Yes, you can host Django for free — and in some cases for several months without spending a cent.

This guide covers every free and low-cost Django hosting option available in 2026, ranked by how useful they actually are for real projects. We'll cover cloud free tiers, trial credits, and the cheapest long-term options for when your project outgrows the free tier.

Table of Contents

Django Hosting Options at a Glance

Platform Free Tier Best For Long-term Cost
Hetzner + Appliku €20 credits (~5 months) Production-ready free start ~€8/mo after credits
AWS Free Tier 12 months Django + RDS database ~$10/mo after
GCP $300 credit (90 days) Experimenting ~$10/mo after
Fly.io Limited free tier Small/hobby apps $0–5/mo for tiny apps
PythonAnywhere Free tier (limited) Learning Django $5/mo (beginner plan)
Vultr Free tier plan Very light projects $2.50/mo cheapest
Railway $5 credit/mo Quick deploys $5/mo + usage
Render Free (spins down) Side projects $7/mo per service
Heroku None — $25/mo+

Free Django Hosting Options

1. Hetzner Cloud + Appliku — Best Free Start

Grab €20 Hetzner Credits

The best free option for running a real Django project: Hetzner gives new accounts €20 in free credits, and Appliku offers a 14-day free trial. Combined, you get a fully production-ready Django deployment for roughly 5 months at zero cost.

  • Hetzner CX22 (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 40GB SSD): ~€3.79/month → €20 covers ~5 months
  • Appliku free trial: 14 days free, then from $14/month for the subscription
  • Appliku handles HTTPS, auto-deploys from GitHub/GitLab, environment variables, Celery workers, databases — no server config needed

Pros: Real production server, no spin-down, multiple apps on one server, Heroku-like experience Cons: Requires a credit card for Hetzner signup; not permanently free

After the credits run out, Hetzner + Appliku remains the cheapest long-term option (see paid options below).

2. AWS Free Tier — 12 Months Free

AWS offers 750 hours/month of t2.micro or t3.micro Linux instances for the first 12 months — effectively a free server for a year.

  • 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, ~30GB EBS storage
  • Includes a free RDS database instance (750 hrs/month) — ideal for Django + PostgreSQL
  • Also includes 5GB S3 (great for static files and media)

Pros: Generous free tier, full AWS ecosystem, PostgreSQL included Cons: t2.micro is slow for anything beyond basic apps; requires careful usage monitoring to avoid charges; complex setup without a deployment tool

Pair with Appliku to deploy Django without manually configuring Nginx, Gunicorn, or systemd. Read more: AWS Free Tier

3. Google Cloud Platform — $300 Credit (90 Days)

GCP gives new users $300 to spend on any Google Cloud service within 90 days, including Compute Engine VMs.

Pros: Enough credit to run a real server for 3+ months; access to managed Cloud SQL for Django databases Cons: Credit expires in 90 days; GCP setup is more complex than other options

Read more: GCP Free Trial

4. Fly.io — Hobby Free Tier

Fly.io has a free tier that includes a small VM, though it's limited in RAM and compute. It's well-suited for very lightweight Django apps or demos.

  • Shared CPU, 256MB RAM on the free plan
  • Free tier includes 3 shared-cpu-1x VMs
  • Good CLI-based deploy experience

Pros: Genuinely free (no credit card for basic use), good DX, global edge deployment Cons: 256MB RAM is too tight for most real Django apps with Celery/Redis; limited free tier resources; can get expensive at scale

5. PythonAnywhere — Django-Focused Free Tier

PythonAnywhere is built specifically for Python and Django hosting. Their free tier is the easiest way to get a Django app publicly accessible with zero configuration.

  • Free tier: 1 web app, limited compute, MySQL database (no PostgreSQL)
  • Pre-configured Python/Django environment — no server setup needed
  • Custom domain support on paid plans only

Pros: Zero setup, Django-native, great for learning and demos Cons: No PostgreSQL on free tier, no custom domain, severely limited CPU/bandwidth, not suitable for production

6. Vultr — Free Tier Plan

Vultr offers a permanent free tier with:

  • 1 vCPU, 0.5GB RAM, 10GB disk
  • 2TB bandwidth/month

Pros: Permanently free, real VPS Cons: 0.5GB RAM is borderline unusable for Django — apps frequently crash or OOM. Only viable for the lightest possible static/demo projects.

More details: Vultr Free Plan

Once free credits run out, here's how the options compare:

Appliku + Hetzner — Best Value

After your free credits expire, Hetzner + Appliku remains the most cost-effective production setup:

  • Hetzner CX22: ~€4/month (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM)
  • Appliku subscription: from $14/month
  • Total: ~$18/month — and you can run unlimited Django apps on that one server

For teams with multiple projects, or anyone paying Heroku's $25+/month per app, this is an immediate win.

Pros: Full control, no vendor lock-in, unlimited apps per server, git-push deploys, auto-SSL, Celery/worker support Cons: Requires Appliku subscription on top of server cost

Start with Appliku →

Railway — Flexible Pay-as-You-Go

Railway gives $5/month in free credit and charges usage-based pricing beyond that. Clean deploy experience, good for Django.

Pros: Simple deploys, $5 credit is useful for small apps Cons: Usage-based pricing can spike unpredictably; running Django + Postgres + Redis costs $15-30/month for real apps

Render — Heroku-Like with Free Tier

Render's free tier for web services exists but spins down after 15 minutes of inactivity (cold starts of 30+ seconds).

Pros: Easy deploy, Heroku-like experience Cons: Free tier spins down; paid services start at $7/month each (web + database = $14+/month); separate billing per service adds up

Heroku — Most Expensive, No Free Tier

Heroku removed its free tier in 2022. Basic production setup (1 web dyno + Postgres Essential) starts at $25-32/month and scales up quickly.

Most developers are actively migrating away from Heroku due to cost. If you're currently on Heroku, see Best Heroku Alternatives for Django.

How to Choose Django Hosting

Your situation Best option
Learning Django / building a demo PythonAnywhere free tier or Fly.io
Side project, want months free Hetzner €20 credits + Appliku trial
Need AWS ecosystem / RDS AWS Free Tier (12 months)
Production app, budget-conscious Appliku + Hetzner (~$18/mo)
Running multiple apps Appliku (most cost-effective per-app)
Migrating from Heroku Appliku + Hetzner or DigitalOcean

Deploy Django for Free with Appliku

The fastest path to a free production Django deployment:

  1. Create a Hetzner account — get €20 free credits
  2. Spin up a CX22 server (€3.79/mo — your credits cover ~5 months)
  3. Start Appliku free trial — connect your server in 5 minutes
  4. Push your Django project from GitHub/GitLab — Appliku handles HTTPS, deploys, environment variables, and databases automatically

No Nginx config. No systemd. No certbot. Just push and deploy.

Get started with Appliku →

Related deployment guides:

For a complete Django deployment reference, see the Deploy Django guide in our documentation.