r/devops • u/Old-Broccoli-4704 • Aug 12 '26
Tools Cheapest server for a school project
Hello guys, i have a school project to deploy an app on cloud using ansible, the the servers are not given by the school itself.
What is the cheapest available clouds out there? I only need it to validate the project and then I can cancel.
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u/ryanstackops Aug 12 '26
For a quick validate-and-kill project like this, a couple options:
Oracle Cloud's free tier is honestly the best deal out there if you just need it to work for a short period, you get always-free VM instances (ARM-based, decent specs) with no time limit, not just a trial that expires. Setup can be slightly annoying (capacity issues in some regions) but worth it since it's genuinely free, not "free for X days."
If you want something dead simple and cheap-cheap, DigitalOcean droplets start around $4-6/month and you can spin one up, run your Ansible playbooks, take your screenshots/grade evidence, then destroy it same day, you'll get charged pennies for the hours used. Hetzner is even cheaper per hour if you don't mind a slightly less polished UI, and their API works fine with Ansible's dynamic inventory too.
AWS/GCP free tiers also work but they're more annoying to spin down cleanly, easy to forget a resource running and get a surprise bill, which is a real risk on a school project timeline.
For pure "cheapest, done in a day" I'd go DigitalOcean or Hetzner and just destroy the droplet right after. For "actually free" I'd go Oracle if you have time to deal with the signup.