FreeTier
Ship on a budget.
What problem does it solve?
Free tiers are buried in pricing pages and change constantly, so it's hard to know what's free before you commit to a paid plan.
Who is it for?
Developers and founders shipping on a budget who want to compare free tiers before paying.
Why did we build it?
Every client engagement starts with a build-vs-buy call. That call keeps hinging on the same question: is there a free tier that gets us to a working prototype before we commit budget? Answering it meant digging through a dozen pricing pages that get restructured every quarter.
FreeTier started as our own internal reference before it was a product. It let us check what's free before we recommended a stack to a client. A 14-day trial dressed up as a free tier didn't qualify.
How does it work?
- Every entry reviewed by hand
Every entry is reviewed for what's free versus a time-limited trial, so the directory stays trustworthy as free-tier terms shift.
- 1,100+ tools, one comparable format
Every tool is normalised into the same fields: what's free, what the limit is, what happens after. That makes every entry directly comparable.
- Built for the build-vs-buy moment
The directory is structured around one decision: checking the free option before committing to a paid plan. It's not built to drive traffic to any one vendor.
What's the hard part?
Free tiers change constantly and silently. A provider tightens a limit, or converts what was a real free tier into a time-boxed trial. The hard part is keeping 1,100+ entries honest as terms shift underneath them, rather than publishing once and letting the directory go stale.
What does it do?
- Curated directory of 1,100+ cloud, SaaS, and developer tools
- Clear comparison of what is free
- Focus on substantial free tiers
- Check the free option before committing to paid
What does this prove we can do for you?
We apply the same build-vs-buy judgment to scope a client's stack: knowing what's free, what's a trap, and what's worth paying for from day one. FreeTier is built to make that judgment self-serve.
Where this shows up in client work
Questions, answered.#
The questions we get asked most, with plain answers.
01 What counts as a "free tier" on FreeTier?
A tier substantial enough to build or run something real on. We exclude time-boxed trials, or label them clearly when we keep them.
Link to this answer: What counts as a "free tier" on FreeTier?02 Is FreeTier free itself?
Yes. It's a free directory; no account is required to browse it.
Link to this answer: Is FreeTier free itself?03 How often is it updated?
Entries are reviewed on an ongoing basis as providers change their terms, since a stale free-tier directory is worse than no directory at all.
Link to this answer: How often is it updated?A curated directory of 1,100+ cloud, SaaS, and developer tools with substantial free tiers. Compare what's free before committing to a paid plan.
This is the same discipline, real architecture decisions and an honest account of the hard part, that we bring to client engagements.