Your hosting options

A bot · database managed for me · steady traffic · up to about $10/month · start over

Top match App platform

Render

≈$7/mo Starter

Move to Standard ($25, 1 CPU / 2 GB) if 512 MB gets tight; a managed database adds more.

Free option
Hobby workspace: $0 — static sites, free web services (0.1 CPU, 512 MB), a 30-day free Postgres, a 25 MB free key-value store, 5 GB bandwidth, 500 build minutes, 1 seat.
Why it fits
Apps and APIs that want git-push deploys with a fixed, understandable instance price.
How deploys work
Connect the Git repo; Render builds and deploys on push, with Docker support and instant rollbacks.
The tradeoff
The workspace-plus-services model means several line items, and bandwidth overage is pricey.
  • The managed database bills on top of this estimate.

Option 2 App platform

Railway

≈$10/mo Hobby + usage

Roughly a quarter vCPU and 512 MB always on; a small database adds a few dollars.

Free option
Free: $1 of monthly usage credits, capped at 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB per service, one replica, and 3-day log history.
Why it fits
Full-stack apps and APIs where you want the app and its database running in minutes.
How deploys work
Connect a repo or image; Railway detects the build, deploys it, and adds databases with one click.
The tradeoff
Pure usage billing means the bill moves with your traffic — predictable only while the app is small.
  • The managed database bills on top of this estimate.

Option 3 Serverless platform

Google Cloud Run

≈$10/mo Pay-as-you-go + 1 warm instance

One min-instance (1 vCPU, 512 MiB at the idle rate) is ~$10/month; request costs on top are usually small.

Free option
Always free: 2M requests, 180k vCPU-seconds, 360k GiB-seconds per month, plus a $300/90-day new-customer credit.
Why it fits
Container apps with spiky or low traffic that want scale-to-zero economics and can manage billing discipline.
How deploys work
Run `gcloud run deploy --source .` — buildpacks containerize the app, or push any Docker image; GitHub continuous deployment is built in.
The tradeoff
The best free tier and autoscaling here, attached to a billing system with no hard cap and real horror stories.
  • The managed database bills on top of this estimate.

Ranked by ease of deploy for your stack, then by monthly cost — never by commissions. Estimates come from hand-checked public prices; the linked provider pages show every number and its caveats.