Sites and apps
Free hosting with no time limit: where your site is not switched off after a month
In short
Free hosting with no time limit is a free plan, not a trial: the site runs for as long as you need it, not for 14 or 30 days. That is how the Netrun free plan works for websites: one site with no time limit, no card, no ads and an HTTPS link. The price of no time limit is sleeping: when nobody visits, the site sleeps and wakes up by itself in a couple of seconds on the first visit. Bots and background scripts cannot do that, so for them only 3 hours of running time are free, for testing.
- A trial ends after a fixed period, while a free plan with no time limit does not.
- On Netrun one website runs for free with no time limit, no bank card and no ads.
- A free website on Netrun sleeps when nobody visits and wakes up by itself on the first visit — that is how the platform can keep it indefinitely.
- Only websites stay free indefinitely on Netrun: a bot or a background script runs for free for 3 hours.
- A custom domain and running without sleep are turned on with the Netrun Pro plan, without moving the site.
"Free" on hosting platforms often means "free for two weeks". You publish a site, send the link in a resume or to a teacher, and a month later the link opens a placeholder — the trial ended and the reminder landed in spam. This hurts most for sites that should live for a long time: a portfolio, a study project, an event page, a business card site.
Below is how to tell an indefinite free plan from a trial, what its honest limits are and how to keep a website free for as long as you like.
| Trial | Free plan with no time limit | |
|---|---|---|
| How long the site runs | 7, 14 or 30 days | As long as you need it |
| Card | Often required up front | Not needed |
| Afterwards | The site is switched off or you are charged | The site keeps running |
| Limits | Usually almost none — until the end | Sleeps without visitors, one project |
| Good for | Trying a service before buying | A portfolio, a study project, a business card site |
Tell a free plan from a trial#
A trial always names a period: "14 days free", "first month on us". It often asks for a card at sign-up so it can charge you afterwards. A free plan names no period at all — it has limits instead: one project, fewer resources, sleeping. If the terms mention a number of days, it is a trial, not free hosting.
Understand why a free site sleeps#
Keeping a site on around the clock costs money even when nobody opens it. That is why indefinite free plans put a site to sleep when there are no visitors and wake it on the first visit. On Netrun waking up takes a couple of seconds: the first visitor after a pause waits a little longer, everyone else as usual. For a portfolio or a study project you will not notice.
Check the other catches#
See whether the host adds its own ads to your site, whether it gives HTTPS — without it the browser shows visitors a warning — and whether a foreign bank card is required. Netrun shows no ads, issues the certificate automatically and needs no card at all for the free plan.
Publish the site#
Gather the site files into one folder, pack them into a ZIP archive or connect a GitHub repository, and upload it to Netrun. The platform figures out what kind of site it is, builds it and gives you an HTTPS link. Plain HTML pages work, and so do sites with a back end on Python, Node.js, PHP or Go.
Decide what to do when the site grows#
If the site gets regular visitors and the wake-up pause gets in the way, or you need your own domain instead of a netrun.io address, the Pro plan turns that on. Nothing has to be moved: the same project simply stops sleeping, and the code, data and link stay in place. If you do not renew the plan later, the site returns to the free plan and keeps running, sleeping again when nobody visits.
Indefinite free hosting does exist — with the honest limit of sleeping. On Netrun one website runs for free for as long as you need it, with no card and no ads.
Common questions
Is there hosting that is free forever?
Yes, for websites. On the Netrun free plan one website runs with no time limit: it is not a trial, and it is not switched off after a month. The site sleeps when nobody visits and wakes up by itself on the first visit.
Will a free site be deleted if I do not update it for a long time?
No. There is no period after which a free Netrun website is switched off or deleted. You can publish a site once and never come back to it.
Why is only a website free with no time limit, and not a bot?
A website can be put to sleep and woken up when someone opens the link, so without visitors it costs nothing. A bot runs all the time — it reaches out to Telegram itself, and there is nothing to wake it. That is why a bot on the free plan runs for 3 hours for testing, and around the clock on the Pro plan.
Do I need a card for the free plan?
No. Netrun sign-up is by email or Google, with no card. There are no automatic charges on paid plans either: every payment is one-off.
Why does my website sometimes sleep?
On the free plan, websites sleep after being idle and wake up in a couple of seconds on the first request. On the Pro plan your project runs without sleeping.
Do bots and background scripts sleep?
No, only websites sleep: a website wakes up by itself when someone opens it. A bot or a background script has nothing to wake it — nobody comes to them by link, they work on their own. That is why on the free plan they run for 3 hours, and after that a bot needs the Pro plan to keep running around the clock.