Guide to Free/Cheap Deployment Options 2020

And the categories are...#

So we are going to cover a lot of current options for deploying your website. The options on this list should all have a free tier and of course, upgrades as your site grows.

• Static Site/JAM Stack Friendly Hosts
• Full Stack Hosting
• VPS/Cloud Providers
• Other Free Options

Static Site/JAM Stack Friendly Hosts#

These are sites that allow you to quickly push a git repository or connect to a github/gitlab repository and deploy a frontend application. Many offer other cool features, I'll let you explore.

• Netlify (Netlify.com)
• Vercel (Vercel.com)
• Surge (Surge.sh)
• Github Pages (Github.com)
• Gitlab Pages (Gitlab.com)
• Aerobatic (Aerobatic.com)

Full Stack Hosting#

These are hosts that also allow you deploy backend applications with robust tools and often generous free tiers. Also included are hosts that focus on deploying docker containers like Fly.

• Heroku (Heroku.com)
• PythonAnywhere (PythonAnywhere.com)
• Glitch (Glitch.com)
• Fly (Fly.io)
• Octopus (octopus.com)
• Section (section.io)
• Arukas (arukas.io)
• Cloudflare Workers (workers.cloudflare.com/sites)

VPS/Cloud Providers#

These providers provide the ability to create VPS instances and other cloud services often with cheap or free tiers that allow you do anything you want.

• AWS (AWS Amplify is their Netlify like Service)
• Google Cloud (Firebase offers Netlify Like Services)
• Azure (Azure Static Sites offers Netlify like services)
• Linode (Linode.com)
• Digital Ocean (DigitalOcean.com)
• Vultr (Vultr.com)
• Buddy (buddy.works)
• Kamatera (Kamatera.com)
• Atlantic.net (Atlantic.net)
• Upcloud (upcloud.com/)

Headless CMS#

These aren't hosts, these take the place of your backend. Headless CMSs provides you a graphical dashboard to manage data that can be delivered to your frontend application via their API.

• Contentful (Contentful.com)
• ButterCMS (ButterCMS.com)
• GraphCMS (GraphCMS.com)
• CraftCMS (craftcms.com)
• AgilityCMS (agilitycms.com)
• Strapi (strapi.io - self-hosted)
• FlexType (flextype.org - self-hosted)
• ContentStack (contentstack.com)
• dotCMS (dotcms.com)
• cockpit (getcockpit.com - self-hosted)
• Zesty.io (www.zesty.io)
• DirectUs (directus.io - self-hosted)
• DatoCMS (datocms.com)
• CosmicJS (cosmicjs.com)
• Prismic (prismic.io)
• Sanity.io (sanity.io)
• CrafterCMS (craftersoftware.com - Self-hosted)

Other Free Options#

Other Hosting Options that offer a free tier. These are often more geared towards casual/consumer customers vs. developers like the other categories.

• Wordpress.com
• Wix.com
• Weebly.com
• Google Sites