Every free PostgreSQL tier has a catch. Some expire, some pause when you stop looking at them, some suspend mid-month when you hit a usage limit. None of that matters for a weekend experiment - all of it matters the moment the experiment turns into something people use.
So this comparison does two things: it lists what each free tier actually gives you (numbers from each provider's own pricing page, July 2026), and it judges each one by the question free-tier roundups usually skip: what happens when your project becomes real? Disclosure: Miget is our product and it opens the list - the catches column is honest for everyone, including us.
Quick Comparison
| Provider | Free tier | The catch | Public access | Upgrade path |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miget | 256 MiB RAM, 0.1 vCPU, 1 GiB storage | Best-effort CPU, no SLA, sleeps after 30 min | Yes - IPv4 + IPv6, TLS | Scale the same instance in place; HA clusters; external replicas |
| Neon | 0.5 GB storage, 100 CU-hours/month | Hitting any monthly limit suspends compute until next month | Yes | Paid plans, serverless model |
| Supabase | 500 MB database, 2 projects | Paused after 1 week of inactivity | Via API/pooler | Paid plans (full backend platform) |
| Aiven | 1 GB storage, 1 GB RAM, 1 CPU | Powers off after inactivity; single node, no HA on free | Yes | Paid multi-node plans |
| Render | 1 GB storage | Expires 30 days after creation (then 14-day grace, then deletion) | Yes | Paid databases from $6/month |
| Railway | One-time $5 trial credit | Not a standing free tier - credit runs out | Yes | Usage-based billing |
1. Miget - a standing free tier with a production ladder
The free tier: a standalone managed PostgreSQL on the Miget Free resource - 256 MiB RAM, 0.1 vCPU, 1 GiB storage, your choice of PostgreSQL version, TLS by default, and optional public access over IPv4 and IPv6 so you can connect with psql or any client from anywhere. Setup takes a few minutes: the full walkthrough.
The catch: it is best-effort capacity - CPU can be limited under load, there is no SLA, and free instances sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity. It is built for development and prototypes, not production traffic.
When your project becomes real: this is where Miget's answer is structurally different from the rest of this list. You never migrate off the free database - you grow the same instance:
- Scale in place: raise CPU, RAM, and storage on the running instance instead of dump-and-restore to a different provider.
- High availability: move to a PostgreSQL HA cluster - 3, 5, or 7 instances with automatic replication and failover, and no connection string changes.
- Disaster recovery: for the truly paranoid (rightly so), add an external replica outside the platform - logical replication to a server you control, so even a platform-level incident cannot take your data with it.
- Zero-downtime moves in: coming from Heroku Postgres, the Bucardo migration procedure gets you over without a maintenance window.
Databases on Miget are included in compute plans rather than billed per instance, so the paid version of this database costs $0 on top of the plan you run your apps in.
2. Neon - serverless Postgres with scale-to-zero
The free tier: 0.5 GB storage per project, 100 compute-unit-hours per month, autoscaling up to 2 CU (8 GB RAM), and database branching - a genuinely useful feature for preview environments. Compute scales to zero after 5 minutes of inactivity, and the plan is permanent with no credit card.
The catch: the monthly limits are hard: per Neon's pricing page, hitting any free limit (CU-hours, storage, or 5 GB egress) suspends compute until the next billing month. A traffic spike on the wrong day can pause your database for weeks.
When your project becomes real: paid plans lift the limits, and the serverless model stays - great for spiky workloads, but cold starts after scale-to-zero are a real latency consideration for always-on apps.
3. Supabase - a free backend, not just a database
The free tier: 500 MB of database (shared CPU, 500 MB RAM), 2 active projects, 50,000 monthly active users on auth, and 5 GB egress. You get the whole Supabase platform - auth, storage, realtime - not just Postgres.
The catch: free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity. Fine for an actively developed side project, fatal for the low-traffic internal tool you check monthly.
When your project becomes real: upgrading unlocks always-on projects. Worth noting the direction of lock-in: Supabase is most valuable when you use the full platform (auth, row-level security, realtime), which also makes it harder to treat as "just Postgres" later. If you want the open-source stack under your own control, Supabase self-hosts as a compose stack too.
4. Aiven - the most RAM on a free tier
The free tier: 1 GB RAM, 1 CPU, 1 GB storage - the most generous compute on this list, no credit card, no expiry date.
The catch: the service powers off after a period of inactivity (Aiven emails you first), and the free tier is explicitly single-node with no high availability and documentation-only support.
When your project becomes real: Aiven's paid plans are proper multi-node managed Postgres aimed at production - the free tier is a genuine on-ramp, priced accordingly.
5. Render - free Postgres with an expiry date
The free tier: 1 GB of storage, one free database per workspace.
The catch is the headline: per Render's own docs, free databases expire 30 days after creation. You then have 14 days to upgrade before the database and all its data are permanently deleted. No backups on the free tier, and Render may restart it for maintenance at any time.
When your project becomes real: paid Render Postgres starts at $6/month (256 MB RAM, 1 GB storage) and is billed per instance on top of your services - the cost structure we walk through in the Render pricing breakdown.
6. Railway - a trial, not a tier
The free option: a one-time $5 usage credit. Postgres on Railway consumes the same metered resources as everything else ($10/GB RAM, $20/vCPU per month), so the credit funds a small database for roughly a month - once.
The catch: there is no standing free tier to come back to; after the credit, the Hobby plan is $5/month including $5 of usage.
When your project becomes real: the meter model means your database bill tracks its resource allocation - predictable for steady workloads, less so under growth. Full comparison: Miget vs Railway.
How to Choose
- Will you touch it every week? If not, avoid tiers that pause or power off on inactivity (Supabase, Aiven) and anything with an expiry date (Render). A standing tier that merely sleeps and wakes (Miget, Neon) survives neglect.
- Do you need to connect from outside? Check public access before you build: Miget gives you public IPv4 + IPv6 endpoints with TLS on the free tier; on some platforms external access routes through poolers or paid tiers.
- What is the exit story? The dump-and-restore migration you avoid thinking about today is the one you will do under pressure later. Prefer providers where the free database grows into the production one - in place, then to HA, then to an external replica if the data warrants it.
For a broader survey, the community-maintained awesome-free-postgres list tracks more providers than any single roundup.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free PostgreSQL hosting with no expiration?
Miget, Neon, Supabase, and Aiven all offer standing free tiers with no expiry date (with inactivity caveats noted above). Render's free Postgres expires after 30 days; Railway's free option is a one-time trial credit.
Can I get free PostgreSQL hosting with public access?
Yes - Miget's free tier includes optional public access over both IPv4 and IPv6 with TLS, so external tools and clients can connect directly. Setup guide here.
Is free PostgreSQL hosting safe for production?
No free tier on this list is production-grade: no SLA, limited resources, and pause/suspend behavior. What differs is the upgrade path - look for scale-in-place, high-availability clusters with automatic failover, and the ability to run an external replica for disaster recovery.
What is the difference between HA clusters and an external replica?
An HA cluster (3, 5, or 7 instances with automatic failover) protects you from instance and node failures inside the platform. An external replica - a logically replicated copy on infrastructure you control - protects you from platform-level incidents. For critical data you eventually want both: HA clusters, external replication setup.
What to read next
- Free PostgreSQL Hosting with Public Access - the step-by-step setup on Miget
- PostgreSQL HA Clusters Are Now Available - automatic replication and failover when you outgrow one instance
- Set Up a PostgreSQL Disaster Recovery Site Outside Miget - the external-replica insurance policy