Cloud VPS · Free VPS & Cloud

No free plan

DigitalOcean pricing and free alternatives

Simple VPS (Droplets) and App Platform; there is no free VPS, only small always-free extras and sign-up promos.

Visit DigitalOcean (opens the official site)Official pricing for DigitalOcean (opens in a new tab)

Checked against DigitalOcean's official pages on 1 Nov 2026. Free tiers change, so confirm before you commit.

What DigitalOcean's free plan gives you

No free Droplet; App Platform hosts up to 3 static sites free, and Functions, a small container registry and one uptime check have free allowances.

DigitalOcean free plan limits
LimitFree plan
Free static sites3 on App Platform
Functions90,000 GiB-seconds / month
Cheapest Droplet$4/mo: 1 vCPU, 512 MiB, 10 GiB SSD, 500 GiB transfer

The catch

There is no free VPS: Droplets are billed from the first hour.

Pros and cons

Good

  • Clear flat pricing
  • Very good docs and tutorials
  • 3 free static sites on App Platform

Watch out

  • No free VPS
  • Payment method required
  • Sign-up credit amount changes over time

How to start on DigitalOcean

  1. 1

    Create an account and add a payment method

  2. 2

    Check for any sign-up credit offer

  3. 3

    Create a $4 Basic Droplet

  4. 4

    SSH in and install your stack

  5. 5

    Or deploy a static site free on App Platform

DigitalOcean compared

DigitalOcean: questions

Is DigitalOcean free?

No, DigitalOcean has no free plan. No free Droplet; App Platform hosts up to 3 static sites free, and Functions, a small container registry and one uptime check have free allowances.

Does DigitalOcean need a credit card?

Yes, DigitalOcean asks for a card when you sign up.

What is the catch with DigitalOcean's free plan?

There is no free VPS: Droplets are billed from the first hour.

Can I use my own domain on DigitalOcean for free?

Yes, you can connect your own domain on the free plan.

What are the best free alternatives to DigitalOcean?

Google Cloud Free Tier, Oracle Cloud Free Tier, AWS Free Tier. Compare their limits on this page or open each one for details.

Alternatives to DigitalOcean

  • Google Cloud Free Tier

    Cloud / IaaS

    85

    Google's cloud with one small always-free VM, free Cloud Run usage and a 90-day trial credit.

    Trial credit
    $300 for 90 days
    VM
    1 e2-micro (us-west1, us-central1, us-east1)
    Disk
    30 GB-months standard persistent disk

    The catch: Only 1 GB of outbound traffic per month is free, and the VM must be in one of three US regions.

    Card neededNo end date
    Paid from Usage-based

  • Oracle Cloud Free Tier

    Always-free VPS

    80

    Oracle's cloud with a set of always-free virtual machines and storage, plus a short trial credit.

    Arm VM (A1)
    2 OCPUs + 12 GB RAM total (1,500 OCPU-h / 9,000 GB-h per month)
    AMD micro VMs
    Up to 2, each 1/8 OCPU + 1 GB RAM
    Block storage
    200 GB total (boot + block)

    The catch: Free VMs must be in your home region, Arm capacity is often unavailable, and idle instances can be reclaimed.

    Card neededNo end dateSleeps when idle
    Paid from Usage-based

  • AWS Free Tier

    Cloud credits

    70

    Amazon's cloud gives new accounts credits and a 6-month free plan instead of the old 12-month tier.

    Sign-up credit
    $100
    Extra credit
    Up to $100 more for trying services
    Free plan length
    6 months or until credits run out

    The catch: The free plan account closes after 6 months (or when credits are gone) unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

    Card neededCredits: up to $200, free plan ends after 6 months
    Paid from Usage-based

  • Microsoft Azure Free Account

    Cloud / IaaS

    62

    Microsoft's cloud with a 30-day credit, 12 months of small free VMs and a set of always-free services.

    Credit
    $200 for 30 days
    VMs (12 months)
    750 h/month each of B1s, B2pts v2, B2ats v2
    Managed DB (12 months)
    750 h B1MS PostgreSQL / MySQL, 32 GB storage

    The catch: After 30 days you must switch to pay-as-you-go to keep the 12-month free services, or the account is disabled.

    Card needed12 months (credit: $200 for 30 days)
    Paid from Usage-based

  • Vultr

    Cloud VPS

    Paid

    Low-cost hourly-billed VPS in many regions; it has no free plan.

    Cheapest plan
    $2.50/mo - 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM
    Storage
    10 GB
    Bandwidth
    0.5 TB / month

    The catch: Nothing is free: you pay from the first hour.

    No free plan
    Paid from $2.5/mo (Regular Cloud Compute)

Tools for your new site

Free tools for your domain and site

Check a name, set up DNS and test the site once it is live. All free, in the browser.

Site is live? Get it found

Where to list a new site so search engines and people find it.