Clever Cloud vs Render — free-tier comparison
This comparison is calculated from verified service fields. It is not presented as an editorial review and remains excluded from the index until reviewed.
At a glance
Render: Most generous free tier
PaaS
One-time free credits at signup with no payment card; the amount is not published on the pricing page
Paid from Per-second usage billing
- Free credits at signup, no payment card required
- Per-second billing on actual usage
- Monthly account funding adjusted to real usage
- Heroku-style Git deploys from a European company
- No payment card needed to try it
- No permanent free tier; the signup credit runs out
Best for
- French and EU companies that need a sovereign PaaS
- Teams moving off Heroku who want Git deploys and managed add-ons
PaaS
512 MB web service, 750 hours/month, sleeps after 15 minutes; free Postgres expires after 30 days
Paid from $7/month
- Free static sites
- 750 hours/month for web services
- Free managed PostgreSQL (30 days)
- One platform for web services, static sites, databases, workers and cron
- Auto-deploys from Git with free TLS
- Free web services sleep after about 15 minutes of inactivity
Best for
- Full-stack apps and APIs that need an always-deployable server
- Side projects that want a free database to start
The catch?
Clever Cloud
- Trial that expires
- Some constraints remain unconfirmed
Render
- Sleeps when idle
- Suspends at the limit
- Some constraints remain unconfirmed
Detailed comparison
| Clever Cloud | Render | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier & pricing | ||
| Free tier ↑ better | Signup credit | Perpetual (sleeps) ★ |
| Paid from ↓ better | Usage-based | $7/mo |
| Regions ↑ better | — | 5 regions |
| PaaS | ||
| Included RAM ↑ better | — | 512 MB |
| Compute hours ↑ better | — | 750 hrs/mo |
FAQ
Not a permanent one. New accounts get free credits at signup with no payment card. The amount is not published on the pricing page, and once the credits are used you fund the account to keep apps running.
Resources are billed per second based on actual usage. You fund the account monthly, adjusted to your real consumption, and receive an itemised bill.
Free web services spin down after about 15 minutes of inactivity and cold-start on the next request. Paid instances stay always-on.
No. Render's free PostgreSQL database expires 30 days after creation, with a short grace period before deletion.