13 of the Best Node.js Hosting Platforms for 2026 (Free + Paid)

In a rush? Here are some key details:

Hosting categories explained

To make it easier to choose a hosting provider that fits your situation, I’ve grouped the options into categories based on their hosting models. This way, you can quickly find the right fit for your project’s size, budget, and technical requirements.

With this out the way, let’s now look at the individual hosts and what they bring to the table:

Platform as a service (PaaS)

1. Railway

Railway is a developer-friendly PaaS with a simple interface, flexible pricing, and strong Git integration. Deployments trigger automatically from your repository, and it supports ephemeral environments to test pull requests. While it doesn’t offer a free tier, new users can take advantage of a free trial to explore its features.

Key features

• Quick setup for PostgreSQL, Redis, and more.
• Automatic deployments triggered by Git with branch-based previews.
• Easy handling of environment variables and a logging dashboard for monitoring.

Pricing

Free tier is usually available, plus trial credits (details change over time). Currently, you can get the free plan with $5 credits in the first month, then they go down to $1 per month. You can use up to 1 vCPU / 0.5 GB RAM per service, 0.5 GB of volume storage.

• Cost: Hobby plan at $5/month (includes $5 in monthly resource usage)
• Resources: Up to 48 vCPU / 48 GB RAM per service and 5 GB of storage
• Workspace: Single developer
• Support: Community-based
• Extras: seven-day log history

Pros

• Very fast path from repo to running service; great UI/logs
• Usage-based pricing can be cost-effective for spiky/low utilization workloads
• Easy to connect popular databases quickly

Cons

• Pricing predictability can be tricky (especially egress + “always-on” workloads)
• Not a classic “fixed box”: you need to understand resource billing to avoid surprises
• Free/trial credits exhaustion can stop workloads unless you upgrade (depending on plan behavior)

2. Heroku

Heroku is a pioneer in PaaS, offering a user-friendly environment for deploying and managing Node.js apps. Deployment is simple with Git commands, and the platform has a wide range of add-ons for features like databases, caching, and logging. Scaling your app is easy, too – just increase the number of “dynos” (Heroku’s term for application containers).

Key features

• Automatic builds triggered by Git pushes.
• Add dynos to handle increased traffic or workload.
• One-click setup for add-ons like PostgreSQL, Redis, and Papertrail.

Pricing

• Cost: Eco plan at ~$0.005/hour ($5/month flat)
• Resources: 1x – 4x compute, 512 MB RAM
• Deployment options: Git and Docker
• Features included:
  • Custom domains
  • Unified logs
  • Support for 2 process types
  • Container orchestration
  • Automatic OS patching
  • Automated SSL certificate management
• Limitations:
  • Available for personal accounts only on the Eco plan
  • Applications sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity on the Eco plan; note, this is not the case for always-on dynos (Basic/Standard/Performance)

Pros

• Very smooth developer experience: Git push deploys, buildpacks, simple logs, simple config vars
• Mature add-on ecosystem (Postgres, Redis, logging, monitoring, etc.)
• Easy scaling model (dynos) and clear operational patterns

Cons

• Costs can rise quickly at scale vs competitors (compute + add-ons)
• Eco sleeping/cold starts are painful for APIs that need constant responsiveness
• Less infra control (networking, OS-level knobs) than IaaS/Kubernetes

3. Sevalla

Sevalla is a newer Platform-as-a-Service (from the same team of devs who brought you Kinsta) that aims to deliver “Heroku-like” simplicity on top of Kubernetes, without forcing you to manage yamls.

You can deploy Node.js apps from Git, a Dockerfile, or prebuilt Docker images, and you get built-in features like preview environments, zero-downtime deployments with health checks, and Cloudflare-backed networking for TLS and DDoS protection.

Key features

• Auto-deploy on git push, plus Dockerfile and Docker image deployments.
• Preview apps for pull requests and multi-environment pipelines (dev/QA/prod).
• Vertical and horizontal scaling, with optional autoscaling.
• Background workers and cron jobs.
• 25 data center locations for app deployments, with Cloudflare edge integration for faster delivery of static content.

Pricing

Sevalla includes a free plan (albeit for static sites), which includes: auto-deploys on git push, 1 GB size limit per site, 100 GB free bandwidth, 600 free build minutes, up to 100 sites per account(!)

Paid plans add higher resource limits and production-oriented features as your needs grow:

• Application hosting Hobby plan: $5/month for 0.3 CPU / 0.3 GB RAM
• Standard application hosting plans: from $10/month (0.5 CPU / 1 GB).
• Build time: $0.02/minute for builds.
• Bandwidth (egress): $0.10/GB outbound; internal traffic is free.
• Optional persistent storage is priced separately (tiered by size).

Pros

• Heroku-style workflow with more deployment flexibility (Git, buildpacks/nixpacks, Docker)
• Good “all-in-one platform” coverage (apps + managed databases + object storage + static sites)
• No per-seat pricing (pricing is primarily resource/usage based)
• Cloudflare integration (TLS automation and DDoS protection) is a nice default

Cons

• The cheapest Hobby pod can’t use a custom domain for the web process, which limits real production use unless you upgrade
• Like most PaaS, you don’t get the same low-level control as a VPS
• Newer platform compared to others, so the ecosystem/community depth may be smaller than Heroku’s

4. Render

Render is a modern alternative to Heroku, with automatic SSL and continuous deployment from GitHub or GitLab. It has a clean dashboard for managing services, custom domains, and logs. Pricing is simple once you’re looking at the right section (you choose a fixed-priced “Web Service” instance size), but the pricing page itself can feel confusing at first because it leads with per-user workspace plans and then separates compute, databases, storage, and bandwidth into different line items.

Key features

• New commits trigger automatic builds and deployments via Git.
• Includes managed databases, static site hosting, cron jobs, and background workers.
• Pay based on CPU and RAM usage, with clear plans.

Pricing

Tiers:

On the pricing page, scroll down until you see Compute pricing, then under Services, you’ll see this:

“Services” plans come with the following:

• Web services with HTTP/2 and full TLS
• Support for Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, and Elixir
• Private services and custom Docker containers
• Background workers
• SSD storage ($0.25/GB per month)

Pros

• Heroku-like simplicity with modern features (preview environments, IaC “Blueprints”).
• First-class background workers and cron jobs.
• Straightforward service types (static sites, web services, private services).

Cons

• Free-tier services can “spin down”/sleep (varies by product), so not ideal for latency-sensitive APIs on free.
• Fewer “add-ons” than Heroku; you may integrate external services yourself.

5. NodeChef

NodeChef focuses on Node.js (though it also supports other languages) and offers easy Docker-based deployments plus integrated databases (MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis). It aims to provide a Heroku-like workflow but with more built-in options for data services.

Key features

• Built-in databases and caching layers
• Docker containers for easy scaling and environment consistency
• Automatic SSL and a straightforward control panel

Pricing

• Cost: Starts at $9/month ($0.01/hour)
• Resources: 128 MB app memory, 1 app instance, 100 MB database memory, 1 GB database storage
• Bandwidth: Unmetered

Pros

• Integrated “app + db” in one platform; so less vendor stitching
• Container-based deployments (portable mental model)
• Focus on Node.js workflows; includes monitoring/metrics features

Cons

• Smaller ecosystem/community than Heroku/Render (fewer tutorials/integrations)
• Potentially more vendor lock-in around their platform tooling
• Premium support is expensive (common for smaller PaaS vendors) – from $300/month

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS)

You’ve probably heard of Amazon Web Services because it powers like…the entire internet. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s pretty, pretty popular. Through its many integrated services, AWS makes a great option for hosting Node.js applications.

While there are a lot of different services to choose from, you’ll most likely want to start with Elastic Beanstalk (docs), although some might argue that it’s a setup that resembles PaaS-like structures more. As the docs put it, it “makes it easy to deploy, manage, and scale your Node.js web applications using Amazon Web Services.” You just need to upload your code, and then AWS handles deployment and provisioning. Plus, there’s no special charge for the Elastic Beanstalk service – you still only pay for the actual AWS services that you use.

Another interesting option is Lambda, which offers a serverless hosting approach (which would fit better in the previous section). If you aren’t super familiar with AWS yet, you can check out the “Deploy a Node.js Web App” project guide to learn the basics and get your app up and running.

Key features

• EC2 for customizable virtual servers
• Elastic Beanstalk for simplified app deployment
• AWS Lambda for serverless Node.js functions
• Huge marketplace of third-party solutions and integrations

Pricing

Navigating Amazon EC2 pricing is not as easy as checking a price list. It’s all based on usage, your exact setup, plus what you actually want to run. Here’s an example of their cheapest “nano” setups:

• t4g.nano: $0.0042/h (~$3/month), 2 vCPUs, 0.5 GB RAM
• t4g.micro: $0.0084/h (~$6/month), 2 vCPUs, 1 GB RAM
• t4g.small: $0.0168/h (~$12/month), 2 vCPUs, 2 GB RAM
• t4g.medium: $0.0336/h (~$24/month), 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM

Pros

• It’s the most flexible ecosystem: compute (EC2/ECS/EKS), serverless (Lambda), managed containers, managed DBs, queues, CDN, etc.
• Scales from tiny to enormous; lots of architecture options
• Mature security/compliance tooling

Cons

• Complexity and tough learning curve
• Costs can become unpredictable and huuuuge without governance

2. Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

If you want to host your Node.js app on the same infrastructure that powers Google Search and YouTube, Google Cloud Platform might just be the best Node.js hosting for you.

Like Amazon Web Services, you’ll have your choice of a ton of different products and services. One that you’ll definitely want to consider is Google App Engine, which lets you “focus just on writing code, without the worry of managing the underlying infrastructure”. And, like AWS, you’ll only pay for the resources that you actually use.

For a guide to getting started with hosting Node.js apps on Google Cloud Platform, check out Google’s Node.JS App Engine quick-start guide.

Key features

• Compute Engine (VM-based) and GKE (managed Kubernetes) for flexible deployments
• App Engine for automatic scaling without server management
• Cloud Run for container-based serverless Node.js apps
• Deep integration with Firebase, BigQuery, and other Google tools

Pricing

There is a free tier available with generous limits – in most cases, you can run one instance/app with no cost, though those free tiers are quota-based per product, so depending on your use, it might not map cleanly to one app. Then, you’ll need to pay if you start consuming more resources. All based on the calculator.

Pros

• Cloud Run is excellent for containerized Node services (simple, scalable)
• Strong data/analytics ecosystem (BigQuery, Pub/Sub)
• Good global network; solid IAM

Cons

• Pricing/quotas can be confusing at first
• Some services have steeper learning curve than others
• Easy to lock yourself in (tougher to migrate if you ever need to)

3. DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean, the popular cloud infrastructure service, also makes a good option for Node.js hosting and lets you spin up a new Node.js Ubuntu droplet with just a few clicks. Or, you can also create your own droplet and set everything up yourself.

It’s not the best option for inexperienced users because you’ll need to manage the infrastructure yourself, but the prices are affordable and DigitalOcean makes it super easy to scale your application as needed. On the other hand, it’s not like AWS or Google Cloud are meant for beginners either.

Note; if you’d like to host a more traditional platform on DigitalOcean – something like WordPress for example, then the easiest way to do that is through Cloudways. They provide an easy to set-up interface for beginners who don’t want to interact with their server through hardware-level command lines and such, and would rather use a normal UI.

Key features

• Droplets: simple, predictable VPS pricing and setup
• Deploy Node.js with minimal config, similar to Heroku
• Managed databases available (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis)
• Global data centers, though fewer than AWS/GCP

Pricing

You can get started with a new droplet for as little as $4.00 per month, and you’ll have your choice of eight different data centers on three different continents. Here’s how it plays out:

• $4.00/month: 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 500 GB transfer, 10 GB disk
• $6.00/month: 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 1,000 GB transfer, 25 GB disk
• $12.00/month: 2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 2,000 GB transfer, 50 GB disk,
• and so on…

Pros

• Simple VPS setups; great docs and developer friendliness
• Predictable(-ish) pricing compared to AWS or Google Cloud
• Easy scaling upgrades; snapshots/backups

Cons

• You own patching, security hardening, monitoring (unless you add tooling)
• No built-in “PaaS conveniences” unless you use their App Platform

Serverless / front-end-centric

1. Vercel

Vercel, well-known for its close association with Next.js, is a top choice for deploying front-end applications. It also supports Node.js-based serverless functions. Deployment is as easy as linking your GitHub or GitLab repository, with automatic builds triggered by every push.

Their free Hobby plan is really generous and very popular in the community. I myself have three apps hosted there – for free.

Key features

• Zero-config deployments for frameworks like Next.js and React.
• Serverless functions for APIs (supports Node.js, and more).
• Automatic SSL and a global CDN for fast and secure delivery.
• Integrated analytics.

Pricing

• Hobby plan (free):
  • Quick repo import and deployments.
  • Automatic CI/CD pipelines.
  • Serverless compute with built-in DDoS mitigation.
  • Web Application Firewall (WAF) and traffic insights.
  • Community support.

• Pro plan (starting at $20/month):
  • 10x more infrastructure usage.
  • Advanced observability tools and infrastructure scalability.
  • Enhanced WAF protection.
  • Email support for faster assistance.
  • Cold start prevention.

Pros

• Best-in-class developer experience for Next.js and front-end deployments
• Preview deployments are excellent for teams
• Edge/network optimizations for web delivery

Cons

• Not ideal for long-running Node processes, websockets, heavy background jobs
• Function limits (runtime duration, memory, cold starts, concurrency) can constrain APIs
• Can get expensive with bandwidth/compute at scale

2. Netlify

Netlify is a front-end deployment platform similar to Vercel, featuring tight CI/CD integration with GitHub/GitLab and a focus on static and JAMstack websites. It supports Node.js via serverless functions, letting you deploy back-end logic with minimal setup.

Key features

• Deploy Node.js code as serverless functions
• Auto-build and deploy when you push to Git
• Global edge network for fast delivery of static content.

Pricing

• Free plan:
  • Single user seat.
  • Global edge network and live site previews.
  • 100GB bandwidth and 300 build minutes.
  • Features like instant rollbacks, secrets management, static assets, and dynamic serverless functions.

• Paid plan:
  • Named “Personal,” actually
  • Starts at $9/month.
  • Smart secret detection.
  • 7-day analytics and metrics.
  • Priority email support.
  • 1,000 credits / month.

Pros

• Simple CI/CD, previews, forms/identity add-ons (depending on plan)
• Good developer workflow with functions for light API needs

Cons

• Similar to Vercel: not for full “always-on” Node servers
• Functions are best for stateless tasks; background processing can be awkward
• Costs can rise with bandwidth/build minutes on larger projects

3. Fly.io

Fly.io takes a unique approach by allowing you to deploy containers directly to their global edge network. This enables you to run full Node.js applications close to your users, reducing latency. While not purely “serverless” (more like a global app platform, actually), Fly.io simplifies infrastructure management by handling tasks like load balancing and service discovery.

Key features

• Run any framework or language as a container – Docker-based deployments
• Deploy your app in multiple regions easily, reducing latency
• Automatic TLS/SSL and built-in service discovery

Pricing

Fly.io uses a pay-as-you-go model with a cost calculator for tailored estimates.

• Example costs:
  • Small setup: 1 shared CPU core, 256 MB RAM: $1.94/month.
  • Mid tier setup: 4 shared CPU code, 1 GB RAM: $7.78/month.
  • High-performance setup: 2 performance CPU cores, 4 GB RAM: $62/month.

Pros

• Excellent for running real Node servers (websockets, long-lived connections)
• Multi-region deployment is strong
• Docker-first, portable deployments

Cons

• More technical than Vercel/Render: you’ll think about regions, volumes, networking
• Databases and persistent storage across regions require careful design
• Billing can be less predictable if you don’t watch resources

Why go serverless?

✅ Reduced server management
✅ Pay for usage
✅ Fast deployments
⛔ Limited persistent processes
⛔ Runtime restrictions
⛔ Vendor lock-in

Traditional (shared/VPS) hosting

1. Hosting.com

Hosting.com is one of the few “traditional” hosts to offer a dedicated Node.js hosting package. That is, you’re typically looking at cloud or dedicated options for Node.js, but Hosting.com lets you use their shared plans.

This makes Hosting.com quite an affordable option, with plans starting at $1.99 per month. This already offers great performance, but if you really wanted to up your performance game, then you could always opt for one of the higher level plans.

However, the downside of Hosting.com is that it won’t be as easy to scale your application as it would be with one of the many cloud Node.js hosting providers on this list.

Key features

• “Turbo Servers” custom-tuned for performance (on certain plans)
• Developer-friendly tools
• Automatic backups and security

Pricing

• Starts from $1.99 per month
• 2 websites
• 30 GB SSD storage
• Comprehensive security suite
• Enhanced automatic backups
• DIY performance tools

Pros

• Cheap entry pricing
• Familiar “traditional hosting” tooling for domains/email/basic sites
• Fine for simple Node use cases if they support cPanel Node tooling

Cons

• Shared hosting often limits long-running processes, ports, and CPU/memory
• Scaling is manual; fewer observability features
• Node deployments can be “supported but awkward” vs PaaS

2. Hostinger

Hostinger is known for its low-cost hosting plans. While its shared hosting primarily targets PHP and WordPress, you can run Node.js on Hostinger VPS plans. You’ll have root access, letting you install and configure Node.js (and other runtimes) as needed.

Key features

• An alternative to cPanel for managing servers and domains
• Plans start at relatively low monthly fees
• Choose from several global data centers to reduce latency

Pricing

Hostinger allows you to run Node.js applications on their VPS hosting.

• The prices start from $4.99/month
• You get 1 vCPU core, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe disk space, 4 TB bandwidth
• Data centers worldwide
• Free weekly backups
• Public API
• AI assistant powered by MCP

Pros

• Full control (you can run PM2/systemd, Docker, nginx, anything)
• Good price/performance on low tiers
• Easy upgrade path as you grow (more RAM/CPU)

Cons

• You are the DevOps: security updates, firewalling, monitoring, backups
• Reliability depends on your setup quality (and sometimes tier)
• No built-in autoscaling

What’s the best Node.js hosting for your needs?

You’ve just gone through a lot of content, so for the summary and final recommendations, I want to simplify things as much as possible and only highlight one top host per each category.

Here goes:

Platform as a service (PaaS)

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Serverless / front-end-centric

Traditional (shared/VPS)

Any questions about picking the best hosting for Node.js? Ask away in the comments!