A scale-to-zero service with hobby traffic typically rounds to $0 — the always-free tier absorbs it.
- 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.
Option 2 App platform
Railway
≈$5/mo Hobby
The $5 minimum becomes usage credit; a small, mostly idle service usually fits inside it.
- 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.
Includes 50 GiB of outbound transfer; billed per second.
- Free option
- Free tier: 3 apps with static sites, 1 GiB of outbound transfer each per month. Extra static-site apps cost $3/month.
- Why it fits
- Apps that want git-push deploys inside a provider they can grow with.
- How deploys work
- Connect the Git repo or a container image; App Platform builds, deploys, and scales it.
- The tradeoff
- Weaker compute per dollar than a Droplet — the convenience premium is real.
