Resources // Developer Infrastructure
Netlify
- New
Offer Free static hosting, hard-capped
Suits for Non-VC-backedVC-backedCreatorsOpen-source
Updated Jun 2026
The offer
- Free plan ($0 forever): 300 credits/month with a hard limit. The site pauses at 100%, so no surprise bill
- Includes deploy from Git / AI / API, unlimited deploy previews, custom domains with SSL, global CDN, Functions, Netlify Database (Postgres), and Blob storage
- Credit costs: production deploy 15 credits, bandwidth 20 credits/GB, compute 10 credits/GB-hour
- Paid: Personal $9/mo (1,000 credits), Pro $20/mo (3,000 credits, unlimited members)
- Separate Open Source plan with generous credits and free production deploys for qualifying public projects
- Note: Netlify moved to credit-based pricing in September 2025 (pre-Sept-2025 accounts are grandfathered)
Who qualifies
- Free plan: anyone, no credit card
- Open Source plan: qualifying public projects per Netlify’s open-source policy
- No VC / stage gating
- On paid plans, one project exceeding limits can pause every project on the account
Community Insights
Netlify is praised for the easiest static-deploy experience on the market (“drag a folder in and you’re done”), and it is the default target for AI-built apps shipped from Lovable, Bolt, v0, and Cursor. The dominant caveat across the community is billing: an infamous “$104k bill for a static site” thread and the September 2025 move to credit-based pricing (which meters every request) made “metered bandwidth = trap” a recurring sentiment. The free plan’s hard cap (the site pauses rather than bills you) directly answers that fear, so for free-tier prototypes the bill-shock risk is largely mitigated.
Best Practices (from community tips)
- Stay on the Free plan for prototypes. Its hard cap means a viral spike pauses the site rather than billing you.
- If you enable a paid plan, leave auto-recharge off (it is off by default) to avoid runaway overages.
- Budget credits around bandwidth (20/GB) and per-request charges, not builds.
- Qualify for the Open Source plan if your repo is public. Much more headroom than the Free plan.
- Front large media with a cheaper CDN if bandwidth is your main cost.
- Isolate risky projects in separate teams. On paid plans a single overage can pause everything.