Cheapest place for a hobby project that can sleep.
prices as of · re-ranked daily · 24 qualifying plans
When nobody is waiting on the first request, a plan that stops while idle is the cheapest thing in this market, and several of them cost nothing at all. We count only plans with nothing, or under $10 a month, and 24 of the 103 rows we read qualify. The cheapest of them is Free web service at Render, free. Everything the monthly price leaves out is on the row, because on this market that is usually where the rest of the bill is.
The cheapest plan that can do this job is Free web service at Render: free a month, read 17 Sept 2026.
Cheapest that fits
Free web service
Renderfreea month
no size to divide by · sleeps when idle
lowest price a month
Most memory for the money
eMicro · 0.25 vCPU · 512 MB
Koyeb$2.68a month
$5.36/GB-mo · always on
the lowest price per gigabyte on this list
Cheapest that never sleeps
Free
Netlifyfreea month
no size to divide by · always on
the provider states it stays on
What actually matters here
- Sleeping is the whole saving
- A platform that stops your app while nothing calls it is not running a server for you, which is why it can give the tier away. Accept the cold start and this market is close to free.
- Free is a real price, not a discount
- These tiers are not trials. They renew, and the row says whether the provider states an expiry. What they are not is a promise: a free tier is the first thing a platform changes.
- A subscription is not a server
- Some rows here are account tiers with usage credit attached rather than a runtime of a stated size. They are listed with their tag, and the size column says the compute is metered.
- Move before you need to
- The cheapest paid step above a free tier is usually a few dollars, and every provider on this list keeps the app at the same address when you take it. The rankings have the paid ladder.
Cheapest 10 a month
- 1Render
Free web service
512 MB RAM · sleeps when idle · transfer 5 GB · no size to divide byFree web service: it spins down when nothing calls it and the next request waits for it to start · CPU share not stated · no disk included · limits apply, see Render's own page
✓ 512 MB RAM✓ sleeps
- 2Netlify
Free
no size, the compute is metered · always on · transfer not stated · no size to divide by300 credit limit a month; Netlify meters in credits, so bandwidth, compute and deploys all draw on one allowance · the allowance is a cap, not a credit you can go past
✓ always on
free/mo
- 3Render
Hobby workspace
no size, the compute is metered · sleep not stated · transfer 5 GB · no size to divide byWorkspace subscription; every instance above is billed on top of it, which is what Render's own card means by "+ compute" · seats are not charged per head
free/mo
- 4
VercelHobby
no size, the compute is metered · always on · transfer 100 GB · no size to divide byFree forever, for personal and non-commercial use · one member · compute, transfer and builds run against the included allowance and stop at it, with no pay-as-you-go
✓ always on✓ seats $20 per member a month
free/mo
- 5
ZeaburFree
no size, the compute is metered · sleeps when idle · transfer not stated · no size to divide byFree tier: projects run on Zeabur's shared capacity and the platform stops a service that nothing calls
✓ sleeps✓ seats $24 per member a month
free/mo
- 6Koyeb
eNano · 0.1 vCPU · 256 MB
0.1 vCPU · 256 MB RAM · always on · transfer 1 TB · $6.44/GB-moEco container instance (no OS or root) · billed per second, Koyeb's own monthly figure · 2 GB local disk is ephemeral · 1 TB egress included
✓ 256 MB RAM✓ always on
$1.61/mo
- 7
Fly.ioshared-cpu-1x · 256 MB
1 vCPU · 256 MB RAM · always on · transfer none · metered per GB · $7.76/GB-moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 62% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
✓ 256 MB RAM✓ always on✓ transfer metered
$1.94/mo
- 8Koyeb
eMicro · 0.25 vCPU · 512 MB
0.25 vCPU · 512 MB RAM · always on · transfer 1 TB · $5.36/GB-moEco container instance (no OS or root) · billed per second, Koyeb's own monthly figure · 4 GB local disk is ephemeral · 1 TB egress included
✓ 512 MB RAM✓ always on
$2.68/mo
- 9Koyeb
Nano · 0.25 vCPU · 256 MB
0.25 vCPU · 256 MB RAM · always on · transfer 1 TB · $10.72/GB-moStandard container instance (no OS or root) · billed per second, Koyeb's own monthly figure · 2 GB local disk is ephemeral · 1 TB egress included
✓ 256 MB RAM✓ always on
$2.68/mo
- 10Fly.io
shared-cpu-1x · 512 MB
1 vCPU · 512 MB RAM · always on · transfer none · metered per GB · $6.38/GB-moMicro-VM billed per second while running; the monthly price is Fly's own figure for a full month · priced at Ashburn, US (cheapest), up to 62% more in other regions · no disk included, Fly Volumes billed per GB · egress metered per GB
✓ 512 MB RAM✓ always on✓ transfer metered
$3.19/mo
This is the one list where a price of zero is the answer rather than a warning, so it counts every row in the index that costs nothing and every row under $10 a month, subscriptions included. What a free tier costs you instead is on each row: most of them stop the app when nothing calls it, and the first visitor after a quiet spell waits for it to start again. Nothing here measures how long that wait is, because the providers do not publish it. Free tiers also come with limits the price page states in prose rather than in numbers, so read the provider's own page before building anything on one. The price beside each row is the plan's own monthly figure, free at the top of this list, with transfer 5 GB included.
Frequently asked
- What is the cheapest way to a hobby project that can sleep?
- Free web service at Render, free a month. That is 512 MB RAM · sleeps when idle · transfer 5 GB · no size to divide by. Read on 17 Sept 2026.
- What does this page assume?
- This is the one list where a price of zero is the answer rather than a warning, so it counts every row in the index that costs nothing and every row under $10 a month, subscriptions included. What a free tier costs you instead is on each row: most of them stop the app when nothing calls it, and the first visitor after a quiet spell waits for it to start again. Nothing here measures how long that wait is, because the providers do not publish it. Free tiers also come with limits the price page states in prose rather than in numbers, so read the provider's own page before building anything on one.
- Why do only 24 plans qualify?
- The job needs nothing, or under $10 a month. The other 79 rows we read are still in the index; they just cannot do this job as described.
- Does the app stop when nothing calls it?
- On 3 of the 24 qualifying plans the provider states it does, and the row says so. The first request after a quiet spell then waits for the app to start again, which nothing here measures because the providers do not publish it.
- How current are these prices?
- Prices are read daily from 9 platforms' own public pages and keyless APIs, and this ranking recomputes with them. Last refresh: 17 Sept 2026.