The free-for-dev repository is a comprehensive curated list of software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and infrastructure-as-a-service offerings that provide free tiers specifically valuable to infrastructure developers, system administrators, and DevOps practitioners. Maintained by ripienaar and built through contributions from over 1600 people, the repository serves as a centralized resource for developers seeking to make informed decisions about which free services to adopt for their projects and infrastructure needs.
The repository maintains strict eligibility criteria for inclusion. Services must offer genuine free tiers rather than limited-time free trials, with time-bucketed free tiers required to last at least one year. The maintainer applies security-conscious evaluation, accepting services with single sign-on capabilities but rejecting those that restrict TLS encryption to paid-only tiers. The list explicitly excludes self-hosted software, focusing exclusively on managed service offerings. This opinionated curation keeps the list focused and relevant to its target audience rather than attempting to catalog every free service available.
The scope covers an extensive range of infrastructure and development categories. Major cloud providers including Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services are documented with their specific always-free limits, such as Google Cloud's App Engine offering 28 frontend instance hours per day and AWS EC2 providing 750 hours monthly of t2.micro or t3.micro instances. Beyond major cloud providers, the list encompasses cloud management solutions, analytics platforms, APIs and machine learning services, artifact repositories, backend-as-a-service offerings, content delivery networks, continuous integration and deployment tools, code quality platforms, crash handling services, databases, DNS providers, Docker-related tools, domain registrars, email services, feature toggle management, monitoring solutions, and numerous other categories relevant to infrastructure work.
The repository is maintained in HTML format and hosted at free-for.dev, making it accessible as a browsable website alongside the GitHub repository. The table of contents spans over 40 distinct categories, reflecting the breadth of services available to developers with free tiers. Each category contains detailed information about specific services and their free tier limitations, enabling developers to quickly assess whether a particular offering meets their needs.
According to GitGenius activity tracking, the repository has demonstrated sustained popularity and growth within the developer community. As of the most recent tracking period ending July 4, 2026, the repository had accumulated 128,265 stargazers, with continued growth indicating ongoing interest in the resource. The repository is classified across multiple domains including developer tools, free services, cloud platforms, APIs, hosting, databases, storage, CI/CD systems, monitoring, and general resources lists, reflecting its multifaceted utility across the infrastructure development landscape.
The project actively welcomes community contributions through pull requests to add new services or update existing entries when offerings change or are retired. This collaborative approach ensures the list remains current and comprehensive as the landscape of free developer services continues to evolve.
