Heroku's free dynos were a generation of student project hosting. They ended in 2022, and the replacement world is messier: some free services sleep, some free credits expire, and every platform can change the rules before your next application season.
For a developer portfolio, the question is not "can I find a free URL?" It is "will this demo be awake, current, and understandable when a reviewer clicks it?"
What changed after Heroku free dynos
Heroku's own changelog says free dynos, free Postgres, and free Redis plans stopped being available on November 28, 2022. Since then, student hosting advice has become a moving target. Render's free web services can spin down on idle; Railway removed its old free model, then later brought back a smaller free-credit path.
None of those platforms are wrong for general hosting. They are just not designed around the portfolio moment, where a cold start or expired credit can cost you the one click you needed.
Free hosting is not the same as portfolio proof
A portfolio demo has a specific job. It should show the project running, make the source and stack easy to inspect, and give the reviewer enough context to understand why the project matters. A raw app URL by itself does not do all of that.
Hostlet separates the two parts. The generated profile and showcase pages are free. The metered part is the always-on live demo compute, starting with one demo on the Student plan. That means your portfolio can exist before you pay, and you only pay for the running apps you are actually sending to people.
What to use for student demos
- Use free static hosting for pure static sites when no server is needed.
- Use a general cloud when you need infrastructure control.
- Use Hostlet when the goal is application proof for classes, hackathons, or recruiting.
The portfolio route is deliberately narrower. Connect GitHub, deploy the project, get a live URL, and share the showcase page that explains the work.
Useful references before you choose
Check the current platform rules directly: Heroku's free-resource deprecation,Render's free-plan idle behavior, and Railway's current free-plan writeup. Then decide based on the click you need to survive. For portfolio proof, start with one working app and one clean showcase. See the live demo portfolio.