Tag: web

Verdict: Netlify is a strong choice for hosting static sites and front-end projects that deploy from Git, and its free plan is enough to try it properly. The catch in 2026 is the credit-based pricing, which makes your bill depend on traffic and deploys. Check your expected usage before you rely on the free plan for anything important. Official site: Netlify.

What Netlify is and who it is for

Netlify is a web hosting and deployment platform. You connect a project, push your code, and Netlify builds and publishes it on a global CDN. It also runs serverless functions, so you can add back-end logic without managing a server.

It suits front-end developers, freelancers building client sites, and small teams working with static site generators and modern JavaScript frameworks. It is less suited to people who want a traditional all-in-one WordPress host or who need full control of a server, where a virtual machine is a better match.

Key features

• Deploys from Git, API or AI tools. Netlify’s pricing page lists all three on the free plan.
• Unlimited deploy previews. Each change can get its own preview URL before you publish. Deploy previews and branch deploys do not use credits.
• Custom domains with SSL on every plan, including free.
• Functions, Blob storage and Netlify Database. Listed as available on the free plan, with limits that grow on paid plans.
• Global CDN for serving sites and assets.
• Basic firewall traffic rules and rate limiting on the free plan.
• Form submissions are not metered by credits. Netlify’s billing documentation lists them as free.

Pricing (checked October 2026)

Prices are in US dollars and billed monthly, according to Netlify’s pricing page. Plans include a monthly pool of credits, and usage draws it down. Netlify’s documentation lists these costs: 15 credits per production deploy, 20 credits per GB of bandwidth, 2 credits per 10,000 web requests and 10 credits per GB-hour of compute. Deploy previews, branch deploys and failed deploys are not charged.

Pro has higher tiers, for example 5,000 credits for $33 per month and 20,000 for $126, and rollover of unused credits applies only to Pro tiers of 5,000 credits or more. An important detail: on the free plan, when the 300 credits run out, Netlify’s documentation says your web projects are paused and visitors see a Site not available page until credits reset at the next billing cycle.

Pros and cons

Pros

• A free plan with custom domains, SSL and unlimited deploy previews.
• Simple Git-based workflow that is quick to set up.
• Pro covers a whole team for one flat fee, with no per-seat charge.
• Preview deploys and form submissions do not consume credits.

Cons

• Credit-based billing is harder to predict than a flat monthly price.
• The free plan pauses your sites when credits run out, which is risky for anything live.
• Bandwidth-heavy sites can use credits quickly, since bandwidth is charged per GB.
• Netlify’s pricing has changed more than once recently, so older reviews may be wrong.
• It is built for front-end and serverless projects, not for traditional server-based applications.

Alternatives

• Vercel: a very similar Git-based platform and the company behind Next.js; often the first alternative to compare if you use that framework.
• Cloudflare Pages: hosting from Cloudflare that integrates with its CDN and Workers; worth checking if you already use Cloudflare.

We did not verify the current limits of these services for this article, so compare their official pricing pages against your expected traffic.

FAQ

Is Netlify free?

Yes, there is a free plan at $0 with 300 credits a month. It works as a hard limit, and you cannot buy extra credits on it.

What happens if I use all my credits?

On the free plan, projects are paused until the next cycle. On Personal and Pro, Netlify’s documentation says auto-recharge is what keeps projects active once the monthly credits are used, so consider turning it on and setting your own budget limits.

Do I pay per team member?

Not on Pro. Netlify lists unlimited team members on Pro at the plan price. Personal is for one person.

Can I host a dynamic site?

You can add dynamic behaviour through serverless functions and a database, but the platform is built around front-end deployments. Check that your project fits that model first.

Closing verdict

Netlify remains one of the easiest ways to publish a modern website from a Git repository. The free plan is good for learning and small projects, and Pro is reasonable for a team. Just estimate your bandwidth and deploy count against the credit costs first, so the pricing model does not surprise you.