Hosting
Free tiers that sleep, cap or expire: what to expect from 12 providers
The headline number on a free plan is rarely the limit that matters. This guide reads the small print of 12 free tiers, as published on each provider's pricing or docs pages, and sorts them by how they stop: they sleep, they cap you, or they expire.
By AltFTool editors · 01 Nov 2026 · 8 min read
Why the headline number misleads
Free plans are sold on storage, RAM or bandwidth. Those numbers are usually generous for a side project.
What ends a free plan is more often a rule: an idle timer, a daily quota, a renewal click, or a credit that runs out. Those rules sit a page or two below the pricing table, so they are easy to miss.
Plans that sleep when idle
A sleeping service wakes up on the next request. That first request is slower, and if your client or connection pool gives up too soon, it fails.
This is fine while you are building. It is a problem for a demo you open once a month, or for anything that receives webhooks.
- Neon: according to its pricing page, free compute scales to zero after 5 minutes idle, so the next query has a cold start.
- Supabase: free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity.
- Nhost: one active project, paused after 1 week of inactivity.
- MongoDB Atlas M0: paused after 30 days with zero connections.
- Aiven: free services may be powered off if unused; Aiven says it notifies you and you can turn them back on.
- Oracle Cloud Always Free: VMs using under 20% of CPU, network and memory over 7 days can be reclaimed.
Plans that cap you
Caps do not sleep, but they stop or slow your site once you pass them. Daily caps reset quickly; monthly caps can leave you offline for weeks.
Read whether hitting the cap means an error, a suspension or an upgrade prompt.
- Azure App Service F1: 1 GB storage and 60 CPU minutes per day, according to Azure's pricing.
- Firebase Spark: hosting transfer is limited to 360 MB per day, and Cloud Functions need the paid Blaze plan.
- InfinityFree: unmetered bandwidth on paper, but daily hit and CPU limits can suspend a busy site.
- Google Cloud free tier: one e2-micro VM in three US regions, with only 1 GB of free outbound traffic per month from North America.
Plans that expire
Some free offers are really trials with a clock. Put the end date in your calendar the day you sign up.
AWS changed its model in July 2025. New accounts no longer get the old 12-month free tier; they get $100 in credits (up to $200 by completing starter tasks) on a free plan that closes after 6 months or when the credits run out, unless you upgrade.
PythonAnywhere's free web app must be extended every month or it is switched off, and outbound internet is limited to an allowlist. Oracle's $300 trial credit lasts 30 days, though its Always Free resources stay free afterwards.
How to choose
For a site people visit at random times, avoid plans that sleep or pick one with a fast, documented wake-up.
For anything with webhooks, cron jobs or queues, prefer an always-on option such as an Oracle Always Free VM (2 OCPUs and 12 GB RAM of Arm capacity, 200 GB block storage, 10 TB outbound a month, card required) or a paid entry plan.
Whatever you pick, check the provider's own pricing page before you build. Free tiers change often, and the page is the only source that counts.
