Hosting Modern Web Apps for Free in 2025

As a developer, finding reliable yet free hosting solutions remains a valuable skill. This guide explores current free hosting options that provide professional-grade services without cost barriers.

Static Site Hosting Options

Static sites remain the easiest to host for free, with several platforms offering generous terms.

GitHub Pages

GitHub Pages continues to be a reliable option for static site hosting with seamless GitHub integration.

# Deploy to GitHub Pages
git add .
git commit -m "Deploy to GitHub Pages"
git push origin main

Key Features:

Custom domains with HTTPS
Automatic builds from repositories
1GB storage limit
100GB bandwidth per month

Netlify

Netlify offers more advanced features while maintaining a generous free tier.

# netlify.toml example
[build]
  command = "npm run build"
  publish = "dist"

[[redirects]]
  from = "/*"
  to = "/index.html"
  status = 200

Key Features:

100GB bandwidth per month
Continuous deployment pipelines
Serverless functions (limited invocations)
Form handling and authentication services

Vercel

Vercel specializes in frontend deployment with excellent React, Next.js, and other framework support.

// vercel.json configuration
{
  "version": 2,
  "builds": [
    {
      "src": "package.json",
      "use": "@vercel/static-build",
      "config": { "distDir": "build" }
    }
  ],
  "routes": [
    { "handle": "filesystem" },
    { "src": "/.*", "dest": "/index.html" }
  ]
}

Key Features:

Preview deployments for pull requests
Edge functions capabilities
Image optimization
Analytics on the free tier

Full-Stack Application Hosting

Render

Render has emerged as a powerful Heroku alternative with a meaningful free tier.

# render.yaml example
services:
  - type: web
    name: my-app
    env: node
    buildCommand: npm install && npm run build
    startCommand: npm start
    envVars:
      - key: NODE_ENV
        value: production

Key Features:

Free web services (with sleep after inactivity)
PostgreSQL databases (free tier with limitations)
Static site hosting
Docker container support

Railway

Railway offers an intuitive platform for deploying full-stack applications.

# Deploy using Railway CLI
npm i -g @railway/cli
railway login
railway init
railway up

Key Features:

$5 monthly credit on free tier
Database hosting included
GitHub integration
Custom domains

Firebase Hosting with Functions

Google’s Firebase provides an integrated platform for hosting and serverless functions.

// Example firebase.json
{
  "hosting": {
    "public": "build",
    "ignore": ["firebase.json", "**/.*", "**/node_modules/**"],
    "rewrites": [
      {
        "source": "/api/**",
        "function": "api"
      },
      {
        "source": "**",
        "destination": "/index.html"
      }
    ]
  },
  "functions": {
    "source": "functions"
  }
}

Key Features:

10GB data transfer per month
1GB storage
Realtime Database (limited operations)
Cloud Functions (limited invocations)

Serverless Backend Options

AWS Free Tier

AWS offers an extensive free tier that’s particularly valuable for serverless applications.

# serverless.yml example for AWS Lambda
service: my-service
provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: nodejs16.x
  stage: dev
  region: us-east-1
functions:
  hello:
    handler: handler.hello
    events:
      - http:
          path: hello
          method: get

Key Features:

1 million Lambda invocations per month
API Gateway (limited requests)
DynamoDB (limited capacity)
S3 storage (limited)

Cloudflare Pages with Workers

Cloudflare’s integrated platform combines static hosting with serverless compute.

// Example Cloudflare Worker
export default {
  async fetch(request, env, ctx) {
    return new Response("Hello from Cloudflare Workers!", {
      headers: { "content-type": "text/plain" },
    });
  },
};

Key Features:

Unlimited sites and requests
Workers (100,000 requests per day)
Durable Objects (limited usage)
KV storage (limited operations)

Database Hosting Options

MongoDB Atlas

MongoDB Atlas provides a fully-managed database service with a free tier.

// Connection example
import { MongoClient } from 'mongodb';

const uri = process.env.MONGODB_URI;
const client = new MongoClient(uri);

async function connectToDatabase() {
  try {
    await client.connect();
    return client.db('myDatabase');
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Connection error:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

Key Features:

512MB storage
Shared RAM instances
Basic monitoring and backup

Supabase

Supabase offers an open-source Firebase alternative with a generous free tier.

// Supabase client example
import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

const supabase = createClient(
  process.env.SUPABASE_URL,
  process.env.SUPABASE_ANON_KEY
);

async function getUsers() {
  const { data, error } = await supabase
    .from('users')
    .select('*');

  return { data, error };
}

Key Features:

PostgreSQL database (500MB)
Auth services
Storage (1GB)
Edge functions

Optimizing Free Tier Usage

Implementing Serverless Architectures

Serverless designs work particularly well with free tiers by utilizing resources only when needed.

// Minimal Express API for serverless deployment
import express from 'express';
const app = express();

app.get('/api/status', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ status: 'operational' });
});

export default app;

Handling Cold Starts

Many free tiers implement sleep policies that can cause cold starts. Implement strategies to minimize their impact:

// Prewarming function example
async function prewarmFunction() {
  const endpoints = ['/api/critical1', '/api/critical2'];

  for (const endpoint of endpoints) {
    try {
      await fetch(`https://your-app.com${endpoint}`);
    } catch (error) {
      console.error(`Failed to warm ${endpoint}:`, error);
    }
  }
}

Using CDNs for Assets

Offload static assets to dedicated CDNs to preserve bandwidth quotas:

<!-- Use public CDNs for common libraries -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/react@18.2.0/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/react-dom@18.2.0/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>

The landscape of free hosting options in 2025 remains robust, with platforms competing to offer more generous terms. By strategically combining these services—perhaps using Netlify for frontend, Supabase for database, and Cloudflare Workers for specific backend needs—developers can build sophisticated applications without incurring hosting costs.

As your application grows, these platforms provide clear upgrade paths to paid tiers, allowing you to scale efficiently when the time comes. The key is understanding each service’s limitations and architecting your application to work optimally within those constraints.