You can build and deploy full-stack apps without spending a cent — or even entering a credit card. Here's the stack we'd use (Vercel, Netlify, Neon, Railway) and the trade-offs you need to know about cold starts, usage limits, and hobby-tier restrictions.
building a full-stack app is exciting. paying for hosting before you have users? not so much.
the good news: you can run a complete full-stack application — frontend, backend, database, the works — for exactly zero dollars. no credit card required. no "trial ends in 30 days" panic.
we call it the zero dollar stack. here's what's in it, how to set it up, and where the free tiers will pinch.
vercel's hobby plan is the gold standard for deploying frontend apps. it connects directly to your github repo, auto-deploys on every push, and gives you a global cdn, ssl, and a generous serverless function quota — all free.1
vercel shines for next.js, but it handles any static frontend (react, vue, svelte, astro) just as well. the hobby tier includes 100 gb of bandwidth and 100 serverless function executions per day, which is plenty for a side project or prototype.
best for: next.js apps, static sites, api routes via serverless functions.
netlify's starter plan is the other heavyweight in the static hosting space. it offers similar features: git-based deploys, a global cdn, form handling, and serverless functions.2
netlify's free tier includes 100 gb bandwidth and 125k serverless function invocations per month. the edge functions are a nice bonus if you need geo-aware logic.
best for: static sites, jamstack apps, sites that need form handling out of the box.
every full-stack app needs a database. neon's free tier gives you a serverless postgresql database with 500 mb of storage, 100 compute hours per month, and — crucially — branching, so you can create database previews for each pull request.3
neon is built on postgres, which means you get real sql, real indexes, real joins. no nosql workarounds. the free tier is generous enough to run a production prototype or a small personal project.
best for: postgresql databases that need to scale from zero to something without ops work.
railway takes a different approach: instead of free forever, it gives you $5 of trial credit when you sign up — no credit card required.4 that's enough to run a small backend container for a couple of months, depending on your usage.
railway is great for deploying backend services (node, python, go, rust) as containers, with automatic ssl, custom domains, and a built-in postgres option (though we'd still recommend neon for the database layer).
best for: backend containers, full-stack apps that need a runtime environment.
here's the key distinction: vercel and netlify are built for static and serverless workloads. they excel at serving pre-built html, css, and js, with serverless functions for dynamic logic. they're not designed to run long-running server processes.
railway, on the other hand, runs containers. if you need a node.js server that stays alive, handles websockets, or runs background jobs, railway is the better fit.
for most projects, the cleanest architecture is:
| layer | service |
|---|---|
| frontend | vercel or netlify |
| api routes | vercel serverless functions or netlify functions |
| database | neon |
| backend containers (if needed) | railway |
one concern people have: "will my data disappear?" on neon's free tier, your database persists as long as you use it. the main limitation is compute hours — neon's free tier gives you 100 compute hours per month. after that, your database enters a suspended state until the next month. reads and writes still work, but there's a cold-start delay (a few seconds) when waking up.
this is fine for dev projects and low-traffic prototypes. for production apps with paying users, you'd want to upgrade.
free tiers are incredible for learning, prototyping, and small personal projects. but they come with real constraints:
cold starts. both vercel serverless functions and neon's database have cold starts. if nobody visits your site for a while, the first request will be slow. vercel's free tier cold starts are usually under a second; neon's can be 2-5 seconds.
usage limits. vercel's hobby plan caps you at 100 gb bandwidth and 100 serverless function executions per day. netlify's starter plan gives you 100 gb bandwidth and 125k function invocations per month. these are generous for side projects, but a viral post could blow through them.
no team features. the free tiers are "hobby" or "starter" plans — they don't include team collaboration, audit logs, or advanced analytics. that's fine for solo devs.
railway's credits run out. railway's $5 trial is not renewable. once it's gone, you either upgrade or migrate. plan accordingly.
the zero dollar stack — vercel + neon + railway — is genuinely usable for building and shipping real projects. thousands of developers use it every day. the constraints are real but manageable, and you can always upgrade individual pieces as your project grows.
if we had to pick just one service to start with: vercel. it covers frontend and api routes in one clean package. add neon when you need a database, and railway when you need container hosting.
no credit card. no hidden fees. just code.
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