Do you know what’s important for every developer? It is to have a space (virtual space on the internet) where he can try out his creative ideas. Maybe it can be building a new app, or testing a fresh piece of code or let’s say he wants to experiment with plugins and themes.
That’s why a cloud server is important, as it allows you to do all of this without any issues like setting up heavy systems on your own computer.
| By the way, we want to tell you that if you plan to set up your own server locally to host your work, then it can be really very costly and time-consuming as you’ll end up wasting time managing and handling the server only. That’s why we recommend you should go with a cloud server only. |
For many developers, a server acts like a personal playground. You can use it as a staging site before going live, test different tools, or simply learn by trying things hands-on. You even get to see how your project works online. That’s why a cloud server is so important for learners and professionals.
In this post, we’ve gathered some of the best free cloud servers that you can start using right away. There are also few providers that do not require credit card details to let you begin. You just need to sign up, set up your server, and begin working right away.
- What is Cloud Hosting?
- Why Do Developers Need Free Cloud Servers?
- List of 7 best Free Cloud Server for Developers in (2025 Updated List)
- 7 Best Free Cloud Servers for developers In 2025
- How to Choose the Best Cloud Server? Key Factors
- Step-by-Step: How to Get Started with a Free Linux Cloud Server?
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Conclusion
What is Cloud Hosting?
Cloud hosting is a type of web hosting where websites run on virtual servers instead of a single physical machine. In very simple words, your data and files are stored on a cloud (what is a cloud? It is a network of connected servers) rather than on one server.
This makes it more reliable and fast because if one server has an issue, another server in the network will keep your site running.
Businesses use cloud hosting to run websites, host apps, or store data securely. Developers use it to test new projects and build scalable solutions without worrying about server crashes.
Why Do Developers Need Free Cloud Servers?
For many developers, especially beginners, spending money on servers at the start is not always possible. Free cloud servers give them a way to practice, experiment, and learn without worrying about costs. With these free options, developers can test apps and improve their coding skills:
List of 7 best Free Cloud Server for Developers in (2025 Updated List)
Below we’ve added a table that gives you a proper understanding of all the best free cloud servers for developers in 2025. In the table, we’ve also included their main use cases, if they provide a money-back guarantee, and if they ask for a credit card during signup.
| Cloud Provider | Best use case | Credit Card Needed | Free Trial Money Back Guarantee | Try Now |
| Kamatera | Newbie developers | Yes | 30 days | Try Now |
| Google Cloud Platform | Learner developers testing new plugins | No | No money back mentioned | Try Now |
| Microsoft Azure | Freelancers | Yes | Not mentioned | Try Now |
| Oracle Cloud | Data Scientists & AI developers | No | 30 days | Try Now |
| VPSServer.com | Professionals | Yes | 30 days | Try Now |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Developers, experimenting with various OS | Yes | No money back mentioned | Try Now |
| Alibaba Cloud | App Developers and Software engineers | No | 30 days | Try Now |
7 Best Free Cloud Servers for developers In 2025
To get more details about all the top free cloud servers for developers, please read the blog further. We’ve covered everything you need to know so you can compare and pick the best one for your needs. But before registering for a free plan, always do a detailed analysis of the provider.
| Later, when your project grows, you can upgrade to a premium server to scale the resources smoothly. |
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Free Tier
AWS offers a Free Plan under its Free Tier designed for new users to explore cloud services risk-free. With this plan, you receive up to $200 USD in credits! $100 upon sign-up and up to $100 more as you complete exploration activities, valid for up to 6 months or until credits are depleted, whichever comes first. You won’t incur any charges unless you switch to a Paid Plan.
You can experiment with AWS’s global infrastructure network, its powerful, highly available cloud network spanning multiple regions and availability zones, which ensures low-latency, fault-tolerant performance across AWS services. AWS supports multiple OS options for EC2 instances, including popular Linux distributions like Amazon Linux, Ubuntu, RHEL, as well as Windows Server editions, giving you flexible choices for workloads.
Unique Features
Plans
| On-Demand Pricing | No long-term commitment; pay for what you use |
| Dedicated Hosts | For Price (Contact the Sales Team) |
Best for
Developers are experimenting with various OS and cloud services securely.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Free Tier
New users can get started with Google Cloud at no cost! You just need to sign up and receive $300 in free credits valid for 90 days, enabling you to test and explore cloud services without worry.
These credits can be applied toward deploying Google-recommended solutions like dynamic websites, load-balanced virtual machines, or three-tier web apps, all without being charged unless you explicitly activate a paid account
On top of the trial, Google offers a robust Always Free tier that gives access to over 20 core products with usage quotas that refresh each month and don’t expire. This includes 1 e2-micro virtual machine instance on Compute Engine, 5 GB of Cloud Storage, 2 million Cloud Run requests, and more, letting you build, test, and run small-scale apps indefinitely within these limits
Unique Features
Plans
| OnDemand e2 Micro | Minimal (its an hourly pricing) |
| Cloud Storage | $0.02 per GB per month |
Best for
Freelance developers building and testing plugins, themes, or small applications.
Kamatera
You can start your app development journey with Kamatera’s 30-day free trial! During this period, you get up to US$100 credit to deploy one cloud server of your choice, with full flexibility over CPU, RAM and storage configuration.
Enjoy 1 TB of block storage, 1 TB of traffic and access to enterprise-grade features like cloud firewall, load balancing, and 24/7 support. Choose from multiple operating systems, from Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky/AlmaLinux to Windows Server, and set up exactly what your web or app needs.
This trial gives you a real, production-quality experience: you can scale up/down within the $100 credit envelope, test essential addons (control panels, database servers, web servers etc.), experiment with security with firewalls, and deploy in any of Kamatera’s global data centres. Let’s say you’re building your first app or prototyping a SaaS, this gives you enough space to build and measure without cost.
Unique Features
Plans
| Plan#1 (RAM: 1GB, Storage: 20GB NVMe SSD) | $4 per month (You can even choose Hourly billing) |
| Plan#2 (RAM: 2GB, Storage: 20GB NVMe SSD) | $6 per month (You can even choose Hourly billing) |
Best for
Web or Full-Stack Developers need to test web apps under real server conditions
Microsoft Azure Free Account
Microsoft Azure offers a free account that lets new users explore and experiment in the cloud without paying up front. When you sign up, you get US$200 credit to use over the first 30 days on many Azure services. After that, for up to 12 months, you also get free monthly quotas of many popular services, plus a number of services that remain free.
The free account allows you to use cloud computing (servers / virtual machines), storage, databases, and networking, within certain limits. If you exceed those free limits or use services not in the free list, you’ll be billed under pay-as-you-go rates.
Unique Features
Plans
| Pay On Demand | No limit (Pay for what you use only) |
| Plan#1 | Contact the Sales Team |
Best for
VPSServer.com Free Trial
VPSServer gives you fast, reliable, and secure cloud servers that you can set up instantly. With over 20+ global locations, you can choose the best server close to your audience for low latency and better speed. It supports both Linux and Windows, and you can fully customize CPU, RAM, and storage to match your project needs.
It offers a 30-day free cloud server trial where you also get a $100 credit bonus to test their high-performance hosting. During the trial, you can launch a VPS in minutes, try out CPU-optimized or memory-optimized plans, and explore features like real-time backups, advanced firewall protection, and DDoS security without paying upfront.
Unique Features
Plans
| Plan#1 (RAM: 512MB, Storage: 5GB NVMe SSD) | $4 per month (Hourly billing available as well) |
| Plan#2 (RAM: 2GB, Storage: 20GB NVMe SSD) | $6 per month (Hourly billing available as well) |
Best for
Developers, startups, and small businesses who want to test cloud hosting before paying
Alibaba Cloud Free Tier
Alibaba Cloud offers a Free Cloud Server Trial through its Elastic Compute Service (ECS), allowing users to explore enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure with no upfront cost.
With high-performance CPUs, scalable storage, and secure networking, the trial helps businesses and developers experience the platform before committing to a plan. Users can quickly deploy instances across global regions and scale up or down based on demand.
The free trial also provides access to advanced features like global deployment, high availability, and flexible billing methods. Developers, startups, and enterprises can experiment with different workloads, be it for web hosting, testing environments, or lightweight applications, while ensuring security and reliability backed by a 99.975% SLA.
Unique Features
Plans
| ECS Compute Instance c9i (8vCore CPU) | $31.90 per month |
| ECS General Purpose g9i (8vCore CPU) | $40.69 per month |
Best for
Startups can use the free services to launch websites or apps cost-effectively with scalable resources.
Oracle Cloud Free Tier
Oracle Cloud Free Tier lets you build, test, and run your apps without paying at the start. You get US$300 free credits for 30 days to try out all Oracle Cloud services, along with a set of Always Free services that never expire. This means even after your trial ends, you still have free access to basic cloud resources.
With the free trial, you can explore compute power, storage, AI, databases, and more without risk. If you like the services, you can later switch to a Pay-As-You-Go plan and pay only for what you use. If not, you still continue enjoying the Always Free services forever.
Unique Features
Plans (Table format)
| Compute – Ampere A1 – OCPU | $0.009 per CPU per Hour |
| Compute – Standard – A2 – OCPU | $0.03 per CPU per Hour |
Best for
It is useful for Data Scientists & AI Developers for training models and experimenting with AI.
How to Choose the Best Cloud Server? Key Factors
Getting hold of the right cloud server can be really a headache because there are so many platforms offering free trials and free tiers. Each service looks good, but the hidden limitations make the decision tricky. Picking the best free cloud server is actually a skill and to master it, you need to look closely at four main factors.
Free tier limitations (CPU, RAM, bandwidth)
Admin/root access, OS flexibility
Reliability, support, and documentation
No credit card or easy signup process
Step-by-Step: How to Get Started with a Free Linux Cloud Server?
Many developers reading this blog might be complete beginners who have never used a cloud server before. If you’re one of them, don’t worry! Setting up a free Linux cloud server is much easier than it looks. Here, we’ll guide you step by step on how to sign up and start a free trial with Kamatera, one of the popular platforms for developers.
We’ve used Kamatera’s free cloud server 30 days free trial as the setup is easy and navigable to show.
Lastly, you can access your server and use the login details (IP, username, password) to connect via SSH.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why are startups using cloud server hosting?
Startups love cloud servers because they don’t need to buy expensive hardware to get started. Instead of spending money on physical servers, they can rent space on the cloud and pay only for what they use. This helps them save money and grow faster. Cloud servers also make it easy to test new apps, launch websites, or try new ideas without any big risks.
What happens after free credits expire?
Cloud platforms give free credits for a limited time so users can try their premium services. Once the free credits are finished, your account usually stops working until you add a payment method. This means your apps or projects on that server may go offline. To continue using the service, you need to upgrade to a paid plan or add billing details.
Do free tiers include SLAs (service-level agreements)?
No! Free cloud server tiers do not come with SLAs. An SLA is a guarantee from the provider about uptime and support. Since free services are meant mainly for learning & experimenting, companies usually don’t promise strong performance. That means if your server goes down, you may not get support or compensation.
What programming languages are supported on these platforms?
Almost all big cloud platforms support a wide range of programming languages like Python, Java, JavaScript (Node.js), PHP, Ruby, Go, C#, and more. They also support frameworks like Django, Laravel, React, or Spring Boot.
How difficult is it to migrate from free to paid plans?
Moving from a free plan to a paid plan is very simple. You only need to add your billing details and select the plan you want. Your existing projects or databases remain the same, so you don’t lose your work.
The upgrade just unlocks more features, more server power, and better support. For example, if you were using a free database, it can continue to work as is but with a paid plan, you can store more data and get faster performance.
Conclusion
Free cloud servers are a good way for new developers to practice, test, and grow their skills without spending money upfront. They give you a safe space to try out coding experiments, test apps, or run projects online before launching them fully.
Features like cloud storage, staging areas, and easy setups make them a very useful option for learning as well as professional use.
If you’re not sure which one to go for, try Kamatera. Why?
It gives you a 30-day free trial along with $100 credit to explore their services. You’ll also get 1TB cloud storage, access to a load balancer, and multiple data centers to pick from. Plus, you can configure the cloud server in your own way to match your project’s needs.
With all these benefits, free cloud servers can save both your time and effort while helping you focus on building better projects. So, go ahead and set one up, it might be the easiest step you take toward smoother and smarter development.
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