How to get a free database for your app or website

A database is where your app stores information it must remember. Modern managed databases offer free tiers big enough for most early apps — often hundreds of megabytes to a couple of gigabytes, which is a surprisingly large amount of text. You get backups, security and access from anywhere, without running a server yourself.

If your website takes bookings, stores members, logs orders, or saves any information between visits, it needs a database. Many people assume this means renting a server. It does not. You can get a reliable, managed database for free — someone else runs it, backs it up and secures it, and you just use it.

How much is "a couple of gigabytes", really?

Text is tiny. A couple of gigabytes of database can hold hundreds of thousands of records — customers, products, bookings, messages, course progress. Unless you are storing large files or millions of rows, a free database tier lasts a long time. (Large files like videos belong in file storage, not the database — and that has free tiers too.)

What a free managed database gives you

• Reliable storage with automatic backups
• Secure, encrypted access from your app anywhere
• Access rules so each user only sees their own data
• No server for you to patch, monitor or keep online

Choosing the right type

Most business apps are best served by a structured (relational) database — think neat tables of customers, orders and products that relate to each other. It keeps your data consistent and is easy to query. The free tiers of managed relational databases are more than enough to launch.