Is Hosting with Carpathian Free?
Every Carpathian account includes a free cloud server, web hosting, and database that you keep forever. No trial period and no credit card required to start.
Is Hosting with Carpathian Free?
The short answer: yes. Every Carpathian account includes a free cloud server, web hosting, and database that you keep forever. No trial period, no credit card required to start, no surprise billing after 30 days.
But let's break down what "free" actually means, what you get, and when you might need to pay for more.
What You Get for Free
When you create a Carpathian account, you automatically receive:
- One cloud server instance (yours to keep, forever)
- Web server hosting for launching websites
- Database access for your applications
- Team seats for collaboration
This isn't a trial. These resources don't expire. You can run a small website, test applications, or learn cloud infrastructure without ever entering payment information.
For personal projects, portfolio sites, development environments, or small business websites with modest traffic, the free tier may be all you ever need.
How Carpathian Pricing Actually Works
Most cloud providers charge you for everything: compute time, storage, bandwidth, API calls, data transfer between services, and a dozen other line items that make your monthly bill unpredictable. Carpathian works differently.
No Usage Metering
Spin up a server and push it to 100% CPU all month. Run intensive database queries. Transfer files between services. Your bill stays the same.
Carpathian charges for the number of instances you run, not how hard you run them. A server idling costs the same as a server under heavy load. This makes budgeting straightforward and eliminates the anxiety of surprise invoices.
Component Based Pricing
Instead of forcing you into predefined tiers, Carpathian lets you build exactly what you need. You configure:
- Number of CPU cores
- Amount of RAM
- Storage capacity
- Processor type
You pay for the components you select. Nothing more.
Two Billing Options
Monthly billing works like any subscription. Pay each month for the resources you're using. Scale up or down as needed.
Permanent upgrades let you buy hardware outright. Carpathian bases permanent pricing with 30% savings built in. The hardware you purchased continues running at no additional cost. It becomes yours in a meaningful sense, even though Carpathian maintains and hosts it.
For example, you could add 8GB of RAM or 4 additional CPU cores as a permanent upgrade. The upfront cost is higher, but over time, you pay significantly less than monthly subscribers using equivalent resources.
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