I'm trying to run open-source with minimal costs on the cloud and would love to run it on k8s without the hassle of managing it (managed k8s cluster). Is there a free tier option for a small-scale project in any cloud provider?

If there is one, which parameters should I choose to get the free tier?

CodePudding user response：

You can use IBM cloud which provides a single worker node Kubernetes cluster along with container registry like other cloud providers. This is more than enough for a beginner to try the concepts of Kubernetes.

You can also use Tryk8s which provides a playground for trying Kubernetes for free. Play with Kubernetes is a labs site provided by Docker and created by Tutorius. Play with Kubernetes is a playground which allows users to run K8s clusters in a matter of seconds. It gives the experience of having a free Alpine Linux Virtual Machine in the browser. Under the hood Docker-in-Docker (DinD) is used to give the effect of multiple VMs/PCs.

If you want to use more services and resources, based on your use case you can try other cloud providers, they may not provide an indefinitely free trial but have no restriction on the resources.

For Example, Google Kubernetes engine(GKE) provides $300 credit to fully explore and conduct an assessment of Google Cloud. You won’t be charged until you upgrade which can be used for a 3 month period from the account creation. There is no restriction on the resources and the number of nodes for creating a cluster. You can add Istio and Try Cloud Run (Knative) also.

Refer Free Kubernetes which Lists the free Trials/Credit for Managed Kubernetes Services.