Are you looking for a Free VPS Hosting? If yes, I have checked all the free VPS trial offers that are still running in October 2026, and I checked them on the provider’s own website, not on other blogs.
This was needed because a lot of the free VPS offers you see on other websites have ended. DigitalOcean’s $200 offer is gone. IONOS calls its page “free VPS” but it is actually a money-back guarantee. A2 Hosting has no trial at all now. So before we talk about the offers, let me give you some information that I believe you should know before you start using a free VPS.
If you want a real server to test for 30 days, take the Kamatera trial. If you want a small VPS that stays free with no end date, use Oracle Cloud Always Free or the Google Cloud e2-micro. If you don’t have a credit card, Azure for Students (for university students) and the AccuWebHosting Windows trial are the two real options.
What is a Free VPS?
As every one of us knows, setting up a data centre, procuring servers and a high-speed internet connection costs a lot of money to the web hosting providers.
You must be wondering if everything is so costly, then why these web hosting companies offer a VPS hosting for free.
Well, web hosting is a very competitive industry and acquiring new customers is a challenge for all sizes of web hosts.
To attract new customers, these web hosting providers offer their services for free for a limited period, so that new customers can try their services before making an actual payment.
A free VPS hosting is actually a VPS trial that you get from a web hosting provider to test their services before actually buying them.
Usually, these web hosts offer a trial VPS for 7 days, 30 days or 90 days, and sometimes for a longer duration, i.e. 12 months. A few big cloud companies also keep one very small server free with no end date at all.
One more thing has changed in the last two years. Most big cloud companies now give you a credit amount instead of a fixed server. For example, if you get $100 credit and your server costs $20 a month, you can run it for about five months, or until the credit expires, whichever comes first. So always check both things, the credit amount and the expiry date.
Do You Have to Pay Anything to Get a Free VPS?
Initially, many web hosting providers were offering a trial VPS for free without asking for your credit card information.
But lately, many people started abusing their services for spam and crypto mining, and now most of the good VPS service providers ask for your credit card information before giving you a trial VPS.
Usually you are not charged anything. The provider puts a small hold of $0 to $1 on your card to check that the card is real, and that hold is reversed after a few days. Microsoft Azure, for example, puts a $1 hold and then reverses it.
There is no harm in a $1 hold to try a server that is worth $50 or more. But keep in mind that the card is also how they bill you if you forget to delete the server, so read the “catch” line under each offer below.
Although this is not the case with every provider. Some providers still don’t ask for a credit card, and I have marked them with a green “No card” label.
Free VPS Trials Available Now
Each offer was checked on the provider’s official page. Amounts with a dashed underline change often, so confirm them at signup.
Showing 13 offers
Kamatera
If you’re looking for a reliable partner for your VPS or cloud server requirement, Kamatera could be the right option for you. Kamatera provides you a facility to try their services before actually buying them, and you can take a 30 days trial of their cloud server.
The trial works on a credit limit. You can build your server in any size you want, as long as the configuration stays within $100. This is the trial I suggest first to anyone who wants to test a WordPress move or an n8n setup on a real server.
The catchA card is required. If your server goes above the $100 configuration or uses more than 1 TB of traffic, the extra amount is charged to your card. If you don’t want to continue, delete the server before day 30.
VPSServer
VPSServer gives the same kind of trial as Kamatera. You get one server of your choice for 30 days, as long as its configuration stays within $100, and you can pick Linux or Windows.
The catchA card is required, and VPSServer puts a $1 to $2 charge on it to check the card, which is voided later. When the 30 days end, the trial turns into a paid server at normal rates, so delete it before that if you don’t want to continue.
Claim offerClubVPS
ClubVPS also gives a 30-day free trial of a fully working cloud server, with data centers in the US, Canada, Europe, Israel, Asia and Australia.
The catchTheir website does not say how big the trial server can be or whether a card is needed, so check both on the signup page. After the trial, the price depends on the server size you build, billed hourly or monthly.
Claim offerOracle Cloud Free Tier
Oracle is one of the most prestigious IT brands in the world, and it is known for its enterprise-level database systems. Their Always Free tier is the biggest free server you can get today.
What you get: 2 small AMD servers with 1 GB RAM each, an Arm server of about 2 cores and 12 GB RAM, and 200 GB storage
The catchMany websites still write 4 Arm cores and 24 GB RAM, but Oracle’s own documentation now shows about half of that. Idle servers can be taken back after 7 days, and prepaid or virtual cards are not accepted.
Claim offerGoogle Cloud
Ever wondered if you can use the same cloud platform that Google uses for its own products? You can, and new users get $300 credit for 90 days to try it.
What you get: the credit, plus one e2-micro server with 30 GB disk that stays free in us-west1, us-central1 or us-east1
The catchA card is needed to verify your identity, but you are not charged during the trial. You can’t run Windows servers on the trial, and when it ends your servers are stopped and deleted after 30 days unless you upgrade.
Claim offerMicrosoft Azure
What you get: 750 hours a month of small B-series servers for 12 months, and the B1s size also runs Windows
The catchThe 750 hours are shared across the free sizes. That is enough for one server running all month, not two. Card and phone verification is required, with a $1 hold that is reversed.
Claim offerAzure for Students
What you get: $100 credit to use within 12 months, plus the same free services as a normal Azure account. It renews every year as long as you are a student.
The catchOnly for full-time university students, one account per person. If you are a student, this is the best free option without a card.
Claim offerAmazon AWS
Amazon is the market leader in the cloud hosting business. But the free tier you read about on most websites, 12 months of a t2.micro server, is not available for new accounts anymore. AWS changed it in July 2025.
The catchA card is needed at signup. You get credit, not a free server, and Windows Server can run on the free tier sizes like t3.micro. When the free plan ends, your account is suspended and your data is deleted after 90 days unless you upgrade.
Claim offerOVHcloud
What you get: credit for all Public Cloud services, including server instances, for one month from the day you create your project
The catchYou have to save a payment method first, and when the credit ends the charges start automatically. Only for people who never created an OVHcloud Public Cloud project before.
Claim offerAkamai Cloud (Linode)
Established in 2003, Linode is among the first few companies in the world that started offering virtual servers. Back in 2022 it was acquired by Akamai, and now it runs as Akamai Cloud.
The catchNew customers only, and GPU plans are not included. Unused credit expires at the end of the trial, and anything above the credit is charged at normal rates. Akamai’s own page does not say how long the trial lasts. Other websites write 60 days, but I could not confirm that on Akamai’s site, so check the end date in your account after you sign up.
Claim offerAccuWebHosting
What you get: a Windows Server 2019 VPS in their Denver data center
The catchThey don’t ask for a card, but they check you manually. You need two government IDs, a non-free email address and a website that is at least 6 months old. After the first month the plan bills $14.97 a month.
Claim offerDigitalOcean
What you get: $5 signup credit, which is enough for the smallest server for about a month
The catchThe old $200 for 60 days page now redirects to their homepage. A powered-off server is still billed on DigitalOcean, so destroy it when you are done.
Claim offerCloudways
Cloudways is offering a 3 days free trial of their cloud hosting services without a credit card. That means you just need to sign up with them to get your free trial, you need not enter your credit card number.
After the trial the cheapest Cloudways server costs $11 per month, and if you sign up with the coupon code TREAT26 you get 40% off for the first four months. I have explained all the Cloudways plans on my Cloudways pricing page.
The catchThis is managed hosting, not a VPS where you get root access. It is good to test a WordPress site, not to install your own software.
Claim offerNo offers match that filter right now.
Free VPS Offers Compared
What happens after the free period matters more than the free period itself.
| Provider | Free for | Card | Windows | After the free period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
KKamatera | 30 days | Yes | Yes | Delete the server or billing starts |
VSVPSServer | 30 days | Yes | Yes | Turns into a paid server at normal rates |
CLClubVPS | 30 days | Not stated | Not stated | Billed hourly or monthly by server size |
OCOracle Cloud | No end date | Yes | No | Free resources keep running, paid ones are taken back |
GGoogle Cloud | 90 days + e2-micro | Yes | Not in trial | Servers stop, deleted after 30 days |
AZMicrosoft Azure | 12 months (VMs) | Yes | Yes (B1s) | Disabled unless you move to pay-as-you-go |
AZAzure for Students | 12 months | No | Yes | Renews yearly while you are a student |
AWSAmazon AWS | Up to 6 months | Yes | Yes | Account suspended, data kept 90 days |
OVOVHcloud | 1 month | Yes | Not stated | Charges start automatically |
AKAkamai (Linode) | Not stated | Yes | No | Normal rates above the credit |
AWAccuWebHosting | 30 days | No, ID check | Yes | Bills $14.97 a month |
DODigitalOcean | 90 days ($5) | Yes | No | Normal billing, stopped servers still billed |
CWCloudways | 3 days | No | No | Server removed unless you upgrade |
Checked on each provider’s official page, October 2026.
Free VPS Offers That Ended
You will still find these on many websites, including some big ones. I checked each one and they are not free anymore.
| Provider | What other sites say | What the official page says now |
|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | $200 credit for 60 days | The offer page redirects to the homepage. New accounts get $5 for 90 days. |
| IONOS | Free VPS for 30 days | The “free VPS” page is a paid plan with a 30-day money-back guarantee |
| A2 Hosting (now Hosting.com) | Cheap VPS you can use as a trial | No trial. Hosting.com excludes VPS from its money-back guarantee. |
| Hostinger VPS | Free VPS trial | No trial. 30-day money-back, and only one VPS refund every 180 days |
| DomainRacer | Free VPS trial | 30-day money-back only, you pay first |
| Vultr | $250 free credit | Your first deposit is matched up to $100, so you pay in first |
Still checking: Tencent Cloud free tier, Alibaba Cloud free trial and the InterServer one-cent VPS. I will add them after I confirm the details on their official pages.
How to Get a Free VPS Without a Credit Card
This is the question I get the most, so I will answer it honestly. A real VPS without any card and without any check is very rare now. If a website promises you a “free VPS forever, no card, no signup”, be careful, because those servers are often shared by hundreds of people, they are slow, and you don’t know who else has access to them.
These are the genuine options I found:
How to Avoid a Surprise Bill After the Trial
Most people who get charged after a free VPS trial made one of these mistakes.
Which Free VPS Trial Should You Use?
As you can see, I have listed only the providers that are actually offering something free today. Each one of them caters to different needs.
If you’re not an expert in managing a VPS, I would suggest you go with Kamatera. You get a full server for 30 days, you can choose Linux or Windows, and you can see how a paid server will behave before paying for it.
If you want a small server that stays free for a long time, for a personal project, a Telegram bot or a small website, Oracle Cloud Always Free gives you the most resources. The Google Cloud e2-micro is smaller but it is very stable.
On the other hand, Oracle, Google Cloud, AWS, Azure and Akamai are for advanced users. If you are familiar with VPS and can manage them without using any control panel, these services are for you.
If your plan is to test n8n or an AI agent, you need at least 2 GB RAM, because n8n becomes slow below that. Kamatera and the Oracle Arm server are the better fit for this.
Free VPS FAQ
Can I get a free VPS without a credit card?
Yes, but only a few genuine options are left. Azure for Students gives $100 credit without a card to full-time university students, and AccuWebHosting gives a 30-day Windows VPS after a manual ID check. All the big cloud companies need a card for normal accounts.
Is there a free VPS for 1 year?
Microsoft Azure gives small B-series servers free for 12 months to new accounts. Oracle Cloud Always Free and the Google Cloud e2-micro have no end date, as long as you stay inside their free limits.
Which free VPS gives Windows?
Kamatera, Azure (B1s size), AWS (free tier sizes like t3.micro) and AccuWebHosting all allow Windows on their free offers. OVHcloud and Akamai don’t say it clearly on their pages. Google Cloud does not allow Windows servers during its free trial.
Is DigitalOcean still giving $200 free credit?
No. The $200 for 60 days offer page now redirects to the DigitalOcean homepage. Their documentation shows a $5 signup credit that lasts 90 days.
Which free VPS trial is the best?
For most people it is Kamatera’s 30-day trial, because you get a full server that you can configure yourself. For a server that stays free for a long time, Oracle Cloud Always Free gives the most resources.
Will I be charged after the free VPS trial ends?
It depends on the provider. OVHcloud and AccuWebHosting start billing automatically, while Google Cloud stops your servers instead. Always delete the servers you don’t need before the end date.