Hosting for $0: A Developer's Guide to Free Deployment in 2025

As a developer, one of the most satisfying moments is seeing your project go live. For years, the “go-to” method for static sites was to configure an AWS S3 bucket, maybe stick CloudFront in front of it, and manage the deployment pipeline yourself. While effective, this approach can be cumbersome to set up and, if you’re not careful with the free tier, can lead to surprise bills.

Today, the landscape is entirely different. A new class of hosting platforms, built for the modern JAMstack architecture, has emerged. These platforms offer seamless Git-based workflows, global Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), and advanced features like serverless functions—all with free tiers so generous that you can run serious, production-ready projects for a grand total of $0.

But which one should you choose? While you can’t go wrong with any of them, they each have unique strengths. Let’s break down the top contenders.

The Modern Contenders: A Quick Comparison

Here’s a high-level look at the free tiers of the most popular platforms. Note that these are for personal/hobby projects and commercial use may require a paid plan (especially with Vercel).

1. Cloudflare Pages: The Performance King

If your primary concerns are raw speed and security, Cloudflare Pages is nearly impossible to beat. Built on Cloudflare’s world-class edge network, it’s designed to serve your static assets from a location physically close to your users, resulting in lightning-fast load times.

• Why Choose It?

  • Unlimited Bandwidth & Requests: This is the headline feature. You simply don’t have to worry about traffic spikes causing overage charges on the free tier.
  • Built-in Security: You get Cloudflare’s industry-leading DDoS protection and a free SSL certificate by default.
  • Workers Integration: Its serverless platform, Cloudflare Workers, is deeply integrated, allowing you to add powerful dynamic functionality right at the edge.

• Best For:

  • High-traffic static sites, like popular blogs or marketing websites.
  • Projects where global performance is the top priority.
  • Developers who are already invested in the Cloudflare ecosystem.

2. Netlify: The All-in-One Powerhouse

Netlify was one of the original pioneers of the modern Git-based workflow and has built an incredibly rich, developer-friendly ecosystem around it. It excels at providing a seamless “batteries-included” experience.

• Why Choose It?

  • Ease of Use: The user interface is famously intuitive. You can go from a GitHub repository to a live, globally-deployed site with a custom domain in under five minutes.
  • Rich Feature Set: The free tier includes features that others charge for, like processing for HTML forms, user identity management (Netlify Identity), and A/B split testing.
  • Huge Plugin Ecosystem: You can extend your build process with a vast library of plugins, from sitemap generators to accessibility checkers.

• Best For:

  • Static sites that need extra features like forms or authentication without a custom backend.
  • Developers who value an all-in-one platform and a fantastic user experience.
  • Portfolios, marketing sites, and full-featured blogs.

3. Vercel: The Next.js & Frontend Specialist

Vercel is the company behind Next.js, one of the most popular React frameworks in the world. As you’d expect, its platform is hyper-optimized to provide the best possible experience for building and deploying Next.js applications, but it works wonderfully with other frameworks too (like Hugo!).

• Why Choose It?

  • Unmatched Developer Experience (DX): Vercel is renowned for its polished interface and fast, reliable build pipeline. Features like automatic Preview Deployments for every git push are game-changing for team collaboration.
  • Optimized for Frameworks: It’s built from the ground up to support modern frontend development, with first-class support for Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR).
  • Powerful Serverless Functions: Easily add a backend API to your frontend project by simply creating files in an /api directory.

• Best For:

  • Next.js projects (it’s the default choice).
  • Frontend developers who prioritize a cutting-edge, seamless workflow.
  • Projects that may start static but could evolve to need more dynamic, server-rendered components.

4. GitHub Pages: The Simple & Integrated Original

The original, and still one of the simplest. If your code already lives on GitHub and you don’t need a backend or serverless functions, GitHub Pages is a rock-solid, no-frills choice.

• Why Choose It?

  • Ultimate Simplicity: Enable it with a few clicks in your repository’s settings. There’s no separate platform to sign up for.
  • Deep Integration: It’s built right into GitHub. You can even use GitHub Actions to create a custom build and deployment process (which gets you around the 10 builds-per-hour limit).
  • Reliability: It’s incredibly stable and perfect for project documentation, personal blogs, or simple landing pages.

• Best For:

  • Project documentation sites that live alongside the code.
  • Simple personal websites or portfolios where you don’t need serverless functions.
  • Developers looking for the absolute simplest “code-to-live-site” path.

Conclusion: Which Free Host is Right for You?

Choosing a deployment platform is no longer about finding the cheapest option; it’s about selecting the right workflow for your project.

• Start with Cloudflare Pages if you anticipate high traffic and want maximum speed.
• Choose Netlify if you want an easy-to-use, all-in-one solution with features like forms.
• Opt for Vercel if you’re using a modern frontend framework like Next.js or value a state-of-the-art developer experience.
• Use GitHub Pages for maximum simplicity for your code-focused projects.

The beauty is that they are all free to start. You can try deploying the same project to two or three of them in an afternoon and see which one fits you best. The days of wrestling with server configuration are over; welcome to the future of deployment.