Comprehensive List of Providers of Truly Free Python App Hosting Services (2026)

Looking for free Python hosting? Compare PythonAnywhere, Render, Google Cloud Run, Oracle Cloud, Vercel and more, with real limits and what no longer works.

Comprehensive List of Providers of Truly Free Python App Hosting Services (2026)

If you have built a Flask API, a FastAPI backend, a Django prototype or a Telegram bot, the next question is always the same: where can I host it for free? The honest answer in 2026 is that a handful of platforms still do, but the landscape has shrunk. Heroku’s free tier ended in 2022, Fly.io retired its free allowances in 2024, and several others have added credit-card requirements or cut their limits this year.

This guide lists the providers of free Python hosting that still exist, explains the catch behind each one, and tells you which project each is best suited for. Every limit below was checked against current documentation and recent reporting, but free tiers change quickly, so confirm details on the provider’s pricing page before you commit.

What “Truly Free” Means Here

To make this list, a provider had to meet four tests:

1. No time-limited trial. The free plan must continue indefinitely, not expire after 30 days.
2. Runs real Python code. Static-only hosts and pure front-end platforms are excluded.
3. Costs nothing at normal hobby usage. Some providers require a card on file but never charge you if you stay within the allowance. These are flagged clearly.
4. Documented limits. You should know exactly where “free” stops.

“Truly free” does not mean “production grade.” Every platform below trades something for the price: sleeping apps, small memory, storage limits or usage caps.

Free Python Hosting at a Glance

1. PythonAnywhere: The Easiest Free Python Host

PythonAnywhere is the most Python-specific host on this list, and its free Beginner account remains a genuine place to put a first project. The company has publicly committed to keeping free accounts for the foreseeable future.

What you get for free:

• One web app at yourusername.pythonanywhere.com
• 512 MiB of disk space
• 100 CPU-seconds per day for consoles and tasks
• Two browser-based consoles
• Support for WSGI frameworks such as Flask and Django

The catch: There is no custom domain, no SSH access and outbound internet requests are limited to an allowlist of approved sites, which can break apps that call arbitrary third-party APIs. Free web apps must be manually extended roughly once a month. Accounts created after 15 January 2026 also no longer include MySQL or the daily scheduled task that older free accounts kept, and support is community-based. FastAPI and other ASGI frameworks are not a natural fit.

Best for: learning, portfolios, small Flask or Django demos and webhook receivers that do not need to call many external services.

2. Render: Best All-Round Free Tier for Modern Frameworks

Render is the closest thing left to the old Heroku experience. You connect a GitHub repository, choose a build command and a start command (for example gunicorn app:app or uvicorn main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port $PORT), and Render handles HTTPS and deployments.

What you get for free:

• Free web services with 512 MB of RAM and a fraction of a CPU
• 750 free instance hours per workspace each calendar month
• Free Postgres and a small Key Value (Redis-compatible) store
• Automatic HTTPS and deploys on every Git push

The catch: Free web services spin down after 15 minutes without traffic and take about a minute to wake on the next request. The filesystem is ephemeral, so uploaded files and local SQLite databases vanish on every restart or redeploy. Free Postgres databases expire 30 days after creation, with a short grace period before deletion. Render also reduced included bandwidth on its plans in April 2026, and its own documentation advises against using free instances for production. Moving a service to a paid instance, from about $7 a month, removes the sleeping behaviour.

Best for: FastAPI and Flask prototypes, internal tools, portfolio APIs and demos that can tolerate a slow first request.

3. Google Cloud Run: Generous Free Allowance for Containers

Cloud Run runs any container, which makes it a flexible home for Python apps of any framework. You are billed per request and per second of CPU and memory, and the monthly free allowance is large enough for many small projects.

What you get for free (per billing account, per month):

• 2 million requests
• 180,000 vCPU-seconds of compute
• 360,000 GiB-seconds of memory
• A small amount of free outbound traffic in eligible regions

The catch: You must attach a billing account with a card, and the free allowance only applies in certain regions. Because the service scales to zero, the first request after idle time suffers a cold start. If your app gets popular, charges start automatically, so set a budget alert on day one.

Best for: containerised FastAPI or Flask APIs, webhook handlers and spiky workloads where the free allowance is more than enough.

4. Oracle Cloud Always Free: A Real Server, With Caveats

Oracle’s Always Free tier gives you something the others do not: an actual always-on virtual machine that you control. You can install Python, Gunicorn, Nginx and a database, and run your app around the clock without sleeping.

What you get for free:

• Two small AMD-based VMs (1 OCPU and 1 GB RAM each)
• Ampere Arm compute, now reduced to roughly 2 OCPUs and 12 GB of RAM in total, down from 4 OCPUs and 24 GB
• Block storage and generous monthly outbound data

The catch: Oracle halved the Arm allowance in June 2026 without a public announcement, and reports indicate that instances exceeding the new limit can be terminated. A card is required for sign-up verification, popular regions often run out of free Arm capacity, and you are responsible for security patches, firewalls and backups. Treat it as a learning server rather than a mission-critical one.

Best for: developers comfortable with Linux who want a persistent process, such as a Discord bot, a scheduled worker or a small API.

5. Vercel Hobby: Serverless Python Functions

Vercel is best known for front-end frameworks, but its platform also runs Python functions, so a lightweight FastAPI or Flask API can live alongside a front end in one project.

What you get for free:

• Around 100 GB of data transfer per month
• About 1 million function invocations and 1 million edge requests
• A few CPU hours of function execution each month
• Git-based deployments with preview URLs

The catch: The Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use only. Functions are short-lived rather than long-running, so background workers and WebSocket-heavy apps are a poor match. From September 2026, Hobby projects also keep only the three most recent production deployments.

Best for: small serverless APIs, form handlers and Python back ends for a hobby front end.

6. Hugging Face Spaces: Free Hosting for Machine-Learning Demos

Hugging Face Spaces has long been the default place to publish Gradio and Streamlit-style demos of machine-learning models.

What you get for free: static Spaces, and, depending on current policy, a limited number of Gradio Spaces on shared GPU hardware for personal accounts. Basic CPU hardware has historically offered 2 vCPUs and 16 GB of RAM.

The catch: Free hardware goes to sleep after about 48 hours without visitors. Reporting from mid-2026 indicates that creating Gradio and Docker Spaces now requires a paid plan for most users, so check the current pricing page before building around it. Private Spaces are a paid feature.

Best for: public ML demos, model showcases and data-science portfolios.

7. Railway: A Trial, Not a Free Host

Railway offers a one-time trial credit of about $5 valid for 30 days, followed by a Free plan with roughly $1 of monthly usage. That is enough to experiment with a deployment, but it will not keep an app running all month. It is included here because developers frequently search for it, and so you can avoid the surprise.

Best for: short experiments and testing a deployment workflow before moving elsewhere.

Platforms That Are No Longer Free

Many older guides still recommend providers that have since changed their terms. Skip these if you want a genuinely free Python host:

• Heroku: The free dyno plan ended on 28 November 2022. The cheapest option is now a paid Eco plan.
• Fly.io: The monthly free allowance was removed for new customers in October 2024. New accounts get only a very short trial.
• Koyeb: Its free instance, once a favourite because it did not sleep, now requires a card with a pre-authorisation hold. Reporting on the exact terms varies, and the company’s acquisition by Mistral AI in February 2026 has added uncertainty.
• Glitch, Cyclic and Deta Space: These hosting services have been shut down.

How to Choose the Right Free Python Host

Match the host to the framework. Flask and Django on a simple setup fit PythonAnywhere. FastAPI, Docker and anything using uvicorn fit Render or Cloud Run.

Decide whether sleeping is acceptable. If a one-minute wake-up is fine, Render is the easiest option. If you need a process running continuously, Oracle’s free VM is the only realistic choice.

Think about data. Free tiers rarely keep your files. Plan to store data in an external managed database with its own free plan rather than local SQLite.

Practical Tips for Deploying Python Apps for Free

1. Pin your dependencies in requirements.txt so builds are repeatable and fast.
2. Read the port from the environment (os.environ.get("PORT", 8000)), because most platforms assign it dynamically.
3. Use a production server such as Gunicorn or Uvicorn rather than the built-in development server.
4. Avoid keep-alive pinging tricks. Services that ping your app to stop it sleeping may violate the provider’s terms and can burn through your monthly hours.
5. Set billing alerts on any provider that requires a card.
6. Keep a backup plan. Free tiers can change without warning, so make sure your app is containerised or easy to redeploy elsewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there completely free Python hosting with no credit card?

Yes. PythonAnywhere’s Beginner plan and Render’s free web services have both been available without a card, and Vercel Hobby and Hugging Face Spaces do not require one for their free options either. Cloud Run and Oracle Cloud do require a card for verification.

Which free host is best for FastAPI?

Render is the simplest option for FastAPI because it supports any start command and builds directly from GitHub. Google Cloud Run is a strong choice if you are comfortable with Docker and want a larger allowance.

Can I run a Telegram or Discord bot for free?

Bots need a continuously running process, which most free tiers do not allow. Oracle Cloud’s free VM is the most realistic option. Render’s free tier will sleep unless your bot receives webhook traffic regularly.

Can I use a custom domain on free Python hosting?

On PythonAnywhere’s free plan, no. Render, Vercel and Cloud Run support custom domains on their free offerings, although details vary, so check each provider’s documentation.

Are free Python hosting plans safe for production?

Generally no. Render explicitly advises against using free instances for production, and cold starts, small memory and sudden policy changes make free tiers better suited to prototypes, portfolios and learning.

Truly free Python hosting still exists, but it is smaller and more conditional than it was a few years ago. For beginners, PythonAnywhere is the gentlest start. For modern frameworks, Render is the most convenient. For container fans, Google Cloud Run offers the largest allowance, and for an always-on server, Oracle Cloud remains the most powerful free option despite its 2026 cut.

Start with the platform that matches your framework, keep your app portable, and upgrade to a low-cost paid plan the moment your project needs to stay online around the clock.

Pricing and limits were reviewed in October 2026. Always confirm current terms on each provider’s official pricing page.