Many cloud server vendors operate with economies of scale so great that they will give away small instances for free, simply to entice you to use your platform. You can take advantage of this to run a small Linux box for development.
If you are just looking to run a simple web portal, you may not even need a Linux box, services like Github Pages and Google Sites you can host simple pages for free.
Google Cloud Platform
Google's cloud platform provides the only VPS on this list that is truly cost-free for good.. its f1-micro it is always free, all the time.
At the same time of this, they also have a very good free trial: when registering for a new account, will be awarded $ 300 in credit to use on any GCP service. Credit expires after one year.
You will need to link your card to your account to take advantage of this, but do not worry, you will not be charged for leaving a server running after the free trial. You will have to manually upgrade your account to a paid account once the trial is over.
To start, create an account and go to Google Cloud Platform Console. You will need to create a new “Project”, which is like a container for all your services. In Compute Engine> VM instances, you will be able to create a new instance:
You will have to edit the instance details to add your SSH keys, or access it through a web-based terminal.
the f1-micro is definitively free and has 0.2 Virtual CPUs and 600 MB de RAM. Not the best VPS in the world, but it is good enough to run Linux and some simple applications. Even though with the credit without costs of $ 300, could run a n1-standard-1 instance with 1 vCPU and 3,5 GB of RAM (about $ 25 a month) during the 12 full months before credit runs out.
Amazon web services
AWS provides a no-cost tier for almost all of your services for one year after you sign up. This includes a general purpose at no cost t2.micro instance with 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM.
You will need to link your card to verify your account, and you should definitely set a reminder on your calendar 11 months in the future; AWS will charge you once your free tier has ended, and they don't do a great job of advertising that it's free proof and not exactly free level. One thing that is definitely cost-free is Lambda; If you want to run functions in the cloud without a server, you can do it completely free of charge.
AWS does not grant promotional credit on subscriptions, but if you are a student with a .edu email, you can get free credit through AWS Educate. If your school is related, will receive $ 100, if not, will receive $ 40.
To start, create an AWS account and go to AWS Management Console. From here, select Services> EC2. On the Instances tab, click on “You will need to create a new”:
the t2.micro Instance should be highlighted. You will have to choose an operating system; Windows costs more in most cases, but it's free t2.micro example.
You will be prompted to download a PEM file; this is your private key for the instance. You will want to use ssh -i keyfile.pem to connect to him.
Microsoft Azure
Azure has a free level which includes a B1S instance with 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM. You will also get $ 200 in free credit, but you are only given one month to use it. Despite this, the free tier lasts a whole year, after which the only services with free tiers are Azure Features and other APIs.
The no-cost level of 12 months includes 250 GB of SQL storage, so you can set up a large database for free. In addition they are granted 64 GB of block storage at no cost to run your virtual machine, as well as 5 GB of shared file storage.
Unlike AWS, you will not be charged once your tier ends at no cost. You will have to manually upgrade to a pay-as-you-go account to enable billing.
To start, navigate to Azure Portal and select “You will need to create a new” in the sidebar. From this tab, you can add a new instance:
Make sure to choose the free BS1 instance during 12 months, since the default menu is a much more expensive instance to $ 70 per month. You will not be charged if you leave it running, but you can't run that instance for more than a month without upgrading to a paid account.
You will be prompted to provide an administrative account name and SSH public keys during creation, so you can access it right away.
