Render

Unified cloud for apps

developer Developer Tools 💰 freemium 👁️ 0

About

Overview

Render is a unified cloud platform that allows developers to deploy web services, static sites, cron jobs, and managed databases with zero configuration. It is a modern, developer-friendly alternative to Heroku, offering automatic SSL, global CDN, and continuous deployment from Git.

Pricing & Free Tier

Free Tier: Yes. Includes free static sites and web services (though free web services "spin down" after 15 minutes of inactivity).
Starter: $7/month. Provides a dedicated instance that does not spin down.
Databases: PostgreSQL starts at $7/month.

How to Use

Sign up at render.com and connect your GitHub/GitLab account.
Click "New" and select "Web Service" or "Static Site".
Choose your repository and configure the build and start commands (e.g., npm install and npm start).
Click "Deploy". Render will build and launch your app.

Important Notes

Cold Starts: Free web services sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. When a user visits, it takes 30-50 seconds to spin back up.
Ephemeral Disk: File systems are ephemeral. Do not upload files directly to the server; use Render Disk or S3-compatible storage.