Beyond Vercel: How to Deploy Your Next Project for Free, Forever

June 15, 2025

As developers, we love the simplicity of platforms like Vercel and Netlify. You connect a Git repository, and moments later, your site is live on a global CDN. It’s a fantastic workflow. But once your project grows, you inevitably hit a ceiling and the monthly bill starts to climb.

What if you could have the same (or better) performance and scalability without the looming cost?

The secret is to look past the all-in-one platforms and compose your own powerful deployment pipeline using the surprisingly generous “Always Free” tiers offered by the foundational cloud providers: AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle. These aren’t just 12-month trials; these are services that remain free forever, up to a certain usage limit.

By understanding these offers, you can host static sites, serverless APIs, and even small virtual servers without ever paying a dime. Let’s break down the best strategies.

The Holy Trinity of Free Deployment

No matter which provider you choose for the core hosting, your secret weapon is Cloudflare. Their free plan is legendary for a reason and acts as the perfect front door for any deployment.

Cloudflare’s Free Offering:

  • Global CDN: Caches your site at data centers around the world, making it lightning-fast for all your users.
  • Free SSL: Automatically provisions and renews SSL certificates for HTTPS.
  • DDoS Protection: Shields your site from malicious attacks.
  • Unlimited Bandwidth: This is the most critical part. Cloudflare does not charge for bandwidth for static assets. This means you can serve terabytes of data from their cache for free, eliminating the biggest potential cost from other providers.

The Golden Rule: Whatever strategy you choose below, put Cloudflare in front of it.

Strategy 1: The Classic - Serverless Static Site (AWS or Google Cloud)

This is the most common and reliable method for hosting sites like the one you’re reading now. The backend provider stores your files, and Cloudflare distributes them globally.

Option A: AWS S3 + Cloudflare

  • What it is: You store your website’s files (HTML, CSS, JS) in an Amazon S3 bucket.
  • AWS Free Tier:
    • Amazon S3: 5 GB of standard storage (12 months free, but so cheap it’s nearly free thereafter).
    • The Catch: AWS charges for “egress” (data transferred out of S3). A moderately popular site could start racking up bandwidth costs.
  • How to make it free forever: By putting Cloudflare in front of your S3 bucket, almost all your traffic will be served from Cloudflare’s cache. Your users get a faster site, and you almost completely bypass S3’s egress fees because Cloudflare is requesting the files, not thousands of individual users. You get world-class storage and world-class delivery for $0.

Option B: Google Cloud Storage + Cloudflare

  • What it is: Exactly the same principle as the AWS method, but using Google’s infrastructure.
  • Google Cloud Free Tier:
    • Cloud Storage: 5 GB of regional storage per month, always free.
    • The Catch: Just like AWS, Google charges for egress.
  • How to make it free forever: The same solution applies. Point your Cloudflare distribution to your Google Cloud Storage bucket. The generous 100GB of free monthly egress from North America in Google’s plan gives you even more breathing room than AWS.

Strategy 2: The Powerhouse - An Always-On Server (Oracle Cloud)

Sometimes a static site isn’t enough. You need a small backend server to run a Node.js API, a Python script, a database, or a set of Docker containers. This is where Oracle’s free tier truly shines and demolishes the competition.

  • What it is: Oracle provides you with powerful virtual machine (VM) resources that are yours to use, forever.
  • Oracle Cloud Free Tier:
    • Ampere A1 Compute (ARM): An incredible 4 CPU cores and 24 GB of RAM, always free. You can split this into multiple VMs.
    • AMD Compute (x86): 2 smaller VMs, always free.
    • Storage: 200 GB of block storage and 20 GB of object storage.
    • Bandwidth: A massive 10 TB of egress per month, always free.

What this means: You can run a surprisingly powerful server 24/7 for absolutely nothing. You could host:

  • A full MERN/PERN stack application.
  • A self-hosted Ghost blog instead of using their paid plans.
  • A private Docker registry.
  • A backend API for your mobile or web app.
  • A staging server for testing your projects.

While setting this up requires more command-line knowledge than a simple static site, the value is astronomical. You get a level of power and flexibility that would cost you $50-$100/month on other platforms. And yes, you can (and should) still put Cloudflare in front of it for caching and security.

Putting It All Together: The Ultimate Free Stack

For a project requiring both a static frontend and a dynamic backend, you can combine these strategies.

  1. Frontend: Build your React/Vue/Hugo site and deploy the static assets to Google Cloud Storage.
  2. Backend: Write your API in Node, Go, or Rust and run it on a free Oracle Cloud Ampere A1 instance.
  3. Delivery & Security: Use Cloudflare to manage your DNS. Point your main domain (www.yoursite.com) to the Google Cloud Storage bucket and a subdomain (api.yoursite.com) to your Oracle server’s IP address.

With this setup, you have an infinitely scalable frontend, a powerful and persistent backend, and a world-class security/CDN layer, all for a grand total of $0.00.

It requires more initial setup than a one-click platform, but the payoff is a deep understanding of your infrastructure, zero platform lock-in, and the freedom to scale without fear of a surprise bill.

Interested in building this kind of efficient, cost-effective infrastructure for your next project? Let’s talk.