As DigitalOcean is leaving Github Student, what can I use now for free?
DigitalOcean is the biggest bunch of thieves in suits I’ve ever seen.
I need to know other platforms, eg. Azure
@Jordan_Lee DO leaving the Student Pack isn’t a dead end — but heads-up: half the “free hosting” lists floating around are out of date. Railway, Fly.io, and ElephantSQL all quietly killed their free tiers, so if you follow an old guide you’ll hit a paywall or a dead site. Here’s what’s actually free in 2026, sorted by what you used DO for (Azure’s in here too, per your Q). 
🧭 First — match the replacement to what you actually ran
Your answer picks your tool — don’t just grab the first “free VPS” you see:
① Full VPS / Droplet (a real Linux server) → Oracle / Azure
② Deploying an app (Node, Python backend) → Render / Cloudflare
③ Just a database → Neon / Supabase
④ Static site / frontend → Cloudflare Pages / Vercel
🖥️ Free VPS / cloud servers (the DigitalOcean-style replacements)
- Oracle Cloud — Always Free
the only permanently free real server here. Arm VM, no expiry, no clock. (Honest 2026 note: the Arm free allowance was trimmed to 2 CPU / 12GB in June — still plenty for a student server.) - Azure for Students — $100 credit, NO credit card, renews yearly till you graduate. Real VMs + databases. The closest match to DO and the least hassle to sign up (this is your Azure answer
). - AWS Educate — free labs + credits (EC2/Lambda/S3) + certificates; grab it for the AWS resume line, not just hosting.
- Google Cloud / Skills Boost — free training + a GCP sandbox + limited credits.
| Platform | What you get | Card? | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Cloud | always-free Arm VM |  |
 never |
| Azure Students | $100/yr | |
12 mo, renews |
| AWS Educate | credits + labs |  varies |
limited |
| GCP Skills Boost | training + sandbox | varies |
limited |
🚀 Just deploying an app? (what's STILL free — and what isn't anymore)
Still genuinely free in 2026:
- Render — free web services (they sleep when idle) + free static sites. Best straight-up DO-app replacement.
- Cloudflare Pages / Workers — unlimited bandwidth, no card, great for frontend + serverless backends.
- Vercel — free frontend/full-stack hosting, generous build minutes.
Don’t waste time on these — they dropped their free tiers: Railway (free tier gone since 2023 → one-time $5 trial, then $5/mo) and Fly.io (free allowance ended 2024 → pay-as-you-go, card required). Fine tools, just not free anymore.
🗄️ Just need a database? (the free ones that still exist)
- Neon — serverless Postgres, genuinely generous free tier, scales to zero. This is the replacement for ElephantSQL (which shut down — see below).
- Supabase — free Postgres + auth + storage; great if you want a mini-backend, not just a DB.
- MongoDB Atlas — free 512MB cluster, no expiry, if you’re on Mongo.
Keep your DB provider separate from your compute provider — then if one changes its terms (like DO just did), you swap only that piece.
🎯 The 10-second pick
Ran a full VPS/Droplet → ORACLE CLOUD (free forever, no expiry)
Mostly deploying an app → RENDER (or Cloudflare for frontend)
Just needed a database → NEON or SUPABASE
Want $100 to experiment → AZURE FOR STUDENTS (no card)
😎 Why this saves you (the traps nobody mentions)
- “Free” that expires: most credits (Azure/AWS/GCP) quietly convert to paid after 6–12 months — set a calendar reminder for the expiry date so you’re not surprise-billed.
- “Free” that’s already dead: old guides still list ElephantSQL / Railway / Fly.io as free — they aren’t. Following them = a wasted afternoon.
- Oracle is the only “set it and forget it”: a real Linux server that never asks for a card or expires — closest thing to what DO’s Droplet gave you.
- Split compute + database: the reason this DO exit stings is everything was in one place. Keep them apart and the next vendor change is a 10-minute swap, not a migration.
Bottom line: Oracle Cloud for a real free-forever server, Render for app deploys, Neon/Supabase for a database, and Azure for Students if you just want $100 and no card. Skip Railway/Fly/ElephantSQL — those “free” tiers are gone.
The Student Pack giveth and taketh away — so build on the one tier that never expires, and keep your data where no vendor can evict it. 
Oracle never works for me
DO gone? The free server is still there — you just have to grab it.
═══════════════════════════════
“Oracle never works” = it shows Out of host capacity. That’s a queue, not a ban.
Beat it 3 ways → a retry-script, or add a card (stay $0) for priority, or pick a quiet region.
The only server nobody can ever repossess is one you own — old laptop + a free tunnel.
🎣 The script that grabs a free Oracle Arm server for you (fixes 'out of capacity')
It hammers Oracle’s create button every few seconds until a free slot opens — people land one in hours. Set it, walk away.
▸ 
The original (hitrov) → https://github.com/hitrov/oci-arm-host-capacity
▸ 2026 fork → https://github.com/DefiniteCoding/oci-arm-host-capacity-2026
▸ 
Python version → https://github.com/mohankumarpaluru/oracle-freetier-instance-creation
▸ 
Walkthrough → https://dev.to/alexpua/how-i-stopped-fighting-oracles-out-of-host-capacity-and-let-a-script-catch-a-free-arm-server-for-41a6
💳 Add a card, pay nothing, jump the queue (Pay-As-You-Go priority trick)
An upgraded (Pay-As-You-Go) account gets first pick of the SAME free Arm server. Stay inside always-free limits → bill stays $0. The fix most people miss.
▸ 
Proof it works → https://xxlsteve.net/blog/upgrading-to-payg-to-fix-out-of-capacity-error/
▸ 
Reddit confirm → https://www.reddit.com/r/oraclecloud/comments/18usb4j/oracle_free_tier_and_upgrade_to_payg/
▸ 
Create A1 on PAYG (right way) → https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/discussion/860418/how-do-i-properly-create-an-always-free-ampere-a1-instance-on-a-pay-as-you-go-account
🔒 Stop Oracle from deleting your free server (idle-reclaim keep-alive)
Oracle nukes free VMs that look idle. These keep tiny CPU/RAM activity so yours survives.
▸ NeverIdle → https://github.com/layou233/NeverIdle
▸ 
Docker version → https://github.com/baunilhaeu/neveridledocker
▸ Why + how → https://razib.in/how-to-prevent-oracle-free-tier-vps-reclamation-using-cpu-ram-keepalive-scripts/
🖥️ Google Cloud e2-micro — the SECOND free-forever server (if Oracle still won't)
A real always-free Linux VM in US regions. No expiry. Your Oracle backup plan.
▸ 
Official free tier → https://cloud.google.com/free
▸ Setup guide → https://thedaryls.com/free-for-life-google-cloud-e2-micro-vps/
▸ 
Terraform auto-deploy → https://github.com/Donnie/gcp-free-tier
🏠 Turn your own laptop/Pi into a public server no vendor can evict (free tunnel)
The un-takeaway-able server: your own box, made public with a free tunnel. No card, no port-forward, no static IP. DO can’t cancel what you own.
▸ Cloudflare Tunnel → https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared
▸ 
Tailscale Funnel → https://tailscale.com/kb/1223/funnel
▸ 
frp (self-host relay) → https://github.com/fatedier/frp
▸ Home server guide → https://github.com/trekker-hub/laptop-home-server
🌍 Obscure free VPS providers most lists never mention
Small hosts giving away real VPS. They come and go, but genuinely free right now.
▸ 
Woiden → https://woiden.id/
▸ Hax → https://hax.co.id/
▸ LowEndTalk free-VPS list → https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/174016/a-list-of-free-vpss
▸ Free VPS for open-source devs → https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/212694/free-vps-for-open-source-developers
🚀 Just deploying an app or need a DB? (still free in 2026)
Compute and database, kept SEPARATE — so the next vendor exit is a 10-min swap, not a migration.
App hosting
▸ Render → https://render.com/
▸ Koyeb → https://www.koyeb.com/
▸ Cloudflare Pages/Workers → https://pages.cloudflare.com/
Database
▸ Neon (serverless Postgres) → https://neon.tech/
▸ Supabase → https://supabase.com/
▸ Turso (SQLite edge) → https://turso.tech/
📚 The master free-tier lists (bookmark — they stay updated)
When any tier dies, these tell you what’s still alive. No more chasing dead guides.
▸ free-for-dev → https://github.com/ripienaar/free-for-dev
▸ 
Cloud free-tier comparison → https://github.com/cloudcommunity/Cloud-Free-Tier-Comparison
▸ 
awesome Oracle free tier → https://github.com/neitsab/awesome-oracle-cloud-free-tier
💡 5 real ways students use this the day DO cuts them off
- Ran a Python/Node backend on a Droplet → grab an Oracle A1 with the retry-script, redeploy, same $0.
Have a 24/7 Discord/Telegram bot → Oracle A1 (4 cores) runs it free forever; NeverIdle keeps it alive.- Just hosted a portfolio site → Cloudflare Pages, no card, unlimited bandwidth, 5 min.
- Only needed the Postgres DB → Neon free tier, scales to zero, plug in from anywhere.
Old laptop in a drawer → Cloudflare Tunnel makes it a public server DO can never repossess.
The Student Pack giveth and taketh. Build on the tier no company can revoke — a server you own, or one you had to fight for.
Thank you! Do you have any with one click templates?
Could I please get a response
@Jordan_Lee — sorry for the wait, mate, got buried in other threads 
Here’s your one-click kit
DO’s “1-Click App” was never magic — it’s just a pre-baked template sitting on a server. So you get it back two ways: run your own app-store on that free Oracle box from before, or use a host that ships a template gallery. Here’s the whole kit, sorted by how you’ll use it.
Own the marketplace — installs on your free Oracle box (the DO-Marketplace nobody can pull)
One command on the server → a click-to-deploy app store you control:
- Coolify — 280+ one-click services (WordPress, Ghost, n8n, Supabase, DBs) + git-push deploys. Has an official Oracle free-ARM guide — it’s built for your exact box. The direct DO replacement.
- YunoHost — 400+ apps, ARM-native, auto domain + SSL + logins. Easiest if you want WordPress/Nextcloud “just working.”
- Easypanel — 797 one-click installers, free dev tier · 1Panel — CN powerhouse, 300+ app store, arm64 · CapRover — 300+ apps (ARM ok; a few apps are x86-only) · Dokploy — modern, cleaner, arm64.
- The lazy trick: run Portainer, paste Lissy93’s one template URL → 500+ apps become one-click on your box.
Ready-made free galleries — nothing to run, just click deploy
- Northflank — 100+ stack templates, free Sandbox is always-on (no sleep — rare in 2026).
- Cloudflare templates — one-click Workers/Pages, no sleep, 100k req/day free, no card. Best for bots/APIs/sites.
- Zeabur — 500+ templates, and its $0 plan lets you attach your own server → deploy any template straight onto the Oracle box.
- Sealos App Store (204 apps, free, no card) · ClawCloud Run ($5/mo credit forever via GitHub login) · Render (90 blueprints; free but sleeps 15min).
- Skip the old guides: Railway & Koyeb killed/closed free signups, Replit is paid-to-host now, Glitch shut hosting July 2025. Use Railway’s 4,100-template gallery only as a catalog → copy the repo, run it free on your box.
🧩 Grab by app-type — template libraries per need
- Discord/Telegram bots → discord-bot-template topic · python-telegram-bot (run 24/7 free on the box).
- n8n / automation → official 2,000+ workflow library · Zie619/n8n-workflows (2,000+, searchable) · awesome-n8n-templates · self-hosted AI starter kit (n8n+Ollama+Qdrant, one compose).
- Database → Neon (free serverless Postgres) · Supabase (free, also self-hostable).
- Game servers → Pelican Panel + parkervcp/eggs → one-click Minecraft/Rust/etc on the box.
- Whole ecosystems → Nextcloud App Store (200+ apps inside one install) · LinuxServer Fleet (trusted images).
🗂️ Directories — browse thousands more + auto-make deploy buttons
- binbashbanana/deploy-buttons — the exact “Deploy to X” button + URL for 14 platforms; paste your repo, instant deploy button.
- DeployStack — feed it any docker-compose → get one-click Deploy buttons for Render/Koyeb/DO at once.
- selfh.st/apps — filterable directory with an “is-it-still-alive” tag + ready deploy commands · awesome-selfhosted — the 1,000+ master shopping list · GitHub: one-click-deploy (live).
💎 Rare gems (mostly Chinese ecosystems English lists miss)
- aaPanel (宝塔 international — App Store installs LNMP/WordPress/Docker in ~2 min) · Websoft9 (GitOps lite-PaaS, 200-300 apps) · LazyCat 懒猫微服 (microserver store, even runs a private store).
- Puter — the Glitch replacement: free browser-OS + app store, also self-hostable.
- PikaPods — 100+ open-source apps hosted one-click from ~$1/mo, if you ever don’t want to babysit the box.
- SafeLine 雷池 — one-line self-host WAF: the safe front-door before you expose anything on the Oracle box.
A rented one-click button vanishes when the host does. A one-click store on your own box is a marketplace you’ll never lose the keys to.
!