I have been looking for a free VPS for testing purpose over the last couple of years. I don’t have credit cards or I am not willing to expose my credit cards to the Web, in order to protect myself. However, there are no ready to use free VPS for me to test before buying.
Four biggest free VPS providers - Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle - all request you for credit cards, they scare me away. Several smaller VPS providers do the same thing. Those without such requirements impose other restrictions, such as a reciprocal links, posting reviews or comments on their forums. There are even VPS providers that are just phishing your data, without any further information after I have ordered their free accounts.
Results: no free VPS without creditcard requirements in its real sense. In another words, there are no free VPS in the same sense as free virtual hosting. Although free hosting is of low quality, still you can get them in abundance. But you cannot get free VPS as easy as free hosting. Why?
Can anyone share your information and experiences?
You just asked the same on LET, so I’ll give you the same answer:
Because if I were to offer free virtual servers, I would almost always result in a monetary net loss. Plus, I would open myself up to a whole lot of abuse if I don’t check your details, etc.
Because shared web hosting can be provided for a low cost. One server could fit thousands of websites on it and companies are able to provide these types of services at a small loss in the hope that people will upgrade to a paid package down the line (this is how 99% of free shared hosting providers offer their service)
VPS requires a lot more investment from the provider as the numbers of users per server will be a lot less so the loss the company is making is a lot larger. The big players are willing to swallow a small loss (i.e. Google, Amazon etc.) but need your credit card details in case you do something stupid that costs them money which helps them control risk.
The only “real” free VPS I can think of is some of the community based VPS providers that offer them for free to trusted members. To be trusted you need to be an active member of the LowEnd communities so this sort of fits under the “posting comments on the forum” style of free VPS hosting you mentioned in your post - which you don’t want either.
It’s a tough one, but nothing in life is really free!
The credit cards are to make sure one person does not sign up multiple times.
Think about it: the cost of running a server can be over a hundred dollars per month, and it can only fit a few dozen customers. A free hosting provider can fit a few thousand customers on a single server. If 3 percent of the free customers pay, then there are already a few hundred paying customers for the shared hosting service.
My advice: if you need to do testing, run it on your own computer. You can install Ubuntu on a dual boot system. You can create websites on your own computer.
If you want to do more, just use a credit card or a sub card where it is used one time and doesn’t expose your real number. All credit cards have fraud protection nowadays.
Besides all the MEMES, Some Projects like FreeMach or NanoKVM get servers sponsored.
Means we get resources for free and give them out for free.
Since there are requirements, the abuse rate is low, to non existent.
Of course there is a cost, of running the server but its compensated by the machines that bring in money + PR.
I need a VPS because I need a working website for communications with the world, not just for fun. And many functionalities can only be used when online.
Any legitimate company like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Digital Ocean, or Linode will not do anything bad your credit card. I will bet five bucks.
If you really want the cheapest deals, I would recommend getting a credit card with fraud protection. Nothing is free in this world, especially when you clearly need a reliable service, as you said “not just for fun.”
I’m curious that you could not afford a few dollars for VPS? If you are a student, you can participate in the student program and get it at a favorable price, if not, you can watch out for offers from many providers.
EUserve could be a good choice.It’s free before,But it need about 3 dollars to obtain one now.
It’s an old server providing company in Germany.And its servers are in the Europe too
I would suggest a “on demand” service instead. Fire up as much compute, storage, etc as you wants then revs them down as needed.
You could even take advantage of block storage, snapshots or such so you don’t be billed for the compute (CPU, RAM, etc) while you still have your data “at the mere ready”.
Some efforts of course is required for the networking, mounting, etc but at least it’s an operation that can be learnt then it will be 2nd nature as the “saying goes”.
Get a debit card, instead of a credit card and load it with as much as you are willing to potentially loose - not that you will loose anything, as most debit cards also have 3D secure authentication. Then you can use that debit card to the big players, that you are scared of giving your CC details to.
As others have said, I doubt you will find a free as in free-beer VPS.
Then I would explore what options are available to you instead. Namely beside obviously getting one, debit cards and getting into crypto might be other options.