Browse free offerings

Free-tier offerings shipped by 37signals.

Abstract API offers a set of REST APIs for common infrastructure tasks: email validation, exchange rates, IP geolocation, website screenshots, and web scraping. For builders, the appeal is breadth with a low-friction interface. The email tool helps cut bounce rates and clean signups. The exchange rate API covers live and historical currency data, including fiat and crypto. IP geolocation adds location and security context to requests. Screenshot capture turns URLs or HTML into images for previews and QA. The scraping API rounds out the stack for structured data extraction. Several products include a free tier, making it easy to try production-style workflows without immediate spend.

Amazon Web Services is a cloud platform with a broad set of developer services, from compute and storage to databases, messaging, identity, and delivery. Its free tiers are useful because they let builders assemble real workloads without paying upfront for every layer. DynamoDB, CloudFront, Cognito, SNS, X-Ray, Step Functions, CodePipeline, and Amazon Q Developer all offer entry points for testing, prototyping, and small production apps. Compared with peers, the appeal is breadth: you can try a database, CDN, auth, CI/CD, tracing, and workflow orchestration inside one ecosystem. For teams already building on AWS, the free tier can cover the early phases of an application stack.

Atlassian makes cloud tools for code hosting, project tracking, documentation, incident comms, and team collaboration. The free tiers are useful because they cover several core builder workflows without forcing an early upgrade. Jira’s free plan supports up to 10 users with issue tracking, boards, dashboards, and limited automation. Bitbucket adds private Git repos plus pull requests and Pipelines, with a small-cap plan that includes workspace storage and build minutes. Confluence and Trello give teams a place to document work and organize tasks, while Loom and Statuspage cover async updates and incident messaging. It is a broad stack, but the free offerings are strongest for small teams that want connected tools from planning through delivery.

BrowserStack is a cloud testing platform for web and mobile apps that gives developers access to real desktop browsers and real iOS and Android devices. It covers manual testing, automation, visual testing, accessibility checks, and reporting, which makes it useful for teams that want to test against real environments rather than emulators. Its free tier is notable because it is not just a trial. The pricing page includes concrete free offerings, including a Freelancer plan with 100 minutes of Live or App Live, plus Percy Free for visual testing with 5,000 screenshots. For builders, that combination offers a practical way to validate releases, catch UI regressions, and explore cross-device coverage without paying upfront.

Cloudflare provides a connectivity cloud for websites, applications, and networks, with tools for CDN, DNS, security, serverless compute, storage, and edge data services. Its free tier is notable because it goes beyond a basic website plan: developers can use Workers for edge functions, Pages for static and Jamstack sites, D1 for SQLite-style serverless databases, R2 for object storage without egress fees, and Queues for background jobs. For builders, that means a real path from frontend hosting to APIs, persistence, and async processing without stitching together multiple vendors. The free plan also includes core performance and protection features that make it useful for personal projects and early-stage apps.

Free-tier offerings shipped by Crucial Human.

DigitalOcean sells cloud infrastructure and developer tools for building, deploying, and watching applications. Its free offerings cover several parts of that stack: App Platform for managed web apps, APIs, worker services, and static sites; Functions for serverless code; Uptime for endpoint monitoring and alerting; and a private container registry for image storage. Paperspace by DigitalOcean adds GPU and machine learning infrastructure, with a free Gradient plan that keeps public projects available but comes with clear limits. For builders, the appeal is not a token trial but a set of usable free tiers that support early development, lightweight production, and basic observability in one ecosystem.

Docker provides the container platform many teams use to build, test, ship, and run software consistently across environments. Its free tier is useful because it covers core container workflows rather than a thin trial: local development tools, image distribution, and access to parts of the broader ecosystem for modern app delivery. For builders, the main draw is the ability to work with containers without paying upfront, while also tapping into Docker Hub’s free catalog of hardened images. That gives teams a way to start with secure, minimal base images and packaged components for common runtimes and infrastructure pieces, which can reduce setup work compared with assembling everything from scratch.

Firebase bundles managed building blocks for web and mobile apps: static hosting, serverless functions, and two NoSQL databases for syncing data in real time. Its free tier is useful because it lets developers prototype a full stack without stitching together separate vendors, with hosting on a global CDN, HTTPS, preview channels, and rollback support, plus event-driven backend logic and realtime storage. Cloud Firestore and Realtime Database cover different data models, while Cloud Functions handles server-side work without servers. Compared with many starter plans, the appeal is breadth: enough to launch and test an app, not just a landing page.

GitHub is a code hosting and collaboration platform built around repositories, pull requests, issues, code review, project planning, automation, and security tooling. For builders, the free tier is appealing because it covers the basics of software delivery in one place, with enough room to manage projects, review code, and ship small tools without paying up front. It also stands out for offering GitHub Pages, an always-free static site host for publishing sites directly from a repository. Compared with narrower source control tools, it combines version control, team workflows, and lightweight deployment in a single workflow, which makes it useful for solo developers and small teams alike.

Google’s free offerings span cloud infrastructure, authentication, notebooks, and consumer AI. For builders, Google Cloud’s signup credit and limited always-free usage are the main draw, giving new projects room to test compute, storage, and managed services before paying. Firebase Authentication adds a generous identity layer for apps, with email/password, social logins, and account linking at no charge within its free tier. Colab is a browser-based Python notebook with free access to hosted runtimes and occasional GPU or TPU availability, useful for prototyping and research. Gemini rounds out the stack with a free chat assistant for writing, planning, and analysis, making Google unusually broad across both app development and everyday workflow tools.

HashiCorp makes infrastructure software for provisioning, image building, and secrets management. Its free offerings give builders access to tools used across the stack: HCP Terraform for coordinating Terraform workflows in a shared cloud environment, Packer for creating consistent machine images from a single template, and Vault for identity-based secrets management with credits to explore. That mix is useful because it covers day-to-day infrastructure automation as well as security and release hygiene, without forcing teams to adopt separate point tools. Compared with many free tiers that stop at a sandbox, these products let developers work with real workflows, then scale into more governed operations as needs grow.

Microsoft offers a broad cloud stack for building and operating applications, with Azure App Service, Azure Functions, virtual machines, and Entra ID in the mix. For developers, the free or introductory tiers are useful because they cover the basics of hosting web apps, running event-driven code, spinning up Linux or Windows VMs, and handling identity and access control without immediate spend. App Service and Functions reduce the need to manage servers, while Entra ID gives teams a way to test single sign-on and multifactor authentication. Compared with many cloud peers, the value is less about a single giveaway and more about a free entry point across compute, app hosting, and identity.

A web app deployment platform, Netlify hosts sites and apps from Git, the CLI, drag-and-drop uploads, API workflows, or AI prompts. It packages global CDN delivery with deploy previews, serverless functions, built-in identity, file storage, and managed Postgres through Netlify Database. For builders, the free tier is notable less for a throwaway trial than for a usable starting point: 300 credits a month, unlimited deploy previews, and the basics needed to ship modern frontend projects with some backend pieces attached. Compared with static hosting alone, it stretches into app infrastructure without forcing an early move to paid cloud services.

Free-tier offerings shipped by Okta.

Railsware Products Studio LLC builds developer tools for email and data automation. Mailtrap covers both sides of email work: a sandbox that catches test messages in staging and QA, and an Email API/SMTP service for transactional and promotional sending, with templates, webhooks, SDKs, bulk delivery, and deliverability analytics. Coupler.io is a no-code data integration tool that moves information from 400-plus sources into spreadsheets, BI tools, databases, and CSV, with built-in blending and transformation. Its free plan is the draw for builders who need a perpetual entry point for lightweight pipelines, email testing, or early-stage sending without moving straight to paid infrastructure.

SmartBear offers tools for API design and application monitoring, covering both the build and runtime sides of software development. Stoplight gives developers a free workspace for OpenAPI and JSON Schema work, with core design and documentation features, interactive docs, mock servers, Git sync, and export support in a single-user, single-project setup. BugSnag adds a free tier for error monitoring and performance tracing across web, mobile, desktop, and server apps, with grouped crashes, stack traces, breadcrumbs, and user context to speed debugging. For builders, the appeal is straightforward: one product helps shape APIs before release, while the other catches failures after deployment.

StackBlitz makes a browser-based development environment for building web apps, with Node.js running locally in the tab through its WebContainers tech. That matters for developers who want a full coding workflow without installing local toolchains or relying on remote IDE servers. Its free Personal plan gives unlimited public projects, collections, and GitHub repositories, which is generous for open-source work, demos, and teaching. The platform sits closer to a real browser runtime than a lightweight online editor, so it is useful when you need to spin up and share production-style code quickly. Bolt.new extends the same company’s reach into AI-assisted app and site building, but the core free tier remains the browser IDE.

Supabase is a Postgres development platform for building backend infrastructure in modern applications. It packages managed Postgres with authentication, instant APIs, Edge Functions, realtime subscriptions, storage, and vector embeddings, so teams can move from prototype to production without stitching together separate services. The free tier is notable because it gives developers a serious starting point for app backends, not just a trial account. It is useful for builders who want a familiar SQL database with the surrounding pieces already in place, especially when compared with cloud platforms that split these features across multiple products. Logflare adds hosted logging and analytics for apps, with integrations for common runtime and observability tools.

Twilio sells communications APIs for SMS, voice, email, WhatsApp, RCS, video, and related customer-engagement workflows, with separate products for messaging, verification, conversations, and contact-center use. For builders, the appeal is a free trial that does not require a credit card, plus a broad sandbox for wiring up real channels before committing. SendGrid sits alongside it as the email side of the platform, offering transactional email and SMTP with marketing tools. Compared with narrower point solutions, the free entry point spans multiple channels in one place, which is useful for teams prototyping sign-up flows, alerts, two-factor auth, or basic support messaging without stitching together several vendors.

Vercel is a cloud platform for building and deploying modern web apps, with tooling that covers previews, CI/CD, serverless and edge compute, and global delivery. Its free tier is notable for giving developers a real path from code to production without moving immediately to a paid plan. Builders can use it to test frontend workflows, ship personal projects, and serve apps with the same deployment model larger teams use. The directory also includes v0 by Vercel, a prompt-to-app builder with GitHub sync, visual editing, and one-click deploys. Its free plan adds monthly credits and access to the core workflow, though message limits keep it aimed at lightweight use.