3 free Node.js hosting services you should be using today (with step-by-step deployment examples)

A2 hosting

A2 Hosting, that’s right. You heard it right. A2 is not just famous for WordPress, but they offer Node.js solution too.

A2 is a cost-effective solution. You can get it started from as low as $3.92 per month.

Every plan comes with unlimited storage.

However, scaling depends on the package you choose. If you are doing rapid development and deployment, then you may want to try out other providers.

Give A2 Hosting a try as they come with an anytime money-back guarantee.

Begin

Хостинг для практически любых веб-приложений на NodeJS или Deno. Бесплатно доступно 5 веб-сайтов, поддерживается Serverless.

Deploy node.js quotes api on vercel #

After you have registered with Vercel and are logged into Vercel, do the following steps:

• And click «Continue»
• You can create your own repo on Github from the screen below:

• After that, select the root as the project’s source code, then click “Continue”

• Subsequently, click deploy in the next screen:

• It will build and deploy the app and you will see a screen like below:

• Now, click the “Visit” button, you should see something like the following:

• Add /quotes to the URL and you should see the quotes in a JSON format like below:

This is set up very well now, you should go to the app’s settings page if you want to tweak anything. You can add environment variables and do other things in the settings. You can even look at the function’s logs.

Each time you open a new pull request in that repository Vercel will give you a deploy preview URL which is very handy. You can see how it looks like below:

On merge to master/main branch, it will auto-deploy the code to the main URL. You can use the Vercel CLI for re-deployments, setting up environment variables, and a host of other things.

Deploy node.js quotes api to heroku #

You will need a free account on Heroku to get started. After you have registered, please follow the steps below to run your Node.js app on Heroku:

• After that click the “View” button, you should see something like below:

• Add /quotes to the URL and you should see the quotes in JSON format as follows:

Wasn’t that easy, there you have the quotes API built with Node.js and Express running on the first free Node.js hosting platform: Heroku.

It did not run magically though, the settings were already present on the repo in the app.json file. This tells Heroku how to deploy the app. For a real-life app, we will need to set the correct environment variable mainly secrets like database credentials properly.

To make it better you can Fork the repository and connect Github as a deployment method for Heroku.

Furthermore, you can set up Pipelines to create staging and production environments in Heroku. You can also use the Heroku CLI for more control over your apps. I leave further exploration to you. Next, let’s look at how to deploy the same application on Vercel.

Deploy node.js quotes api to zeet #

Given you have registered on to Zeet with GitHub and you are logged into Zeet, follow the steps below:

• Subsequently, choose “Node.js 14” on “Build Method” and click “Save” as follows:

• Give it some time to build and deploy, after that, you will see something like below:

• This should redeploy the App, if you go back to the “Deployments” tap it should be deploying/deployed.
• Consequently, click the “Visit” button again you should see something like below:

• Next, add /quotes to the URL and you should see something similar to the following:

Like Vercel, Zeet also provides a deploy preview URL on each pull request. I have a feeling they wanted to compete Zeit with Zeet :), if you know what I mean. Below is a preview of how the deploy perview URL looks like as a comment in your pull reqeust:

Anyway if you want to deploy your own app you will need to delete this demo app and add your own app. Zeet only allows 1 free app. They have more demos in their GitHub account. Zeet does not have a CLI app which is good I suppose as it wants to keep things simple and clean.

There you have it, the same Node.js API deployed on all 3 free Node.js hosting services without even needing to reach your wallet for your credit card.

Digital ocean app platform

Предложил @kanu

На стартовом тарифе можно разместить до 3 статических веб-сайтов:

Evennode

EvenNode specializes in Node.js hosting since 2022. Upload your Node.js application and it just runs. It’s as simple as that. You don’t need to manage any servers or VPS.

EvenNode’s dashboard lets you select Node.js version, scale to multiple regions, or see real-time metrics from your application.

Some of the features include the following.

A great choice for developers who don’t want to manage their own servers. EvenNode provides a 30-day money-back guarantee with no questions asked.

Fastcomet

Leverage FastCloud by Fastcomet to host your Nodejs applications. Servers are optimized for optimal performance, security and come with inbuilt monitoring.

Firebase

PaaS-сервис от Google, позволяющий разработать бэкенд без написания кода, а также разместить свой статический веб-сайт. Вот что входит в стартовый тариф:

Fleek

Позволяет размещать статические сайты, перед этим собирая их на ряде генераторов статических сайтов (если нужного нет в списке, можно выбрать Docker-образ, в котором будет осуществляться сборка, и указать все данные для нее). Бесплатный тариф имеет следующие ограничения:

Github pages

С помощью этого инструмента из любого репозитория GitHub можно развернуть статический веб-сайт. Поддерживается Jekyll, доступен 1 бесплатный домен 3 уровня, SSL, неограниченный трафик.

Glitch

Glitch позиционирует себя как коллаборативный сервис для упрощенной разработки веб-сайтов. В основном здесь находятся проекты на NodeJS, но поддерживается ряд других языков. Приложения запускаются в контейнерах, как на Heroku, и тут так же доступно 1000 бесплатных часов работы приложений в месяц. Однако, если на Heroku проекты заливаются через CLI или Git, здесь присутствует браузерная IDE и терминал.

Heroku

Heroku is my personal favorite when it comes to app hosting. It’s developer-friendly.

I have personally used it for hosting Ruby on Rails apps. That means it supports a wide range of environments and languages, including Node.js.

Heroku is part of the Salesforce organization. They offer a FREE plan, which includes 512MB memory, one web, or worker to get you started.

Highlights

Heroku is an excellent choice for beginners and experienced developers, thanks to its fantastic documentation.

Already using Heroku and looking for an alternative? Continue reading the following…

Hostman

Полноценный хостинг с поддержкой бэкенда и баз данных. Однако бесплатный тариф позволяет разместить до 10 веб-сайтов, и то статических:

Hostpresto

UK-based hosting platform, a good choice if your audience is in Europe. HostPresto offers easy deployment, free backup, SSH access, and all other standard features.

You get an option to choose the Nodejs version, database choice, SSH access, etc. Their servers are Nodejs optimized for optimal performance.

Issues with these services #

Heroku free dynos sleep if they are inactive for 30 minutes.

There is a workaround called Kaffeine that calls your Heroku service every 30 minutes.

Or you can use something like Cron-Job.org to ping your Heroku service every 20 minutes to keep it awake. Heroku has a maximum of 5 applications available on the free tier.

Kamatera

Starting from $4 per month, you get 1GB RAM, 20GB SDD storage, and 5TB network traffic. Kamatera gives you an option to choose the Nodejs version and data center location.

A great option if you are looking to host your Nodejs in the Middle East, China, Europe, or North America.

Netlify

Netlify — прямой конкурент Vercel. Однако, кроме функций, которые предоставляет предыдущий сервис, тут на бесплатном тарифе присутствует:

Nodechef

A specialized in hosting modern web and mobile applications. By the name, you can say it supports only Node.js, but that’s not the case.

NodeChef supports multiple application languages – Python, Go, PHP, Java, etc.

NodeChef hosts your application inside a docker container and has an option to choose between SQL and NoSQL database.

Some of the incomplete features are:

• One-click deployment
• Real-time logs
• Scalable with one click
• Automatic SSL provisioning
• Caching
• Monitoring metrics
• Multiple data center locations

You can deploy using GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, CLI, or upload through their dashboard. Pricing starts at $9 per month, and billing is hourly.

Oracle cloud

Предложил @MSigillite

Oracle так же, как и Microsoft, предоставляет возможность испробовать функции на бесплатной основе. Навсегда предоставляются:

Other options for free node.js hosting #

Some other services where you can host your Node.js application free/almost free but you need to put your credit card are as follows:

1. Fly.io — Pretty good, it is like CDN for the backend. The free plan has 3 shared-CPU-1x VMs with 256 MB of RAM. Asks for a credit-card on registration.
2. Google Cloud Run — You can host your Node.js app on Google Cloud Run as serverless containers. You can get up to 2 million requests per month free. But it will involve setting up Google Cloud Registry and other tools. Part of Google Cloud Platform which asks for a credit card on registration.
3. Openode.io — If you have an open-source project you can ask them for a free plan. The cheapest plan with 50MB of memory is just $0.75 a month.
4. Glitch — Glitch can host one of your Node.js Apps for free. It is better used to code collaboratively than host a Node.js app or API.

You can host your Node.js App on all 3 of the big cloud providers AWS, Azure, and GCP and/or their function as a service (FAAS) serverless options or even on free-forever VM. But, they will ask for your credit-card.

You can even explore other cloud providers like IBM Cloud or Alibaba to host your Node.js app for $0 a month. I will leave the digging deeper part for you.

If you are looking for windows hosting, this Windows VPS Hosting Comparison is great.

Platform.sh

A fully managed, automated hosting platform.

Platform.sh let you host node.js applications in a cluster for better availability & performance. The platform is Git-driven, and you can install the necessary components like Redis, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, etc.

Platform.sh is an enterprise-ready, optimized for modern development frameworks. Support is 24/7.

Prerequisites #

All 3 of these services that we are going to look at in the next sections. Before we dive into actually deploying our Node.js applications below are some prerequisites:

1. You have a GitHub account and know how to fork repositories
2. Your application code is available on GitHub
3. You are able to add third-party applications to your GitHub account.

Time to start revealing our free Node.js hosting services:

Quick comparison of free node.js hosting services #

Below is a quick comparison table for Heroku, Vercel, and Zeet.

After that contrast, let’s look at some other options that are free but still ask for your credit card as a backup option that they can charge if you use more resources.

Repl.it

Подобен предыдущему сервису. Бесплатно предоставляется 0.5 Гб ОЗУ и 0.5 Гб дискового пространства.

Stormkit

Stormkit позволяет размещать только проекты на JavaScript. Бесплатно доступны:

Surge

Хостинг статических сайтов. Бесплатно доступны:

Update: mar 2021 — zeet has started to charge #

Recently Zeet has deprecated its free plan and started to charge $5 for the single shared VM it used to provide free. I would recommend using Qovery as an alternative to Zeet which has a great free plan.

Vercel

Данный сервис позволяет собирать и размещать статические веб-сайты на различных фреймворках (поддерживаются как JS-фреймворки, так и, например, генераторы статических сайтов — Hexo, Hugo, Jekyll и другие). Для каждого проекта выделяется несколько бесплатных доменных имен третьего уровня, есть возможность предпросмотра сборки.

Вот что включает в себя бесплатный тариф:

Vps/vds с node.js — аренда впс по цене от 55 рублей

Заключение

На этом подборка бесплатных хостингов заканчивается. Надеюсь, вы уже нашли себе подходящий вариант и готовы разместить свое приложение.

Буду рад, если вы предложите свои варианты — достойные сервисы будут также внесены в этот список.

Render

Сервис для размещения статических веб-сайтов. Бесплатно доступны: