minute, 1000 subrequests/day | No SLA, non-commercial, limited to 100 scripts | No | No |
| Supabase | Database/Storage/Authentication | 500 MB database, 1 GB file storage, 50,000 auth users | 500 MB database, 1 GB storage, 50 MB/file | 2 requests/second, 1000 API calls/hour | Auto-pause after 7 days inactivity, no SLA | No | Yes |
| Keycloak | Authentication (Self-Hosted) | Unlimited users, SSO, OAuth2, OpenID Connect support | None (depends on server) | None (depends on server) | Requires server setup, manual configuration | No | Yes |
| CockroachDB | Database (SQL) | 10 GB storage, 50 million request units/month | 10 GB total | 50 million request units/month | Single region, no SLA, not for high-traffic apps | No | Yes (core open-source, cloud proprietary) |
| PlanetScale | Database (MySQL) | 5 GB storage, 1 billion row reads/month, 10 million row writes/month | 5 GB total | 1 billion row reads, 10 million row writes/month | 1 database, 10 branches, no SLA | No | No (Vitess open-source, PlanetScale proprietary) |
| Railway | App Hosting/APIs | 1 GB disk, 512 MB RAM, $5 usage credit/month | 1 GB disk, 512 MB RAM | 1000 API calls/hour | No SLA, single project, auto-sleep after inactivity | No | No |
| Hetzner Cloud | Cloud Hosting | 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 20 GB storage, 20 TB traffic/month | 20 GB storage | None | 1 server, no SLA, requires account verification | No | No |
| Render | App Hosting/Static Sites | 100 GB bandwidth, 1 web service or static site, 512 MB RAM | 512 MB RAM, 1 GB disk | 1000 builds/month | Auto-sleep after inactivity, no SLA, single service | No | No |
| Fly.io | App Hosting | 3 GB persistent storage, 256 MB RAM, 3 shared VMs | 3 GB storage, 256 MB RAM | 1000 requests/hour | Single region, no SLA, auto-sleep after inactivity | No | No |
| Deta | Micro Cloud Platform | Unlimited micro apps, 500 MB database, 10 GB storage | 500 MB database, 10 GB storage | 1000 API calls/hour | No SLA, non-commercial, auto-sleep after inactivity | No | No |