Best Platforms that provide free Django App hosting

I am one of those people who love to work on a remote machine, rather than my own. Trying to find free web hosting is hardly a problem, as there are plenty of options available for those who want to try remote environments for the first time.

It becomes difficult when we need a server that can enable us to run applications like Django, and host apps created through the framework. It’s not even the fact that there might be limitations, or it seems more difficult – it’s just the way I’m used to developing and doing testing. I’m sure there are a lot of other people who prefer to do it the same way.

They’re obviously not limited to Django only, and I’m only using the terminology so I can have the post rank for that keyword. That’s as transparent as it can get. I’m a huge fan of Heroku – which is also going to be included in the list – and the service they provide at no additional cost. I hope you’ll be able to find a free Django hosting platform that will suit your needs.

1. PythonAnywhere

This is a cloud-based platform – like most are – that allows you to have a server instance for all your Python development needs, and you can set up a fully functional web server within a couple of clicks. It currently supports one-click install for the following Python applications:

The free plan offers enough specifications for you to do some basic testing, and even host a portfolio site if you’d like. Head over to the ‘Batteries‘ page and see which libraries, frameworks, and other Python tools are available for easy importation and installation. You can upgrade to a ‘Hacker Plan’ at $5 per month, and that will allow you to have up to 10k visits per day, depending on the source and type of traffic.

2. Amazon AWS – Free

The Amazon AWS free plan is pretty much a way of learning more about the services that AWS & EC2 provide to the world, and perhaps get you hooked on the way their instances and system works in order to become full-time customers. It’s, of course, good to learn more about such platforms, as you never know when it might come in handy, especially when working in the field of development. You’ll be able to do just about enough to get your feet wet with testing applications and deploying them.

3. OpenShift

OpenShift is very popular in the community, and fully supports hundreds of applications and types of programming languages for you to launch from their ‘gears’. This is a project maintained by the original Red Hat board, and provides a free – and paid – cloud service to those who need it.

The official OpenShift blog is full of tutorials, guides and other juicy information that will help you get going quickly. Most importantly, yes, it does support free Django hosting!

4. Heroku

It provides incredibly cloud facilities and the server performance is really great, especially when it’s free! This platform is the perfect example of successful growth, over the last couple of years, Heroku has become the place to go to when someone is looking to launch a new startup or a business.

You can head over to the Heroku’s own ‘Getting Started with Django‘ guide and learn how to set up a fully functional Django installation on your Heroku node. It has now grown and offers a ton of enterprise capabilities and plans for large companies that need infrastructure that can scale, we’re after Django hosting!

5. Platforms for Free Django Hosting

I’ve played around with only Heroku, as far as this list goes – but I’ve heard good recommendations for the rest, and I’m sure you’ve too! I’m not sure if I was able to catch and list all of the good ones on this list. I’ll appreciate it if you help me out by sending in a tip to more platforms and hosting providers like this, as I’m always looking for something like that myself. And if you feel a certain predisposition towards learning more about Django, you can go for this incredible online course 'Projects in Django: Learn Django Building Projects'.

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