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 Hetzner €20 credits + Appliku Free plan Production-ready free start Server + Appliku from $10/mo
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 has a Free plan ($0, no credit card). Combined, you get a production-ready Django deployment on a server you own, for the cost of the server alone while your Hetzner credits last.

  • Hetzner CX22 (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM): a few euros per month, so €20 in credits covers your first few months
  • Appliku Free plan: $0 for 1 server and 1 app (Celery workers and databases included), then from $10/month for more
  • 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. See Appliku vs Fly.io.

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. If you outgrow it, see Appliku vs PythonAnywhere for a real, unrestricted server that is still managed.

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: a few euros per month (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM)
  • Appliku subscription: from $10/month (Free plan to start)
  • Total: about $20/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. See Appliku vs Railway.

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. See Appliku vs Render.

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 Leave Heroku for a server you own, or our full guide to the 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

Comparing the managed platforms head to head? See how Appliku stacks up against each one.

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, 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.