Ask HN: What are some great “Free” services provided by IBM, Amazon, etc.? - behnamoh
======
jamiesonbecker
Google offers $300 in credit that you can use on anything you like for one
year as soon as you sign up right off the bat, and AWS has offered the Free
Tier almost since inception.

For startups, Google[1], Amazon[2], Microsoft BizSpark[3], OVH Digital Launch
Pad[4], Digital Ocean[5], have startup programs that you can apply to with
varying amounts of service credit (usually expiring afer one year). (Don't
write off OVH: theirs seems to be the smallest, but their stuff is by far the
highest value.. 2GB instances for $3.49/month and great DDoS protection;
however, their cloud dashboard takes a little time to get used to, but seems
pretty powerful once into it.)

1\. $20k to $100k in service credits @ Google:
[https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/](https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/)

2\. $5k at Amazon, $15k in accelerators:
[https://aws.amazon.com/activate/](https://aws.amazon.com/activate/)

3\. Up to $120k at Microsoft:
[https://bizspark.microsoft.com/](https://bizspark.microsoft.com/)

4\. $500 to $100k at OVH:
[https://www.ovh.com/us/dlp/](https://www.ovh.com/us/dlp/)

5\. up to $100k at Digital Ocean (not sure if this is actually launched yet --
we applied for [https://userify.com](https://userify.com) but never heard
back):
[https://www.digitalocean.com/hatch/](https://www.digitalocean.com/hatch/)

~~~
no1youknowz
I really want to apply to Google. But unfortunately, my startup doesn't
qualify due to not being in an approved VC fund, Accelerator, or Incubator.

Does anyone know of any program, that does not require me to give any equity?
So that I may join and get the Google credits?

~~~
griffinkelly
If you know someone that works for Google they can internally recommend you as
well.

~~~
Bombthecat
For real?

Good to know :)

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niftich
There is a fairly well-known curated list started in 2015, 'free-for-dev' [1],
which lists _" SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest
to devops and infradev"_.

There is another list started in 2016, 'stack-on-a-budget' [2], for _"
services with great free tiers for developers on a budget"_.

A tangentially related list is 'Public-APIs' [3], for APIs _" which make their
resources available for consumption."_

[1] [https://github.com/ripienaar/free-for-
dev](https://github.com/ripienaar/free-for-dev) [2]
[https://github.com/255kb/stack-on-a-budget](https://github.com/255kb/stack-
on-a-budget) [3] [https://github.com/abhishekbanthia/Public-
APIs](https://github.com/abhishekbanthia/Public-APIs)

------
samtho
IBM Bluemix[0] has some good trial offerings, you can always contact them and
say you're a hobbyist and they may be able to give you a longer trial. Their
IoT platform is pretty cool and you have access to Watson.

There is also a surprising amount of open source projects they put out[1][2].

Disclosure: I work at IBM in the Cloud Division.

[0] [https://console.ng.bluemix.net/](https://console.ng.bluemix.net/)

[1] [https://github.com/ibm](https://github.com/ibm)

[2] [https://github.com/strongloop](https://github.com/strongloop)

~~~
brightball
I will say, I was interested in trying out Bluemix for sake of Watson but the
30 day trial was a huge, huge turn off. I signed up for an account to look
around for a project I'm hoping to find time for next month...but my clock is
ticking now despite not using ANYTHING. By the time I'm ready to develop, the
trial will be expired.

It's a terrible approach IMO.

------
6stringmerc
If you want to try screenwriting, Story Writer by Amazon is an excellent free-
to-use service. Basic, yes, but after a couple years using it I can assert it
does the trick. Perfect for those wanting to 'give writing a script a try'
without forking over for the industry standard Final Draft.

[https://storywriter.amazon.com/](https://storywriter.amazon.com/)

~~~
jonahx
The crowd here will likely prefer the open source fountain, which is a
markdown style language that can be used with your favorite editor:

[https://fountain.io/](https://fountain.io/)

I'd recommend it to anyone -- even non-technical people -- it's a shame it
wasn't what became the standard, but you can export to final draft format.

~~~
6stringmerc
Ah yes, I did come across that. I was looking for a very specific format-only
tool that would pass muster vs a Final Draft by comparison. I'm sure nailing
the expected look/feel is do-able in Fountain and probably, as you note,
appealing to the tech savvy sector.

------
rb808
If you have a MSDN subscription, perhaps from your employer, you get a free
$50/mo -> $150/mo Azure credit.

[https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/member-
offers/msdn...](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/member-offers/msdn-
benefits-details/)

~~~
ljoshua
Or likewise, Bizspark can get you the Azure credit too, along with basically
an MSDN subscription.

------
throwaway2016a
For AWS I think some of the best offerings on their free tier are Lambda and
DynamoDB. Both of which have generous lifetime free tiers.

Using the two of them you can have an API and database that is good enough for
a lot of startups and hobby projects without paying a dime (ever).

Together they are used for Amazon Alexa skills which means hosting your Amazon
Alexa skill is free for most skills.

~~~
tootie
I think DynamoDB is waning in it's already limlited popularity. It has some
clever ideas, but is really hard to implement. The main selling point is
price, but you kinda get what you pay for.

~~~
throwaway2016a
If you can fit your use case into DynamoDB without any struggling: the
performance and ease of scaling is a massive bang for your buck.

It's actually pretty easy to use too if your use case makes sense for it.

However, if your use case does not fit what DynamoDB expects, you are better
off using another DB rather than try to bend DynamoDB to your will.

------
dvdhnt
[https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-
us/free/)

> Get $200 free credit - Start free with $200 in credit, and keep going with
> free options.

> Try any Azure services - Explore our cloud by trying out any combination of
> Azure services for 30 days.

> Pay nothing at the end - We use your credit card information for identity
> verification, but you’ll never be charged unless you choose to subscribe.

------
searchhn
Google cloud platform has many free offerings..

[https://cloud.google.com/free/](https://cloud.google.com/free/)

------
victorhooi
Google Cloud has a fairly generous lifetime free tier:

[https://cloud.google.com/free/](https://cloud.google.com/free/)

5GB of cloud storage, 1 free micro instance, 1TB of BigQuery queries etc.

You also get $300 credit for 12 months.

Disclaimer: I work for Google.

~~~
tolle
Is the individual plan limited to certain countries?

------
mijoharas
There is the AWS free tier[0]. which means you can get free ec2 instances:

> 750 hours per month of Linux, RHEL, or SLES t2.micro instance usage.

(along with S3 and some other services) I think it's only free for a year
though.

Other than that, they have lumberyard[1] which is a game engine, but I think
there are some weird terms like you need to use AWS if you use a server[2][3].

[0] [https://aws.amazon.com/free/](https://aws.amazon.com/free/)

[1] [https://aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/](https://aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/)

[2] [https://aws.amazon.com/service-
terms/#57._Amazon_Lumberyard_...](https://aws.amazon.com/service-
terms/#57._Amazon_Lumberyard_Engine)

[3] > 57.4 Operating Restrictions. Without our prior written consent, (a) the
Lumberyard Materials (including any permitted modifications and derivatives)
may only be run on computer equipment owned and operated by you or your End
Users, or on AWS Services, and may not be run on any Alternate Web Service and
(b) your Lumberyard Project may not read data from or write data to any
Alternate Web Service. “Alternate Web Service” means any non-AWS web service
that is similar to or can act as a replacement for the services listed at
docs.aws.amazon.com/console/lumberyard/userguide/alternate-web-services .

~~~
hvtuananh
AWS free tier is only available for the first 12 months.

------
oblib
IBM's Cloudant is pretty sweet. I used it last year to dev some apps I was
working on using CouchDB and PouchDB. It saved me the hassle of installing
CouchDB and gave me the chance to play with their APIs which have some pretty
nice additional features.

[https://cloudant.com](https://cloudant.com)

They give you $50 of service a month for free, which was way more than I ever
approached.

~~~
neonhomer
What advantages did you see comparing Cloudant to CouchDB?

~~~
oblib
With the release of CouchDB 2.0 there's not a lot of difference anymore, and
much of what's new in that came from IBM's work on CouchDB.

Right now Cloudant offers a full text search. You can build that into a
CouchDB on your own too, but it's an add on. I've been meaning to take a crack
at installing it on a Raspberry Pi I have CouchDB 2.0 running on but I've not
done it yet.

They might also have an enhanced version of the "Fauxton" DB manager. It's
been awhile since I've logged into my account there so I don't recall how
close in features they are now.

I think they have their own authentication routines that may have some
advantages for some users.

Aside from that they make it really easy to just start using it. If you wanted
to work with really big data sets Cloudant would be a pretty good option
because you can skip all the DB setup work and have instant access a highly
scalable platform that lets you get to right to work.

~~~
oneweekwonder
> What advantages did you see comparing Cloudant to CouchDB?

> If you wanted to work with really big data sets Cloudant would be a pretty
> good option because you can skip all the DB setup work and have instant
> access a highly scalable platform that lets you get to right to work.

I think one need to state it more clearly with cloudant you get a hosted
solution SaaS, they will scale better then you, have better backups, and will
be able to rebuild a view quickly, while you are deleting logs to rebuild it
and struggling to get performance out of your vps.

------
reid
Microsoft gives nonprofits $5,000 in credits annually towards Azure services.

[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/philanthropies/product-
donat...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/philanthropies/product-
donations/products/azure)

------
andymurd
Does anybody have experience with Red Hat's OpenShift PaaS? [0]

Reading through the sales copy, it seems to be a reasonable competitor to
Heroku. They offer 3 small gears free and have a startup assistance program
for those that qualify.

[0]
[https://www.openshift.com/pricing/index.html](https://www.openshift.com/pricing/index.html)

------
lukaszkups
Intel XDK - this is an IDE for developing mobile apps, but without messing
with Phonegap/cordova paths/installs etc. - it compiles in Intel's cloud and
gives You a link to download (or live-reload/preview during development) -
very handy - since I've found it I really prefer developing mobile apps that
way.

------
adamdwilson
Microsoft Power BI Desktop can connect to almost a hundred data sources, do
data cleanup and joins, and create beautiful reports suitable for business
users.

[https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-
us/desktop/](https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/desktop/)

