I'm looking for a container- or pod-based hosting platform rather than a traditional virtual machine. I'm currently using a service similar to Render to run a small Minecraft Java server written in Go, but its free tier only supports HTTP and HTTPS traffic.
I built a background bridge that converts the TCP connection used by Minecraft Java clients into WebSocket traffic, but I'd like to remove that workaround so players can connect directly. The server uses very few resources, so limited CPU and memory would be acceptable. I'm mainly trying to experiment and test how far I can get without paying anything.
Are there any providers with a genuinely free container hosting tier that supports inbound raw TCP connections? Preferably, I'd like options that don't require entering a credit card.
4 Answers
A free container still has to run on someone’s physical or virtual infrastructure, so the distinction from a VM is mostly about the interface you use. Providers offering free plans usually impose limits on sleeping, bandwidth, connection types, or runtime. A truly unrestricted raw-TCP service with no payment details is uncommon.
You may also want to compare entry-level cloud instances, such as an eligible EC2 free-tier micro instance. It can accept normal TCP traffic and would likely be simpler for a Minecraft server, though it is still a virtual machine and free-tier eligibility, usage limits, and billing requirements need to be checked carefully.
WebSockets still run over TCP, but they aren’t the same as exposing the server’s original TCP protocol directly. If the goal is to let standard Minecraft clients connect without a bridge, the hosting provider needs to allow inbound TCP on the required port. Even with a free resource, latency and throttling could make gameplay unpleasant.
Azure Container Apps supports TCP ingress and has a free allowance, so it may fit the networking requirement. The tradeoff is that setup is considerably more involved than deploying a simple container on a platform like Render.
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