Status: inferred · Last reviewed: 2026-07-10
The simplest free Django deployment is a Git-based web service connected to managed PostgreSQL. Render is the clearest demo path, while Railway offers an integrated workflow during its current trial. This guide uses a production-style configuration so the project can move to paid hosting later.
Use Render for a low-traffic Django demo and accept that the free web service sleeps.
Attach an external durable Postgres database rather than depending on an expiring demo database.
Run Gunicorn, collect static files and keep `SECRET_KEY` and `DATABASE_URL` in platform variables.
Upgrade before production when cold starts, backups or uptime become important.
Render Render Services Inc. Render is a unified cloud to build and run all your apps and websites with free TLS certificates, a global CDN, private networks and auto deploys from Git.
Free tier
512 MB web service, 750 hours/month, sleeps after 15 minutes; free Postgres expires after 30 days
Paid from $7/mo · 5 regions
Sleeps when idle · Suspends at the limit
Railway Railway Corp Railway is an infrastructure platform where you can provision infrastructure, develop with it locally, and then deploy to the cloud.
Free tier
30-day trial with $5 credit, then $1 monthly usage credit on Free
Paid from $5/mo · 4 regions
Credit-based allowance · Suspends at the limit
Fly.io Fly.io Inc. Fly.io transforms containers into micro-VMs that run on their hardware in cities close to your users.
Free tier
7-day trial capped at 2 total VM hours; no always-free tier for new organizations
Usage-based · 18 regions
Trial that expires · Sleeps when idle
Keep platform-specific values outside the repository. Read the secret key, database URL, allowed hosts and CSRF origins from environment variables. Set DEBUG=False, enforce HTTPS and run Django’s deployment checks before publishing.
WhiteNoise is a practical option for a small app’s static assets. User uploads are different: put them in object storage because the web-service filesystem may be replaced on every deploy.
Install locked dependencies, run collectstatic, apply migrations and start Gunicorn. For a serious system, migrations should be a controlled release step instead of happening concurrently on multiple instances. For a one-instance demo, the combined flow is acceptable if failures stop the deploy.
After deployment, test more than the home page. Create and read a database record, load CSS from a clean browser session, restart the service and verify the data remains. That restart test catches the most common false-success in free Django hosting.
Provider signup rules vary. A no-card Postgres service such as Neon can be paired with the app host, but verify the host's current account requirements before deployment.
The free web service may have spun down after inactivity. It needs to start the process and reconnect to the database before returning the first response.
Only for disposable demos when the filesystem is persistent. Managed Postgres is safer because many free web-service filesystems are ephemeral.
Use the same repository and environment-variable contract, upgrade the web service and database, configure backups and monitoring, then test migrations and rollback before switching traffic.