Oracle Cloud vs AWS Free Tier: which free tier is actually free?
AWS Free Tier is a 12-month trial with 1GB of RAM. Oracle Cloud Always Free is permanent and ships 2 ARM CPUs, 12GB of RAM, and 10TB of monthly egress. Here is the spec-by-spec breakdown.
Free tier specs, side by side
| Resource | AWS Free Tier | Oracle Cloud Always Free |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 12 months (most services) | No expiry |
| vCPUs | 1 (t2.micro / t3.micro) | 2 Ampere ARM cores |
| RAM | 1 GB | 12 GB |
| Block storage | 30 GB EBS | 200 GB |
| Outbound transfer | 100 GB/mo, then ~$0.09/GB | 10 TB/mo |
| Managed database | 750 hrs RDS db.t2.micro, 12 months | 2 × Autonomous DB, 20 GB each, no expiry |
| Load balancer | 750 hrs ELB, 12 months | 1 × 10 Mbps LB, no expiry |
| Object storage | 5 GB S3, 12 months | 20 GB (10 GB standard + 10 GB archive) |
| Extra always-free compute | 2 × micro (new accounts, promo) | 2 × AMD VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro |
| Credit card required | Yes | Yes (verification only) |
The 12x memory gap is the whole story
A 1GB t2.micro can host a static site or a tiny API. It cannot comfortably run a Node or Python app alongside Postgres and Redis — you'll hit swap during builds and OOM-kill under load. Oracle's 12GB Ampere shape runs the entire stack in Docker Compose with headroom to spare, which is why it has become the default home for indie SaaS, Discord bots, game servers, and self-hosted tooling.
The other difference: the clock
AWS Free Tier is a trial. On month 13 the same workload starts billing at on-demand rates — roughly $8-$15/month for the instance, plus EBS, plus egress, plus the NAT gateway most tutorials tell you to create. Oracle's Always Free resources have no expiry: the bill stays $0 as long as you stay inside the allowances.
Where AWS still wins
- Breadth of managed services — SQS, Kinesis, Bedrock, and hundreds more.
- Global edge and multi-region failover out of the box.
- Hiring and ecosystem: more docs, more Terraform modules, more people who know it.
- Enterprise compliance programs your customers may already require.
Where Oracle Always Free wins
- Raw resources per dollar — 2 cores and 12GB for $0, permanently.
- Predictable bills: 10TB egress means a viral post doesn't create an invoice.
- Long-running processes, websockets, cron, and background workers without serverless limits.
- Full root access to a real VM, so nothing is platform-specific.
How Cheaploy fits in
Cheaploy deploys your app to your own Oracle Cloud Always Free account. You paste a GitHub repo, we detect the stack, generate an ARM-compatible Dockerfile, and provision compute, load balancer, and SSL. The infrastructure belongs to your Oracle tenancy — there's no platform bill to grow into.
- Create a free Oracle Cloud account (card used for verification only).
- Connect the tenancy to Cheaploy with a read/write API key.
- Paste your repo URL — we handle the Dockerfile, ARM build, and TLS.
- Point DNS at the new IP and let the AWS trial lapse.
Frequently asked
Is Oracle Cloud Always Free really free forever?+
Yes. Oracle's Always Free resources — 2 Ampere ARM cores, 12GB RAM, 200GB block storage, 2 Autonomous Databases, a load balancer, and 10TB monthly egress — have no expiry date. They stay free after the 30-day trial credits run out, as long as the account stays active.
Does AWS Free Tier expire?+
Most of it does. The 750 hours/month of t2.micro or t3.micro compute, 30GB EBS, and 5GB S3 are 12-month offers tied to account creation. After 12 months you pay on-demand rates. Only a small set of services (like 1M Lambda requests) is always-free.
How much RAM do I get on each?+
Oracle Always Free gives up to 12GB of RAM across 2 ARM cores, splittable into up to 2 VMs. AWS Free Tier's t2.micro/t3.micro has 1GB of RAM and 1 vCPU. That's a 12x memory gap.
Which is better for a small SaaS or side project?+
Oracle, in almost every case where cost is the constraint: 12GB RAM runs a full Docker stack — app, Postgres, Redis, worker — on one machine. AWS wins when you need managed breadth, multi-region edge, or your employer already runs on AWS.
What about egress (bandwidth) costs?+
Oracle includes 10TB of outbound transfer per month at no cost. AWS Free Tier includes 100GB/month, then charges roughly $0.09/GB. A single traffic spike is where most AWS free-tier bills come from.
Is Oracle's ARM capacity hard to get?+
Ampere A1 capacity can be scarce in popular regions. Retrying on a schedule or switching home region usually solves it — Cheaploy automates the retry loop so you don't have to babysit the console.
Deploy your project for $0
No credit card. No Oracle sales call. Ship to your own cloud in under 10 minutes.
Start free