Side Projects
Your side project deserves a real backend
Not a toy, not a tutorial project — a real production backend. Free, forever, no credit card.
- Use case
- Side Projects
- Backend
- Planned, applied, verified
- Launch
- Free to validate
The problem
Side projects die because the backend takes too long to build or costs money you do not want to spend on something unproven. Most free backend options are too limited for real apps.
How Backenly helps
Backenly's free plan gives your side project a complete, permanent backend — PostgreSQL database, REST APIs, authentication, and file storage — at no cost, with no expiry.
What you get
Permanently free, no expiry
One project on Backenly is free forever. Not a trial, not a free tier that expires. Your side project will keep running.
Real PostgreSQL, not a toy database
Your free project gets a real 512 MB PostgreSQL database — enough for most side projects to run indefinitely.
Auth and realtime included
User authentication and realtime subscriptions are included even on the free plan. You can build real, interactive apps — not just static pages.
Ship in a weekend
Describe your side project to Backenly on Saturday morning. Have a working product with a real backend by Saturday afternoon.
After you launch
Side projects die of maintenance, not launch
Every developer knows the graveyard: side projects that shipped, worked, and quietly rotted because nobody wanted to spend Saturday debugging a database that filled up or an auth flow that broke. The free plan checks your project's health every minute and repairs what is safe to repair, even while you're ignoring it for months. That is the difference between a side project that is 'down, whenever I get to it' and one that is simply still running when someone shares it on a forum at 2 a.m.
If it takes off, nothing gets rebuilt
The upgrade path is a plan change, not a migration: the same PostgreSQL database, the same REST API, the same auth — with higher limits. The monitoring cadence does not change, because it is already every minute on Free. Side projects that become products keep their data and their URL. And because the backend is standard infrastructure with a full change history, the moment your weekend project becomes a company, a hired developer can read exactly what exists and why.
Common questions
How long does the free project last?
Forever. The free plan is not a trial. Your project stays live as long as Backenly is operating.
What are the limits on the free plan?
The free plan includes 1 project, 200 AI credits per month, automated monitoring and self-repair every minute, up to 50,000 monthly active users, 512 MB PostgreSQL, 1 GB file storage, and full access to auth and realtime.
Can I upgrade if my side project takes off?
Yes. If your side project becomes something bigger, upgrade to Pro ($25/month) at any time — no data migration required.
Start building your backend today
Free forever plan. No credit card. No infrastructure setup.