8 Free Node.js Hosting Services (Dec. 2023)

Fans of the developer-friendly JavaScript platform may already know where to find free Node.js hosting — but where do you go as your app needs to grow?

If you’re just starting out, free probably sounds pretty good. Heck, who doesn’t love free? When your site or app’s needs start to scale, however, free plans probably won’t cut it. Given the administrative server access required to install and configure Node.js and its related packages, the run-time environment is typically reserved for more powerful (and more expensive) VPS and dedicated server plans.

The best Node.js hosting plans, however, balance computing power with affordable rates. We’ve evaluated the web’s leading Node.js hosting providers to give you the best options for free and almost-free hosting.

Cheap Hosts (3) | Free Plans (5)

Node.js hosting poses many advantages for JavaScript developers, and, as you might guess, finding a free service that doesn’t sacrifice quality can be tricky and very limiting. We’d recommend instead opting for an affordable, high-powered server host with plans that specialize in, or at least are capable of facilitating, Node hosting. Having tested the top VPS and dedicated server plans on the market, we found the following to be the best and easiest for Node.js:

Not only does Interserver feature a $0.01 introductory offer and month-to-month (no annual contract) billing, but it happens to be one of the fastest and most reliable hosts we’ve tested. The hosts offers a simple guide for Node.js setup and an always-available support team in case you need assistance.

Hostwinds is one of the fast-growing VPS hosts, offering affordable plans and market-leading features. It too offers easy Node.js installation instructions to ensure you’re up and running in no time. And as your project scales, the Hostwinds will give you instant ugrades with no downtime.

A2 Hosting is known for speed and reliability at an affordable price — even on shared hosting plans. Their support section features several Node.js guides to help you through install and launch.

Now that we’ve covered the best Node.js hosting options, let’s take a look at some more limited options. These free services can be a good place to experiment with your newest project, but lack the support, scalability, speed, and security of the paid options.

See more paid VPS options for Node.js »

We’ve scoured the web to find the consensus on the best Node.js hosting with a $0 price tag. Below we break down the feature sets and limitations of the most popular providers.

Node.js Host	Languages	Limits	Highlight
RedHat OpenShift	Node.js | Java | PHP | Ruby | Python | Perl | Ruby | More	Host 3 applications	Built-in private database; completely free within limits
Nodejitsu	Node.js	$20 credit for first month	Amazing support from developers like you over IRC
Microsoft Azure	Node.js | Java | PHP | Python | .NET	$200 credit for first month	Provision Windows and Linux Virtual Machines and applications in minutes
Modulus	Node.js	$15 credit for first month	Built-in auto-scaling capabilities so your application can scale to demand
Heroku	Node.js | Java | PHP | Ruby | Python | Scala | Clojure	1x CPU Share | Row limit 10K	Technologies you love with more than 100 services in the add-ons marketplace

If we’ve left out any Node.js hosts you think are worthy of recommendation, let us know!

1. RedHat OpenShift

Go check out RedHat OpenShift, or jump back to the top free Node.js hosts.

From the people who brought you Red Hat Linux and many other popular open-source projects, RedHat OpenShift seems to be the go-to recommendation for free Node.js web hosting.

OpenShift stands out among other free Node.js hosts by offering a no-trial, truly free Node hosting platform; however, the #5 Node.js host, Heroku, also offers a “free forever” plan.

What You Get For Free:

Languages / Frameworks – Node.js | Java | PHP | Ruby | Python | Perl | Ruby | More

Limits – Host 3 applications

Scalability – Automatically scale up or down as your application requires

Geographic Reach – Deploy apps closer to your users with less latency

Support – Backed by Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open-source solutions

Other Free Features:

• System Administration by Red Hat
• Application Auto-Scaling
• Maximum Gears: 3
• Application Idling: 24 Hours
• Hosting Region: US
• Included Free: 3 Small Gears
• Storage Base (per gear): 1GB
• Subdomains on rhcloud.com
• Shared SSL on rhcloud.com
• Custom Domains
• Sharing Controls
• Help Center
• Documentation & Guides
• Developer Community

Hop over to this article to read more rave reviews of OpenShift and Red Hat.

2. Nodejitsu

Go check out Nodejitsu, or jump back to the top free Node.js hosts.

Another highly recommended free Node hosting provider is Nodejitsu, a large contributor to the Node.js community since 2009. This team knows the tech industry inside and out!

You can get $20-worth of free usage, or, if you’re hosting an open-source project, you can host one project completely free of charge.

What You Get For Free:

Languages / Frameworks – Node.js

Limits – $20 free usage; plans start at $9/month

Support – Amazing support from developers like you over IRC

Infrastructure – Infrastructure for all individual plans on blazing-fast Joyent Smart Machines

Deployment – Single-line deployment with CLI tool (run jitsu deploy); free continuous deployment for public and private repos through GitHub Webhooks and Travis CI

Websocket Support – First platform to support Websockets; Nodejitsu’s open-source node-http-proxy module is used for almost every platform that currently supports Websockets

Custom Domains – Free custom domains available with every plan at dns.nodejitsu.com

Database Management – Easy database provisioning with MongoDB, CouchDB, or Redis

At Nodejitsu, open-source is part of the team identity. The company offers to host open-source apps for free in support of the free software movement. Apply here.

3. Microsoft Azure

Go check out Microsoft Azure, or jump back to the top free Node.js hosts.

Another strong competitor in the free Node.js hosting world is Microsoft’s Azure services. You can sign up for a free month and get $200 to spend on all Azure services.

What You Get For Free:

Languages / Frameworks – Node.js | Java | PHP | Python | .NET

Limits – Receive a $200 credit your first month (depending on total spending)

Infrastructure – Instant provisioning for Windows and Linux VMs and applications

App Development – Build and deploy apps for Android, iOS, and Windows; auto-scaling

Data Insights – Managed SQL and NoSQL data services; cloud-based SQL server and HDInsight to build Hadoop clusters for data analysis

Get started with Azure and easily manage user accounts, synchronize with exisitng on-prem directories, and get single sign-on access on Azure, Office 365, and hundreds of other popular SaaS applications, including Salesforce, DocuSign, Google Apps, Box, and Dropbox.

4. Modulus

Go check out Modulus, or jump back to the top free Node.js hosts.

Yet another great free Node.js hosting service is Modulus. This is a premier Node.js hosting platform that provides a complete technology stack for application developers, including custom SSL, WebSockets, MongoDB, and statistics.

With Modulus, you get a $15 credit to spend in your first 30 days of free service.

What You Get For Free:

Languages / Frameworks – Node.js

Limits – $15 credit the first month

Scalability – Flexible infrastructure; application instances run on mini-servers called Servos, which can be dynamically added or removed on the fly

Auto-Scaling – Built-in auto-scaling based on custom-defined rules (set up individually for each region in which your application is running)

Storage – Unlimited peristent storage directly mounted to the file system and instantly replicated to all application instances

Other Free Features:

• Websockets
• Session Affinity
• Multiple Node.js Versions
• Servo Sizes
• Integrated Mongo Database
• CLI Deployment
• Mobile Management
• Custom Domains
• Free Custom Domain SSL
• Multiple Region Support
• Notifications
• No Tiers

Modulus has a motto of “track everything.” Every request that enters your Node.js application is stored and available in real time. Statistics are broken down by individual routes, so you can see which route is taking the longest to respond, which is transferring the most bandwidth, and which is the most active.

5. Heroku

Go check out Heroku, or jump back to the top free Node.js hosts.

Last but certainly not least, Heroku (her-OH-koo), which was founded in 2007, also boasts a completely free Node.js hosting plan for hobby use.

What You Get For Free:

Languages / Frameworks – Node.js | Java | PHP | Ruby | Python | Scala | Clojure

Limits – 1X 512MB RAM; 1x CPU share; 10K row limit; four hours of downtime per month

Add-Ons – 100s of fully managed services for logging, caching, monitoring, and persistence can be provisioned and scaled in a single command and consumed by your application as loosely coupled components

Buildpacks – Collections of scripts for compiling apps on Heroku, specific to the frameworks and languages you use in your app; create your own, use one from community, or use a default script

Deployment – Use Git to deploy apps to Heroku in one command. Heroku will build and run the source application, handling compilation, dependencies, assets, and executables, so you can focus on code. Code pushed to the Heroku remote will be live and running on the platform quickly.

Backups & Disaster Recovery – New release created with each deployed change; detailed release history logged automatically; rollbacks available for disaster recovery

Regions – US and Europe

Heroku lets you manage environment-specific configurations, such as credentials for backing services, separately from your source code for greater safety and portability. In Heroku, this data can be managed with config vars, which are made available to your running application as simple environment variables.

If you’d like to run one-off dynos on your app, run a script in your app’s environment, use your app’s console, et cetera, using heroku run, quickly spins up a one-off instance of your app environment to run ad-hoc commands. Using heroku fork, you can create a duplicate instance of your application running on Heroku immediately. This can be used to rapidly spin up new application environments, demonstrate feature branches on a running app, or migrate apps to Heroku Europe.

Hopefully, this information is helpful to you in picking your first Node.js host. If you have any personal experience with any other free or ultra-affordable Node.js hosting services and think they should be mentioned here, please comment below and let us know.

Find Other Node.js Hosting Services

Have fun playing around with Node.js for free or almost free!

Whatever type of hosting plan you’re looking for, InterServer is a solid choice no matter the scale. Our reviewer Laura Bernheim recently took InterServer for a spin, and rated the popular host a 4.8 in the VPS Hosting category out of a perfect score of 5.0. Here’s what Laura had to say about InterServer:

Built by web hosting geeks for web hosting geeks, InterServer is great for slightly more experienced hosting customers who don’t mind paying a little more for premium services and support. The independently owned company runs its own datacenter, offers a bevy of unlimited features, and takes a hands-on approach to 24/7 support.

Before signing up for InterServer, it’s a good idea to read through Laura‘s full review to learn about all the features InterServer offers. You can also compare it to other web hosts to ensure you’re getting the best deal possible:

• InterServer’s Full Review
• InterServer: 4.8/5.0 vs. Others
• InterServer: $6.00/Mo. vs. Others

If you decide InterServer is the right choice, keep in mind that it takes just minutes to deploy your InterServer server space. And at $6.00 per month, it’s a bargain considering the many great features that come in any InterServer plan.