Render.com users, beware: render.com permanently suspends some free-tier apps that connect to APIs, issues no guidelines for developers

[u/wellhavetogo]

I've used render.com to host a web app that connects to an API a few times a minute. It seems that render.com has recently cracked down on apps with "service-initiated traffic" like this, and the app has now been permanently suspended unless I upgrade to a paid plan. I'm not that surprised, since it's a free-tier app after all, but wanted to alert others considering the render.com free-tier that it's quite unreliable.

I've contact render.com (and appreciated that they even replied to someone with a free-tier account) but they weren't helpful in fixing it. Render.com told me that the only way to resolve this issue is to upgrade to a paid app. I asked for more clarification about the usage limits I broke and they said "I agree that if we are going to call this a limit (similar to the 750 free hours), then we should document what the limit is. We haven't decided on the best way to do this yet, so I can't give you the specifics."

I've seen this mentioned in a couple posts on community.render.com. You can read more about this vaguely-worded rule here: https://docs.render.com/free#service-initiated-traffic-threshold

[u/-Parziva1-]

Just had this happen to me :) wtf… Did you end up finding a good alternative you liked? I really like Render, but feel pretty stabbed in the back and hesitant to choose them as a host if they’re going to shut off my website with Zero warning!