Best offer on record: Community Edition — free self-hosted open source (the only standing free offer). 4 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Community Edition — free self-hosted open source (the only standing free offer) high confidence
Strapi core is open source under the MIT license, free forever to self-host with no license fees and no per-content/per-entry/per-API-call charges: unlimited content types, locales, entries, API calls, and admin users; includes RBAC, REST + GraphQL APIs, media library, i18n, webhooks, marketplace. Students and startups get the full headless CMS at zero license cost. Paid CMS tiers (Growth $45/mo, Enterprise) add SSO, Review Workflows, Content History, Strapi AI, audit logs, offline licensing — none required for basic use.
Eligibility
Universal: any individual, student, or startup, in any region. No .edu email, no funding/age caps, no credit card, no sign-up. This is a license model, not a discount program.
How to claim
Claim: none needed — clone the repo / run `npx create-strapi-app@latest` and host on your own VPS or container; no signup, no .edu email, no credit card. Cost is your own infrastructure (a few $ to tens of $/month for VPS + Postgres), not to Strapi.
Expiry
No expiry; MIT-licensed in perpetuity. Strapi also lists 'Free updates for upcoming features' for self-hosted users.
Gotchas
You pay for hosting/DB/CDN yourself and for your own time (setup, patching, security). Paid CMS features (Strapi AI, SSO add-on $150/mo, Content History, Review Workflows) are NOT in the free Community edition. Third-party 'academic discount' guides (Noizz 2026-09-04, costbench) all boil down to: take the free self-hosted edition; there is no published academic rate.
Strapi Cloud Free Plan — SUNSETED (launched 2025-05-13, removed 2026-07-01, existing projects deleted 2026-09-01) high confidence
Launched 2025-05-13 at StrapiConf: $0/month, no credit card, no time limit. Limits: 2,500 API requests/mo (initially 10,000 at launch, cut to 2,500 on 2025-12-22), 10 GB asset storage, 10 GB asset bandwidth, 500 database entries, 100 emails/mo, 1 production environment that sleeps when idle; hitting a limit stopped the app until the next month (no overages). Intended for solo devs, hobby projects, MVPs, evaluations. Strapi removed it 2026-07-01 citing mostly-inactive projects (infrastructure cost) and a misleading cold-start experience; existing free projects were deleted 2026-09-01. As of 2026-10-22 it no longer exists; cheapest tier is Starter $35/mo ($29/mo billed yearly per the July 2026 blog).
Eligibility
Was universal (any solo developer, side project, or company; no .edu, no startup condition, no CC required, no region limit). Not claimable anymore.
How to claim
Claim path is closed: the Free plan cannot be selected in strapi.io onboarding as of 2026-07-01. Historical claim was: sign up free, connect a personal GitHub repo, pick a region, deploy in <3 minutes — no CC, no time limit.
Expiry
Gone: unavailable to new signups since 2026-07-01; all existing free projects deleted 2026-09-01. Strapi's August 2026 editor's notes: 'Strapi Cloud no longer offers a free plan or a free trial.' Nearest alternative: Starter from $35/mo ($29/mo billed yearly; yearly billing saves ~17–20%).
Gotchas
Free projects ran on sleeping containers with a slow cold-start experience (Strapi's stated reason #2 for removal). No data-export grace period after 2026-09-01 — projects were simply deleted; export before relying on any free-tier assumption elsewhere. The Dec 2025 limit cuts (10,000→2,500 API req/mo; Essential 100,000→50,000) likely suppressed usage before the sunset. Do not cite third-party 2025 pages that still advertise the free plan.
Strapi Cloud free trials (5 × 14-day / 21-day) — legacy, no longer listed medium confidence
Legacy offer still documented in Strapi's v4 docs: 'up to 5 free 14-day trial projects, which can be activated anytime, even if you have existing paid projects', with trial limits of 10 seats, 1,000 database entries, 5 GB asset storage, 50 GB asset bandwidth, 10,000 API requests. Strapi's support KB gives 21 days for a first-ever trial and 14 days when switching between plans. However, as of August 2026 Strapi's editor's notes on its own blog posts state 'Strapi Cloud no longer offers a free plan or a free trial', the current pricing-cloud page lists only paid tiers (Starter $35, Pro $90, Business $450 per project/month) with no trial, and the ~Sep 2026 support knowledge base likewise lists only the three paid plans. Treated as no longer offered as of 2026-10-22; the docs-v4 page may be stale.
Eligibility
Historically: all Strapi Cloud users, up to 5 trial projects per account, no credit card required. No student/startup-specific condition, no region limit stated.
How to claim
No longer claimable. Historically: at project creation in the Strapi Cloud dashboard you could select '14-days free trial' instead of a paid plan; docs said 'you will not need to share your credit card details to deploy your first project.'
Expiry
Discontinued in practice by ~mid-2026: official August 2026 notes state no free plan or free trial exists; current pricing page shows no trial option.
Gotchas
docs-v4.strapi.io is a legacy docs version — do not cite the 5×14-day trial as current; verify in the live dashboard before relying on it. Trial limits use old plan names (Developer/Pro/Team), which no longer match current tiers. Projects could be suspended for exceeding trial limits or TOS violations.
Open Source & Non-Profit discount (Strapi Cloud) — closest official program, not free high confidence
The only published discount programs are for Open Source maintainers and Non-Profit organizations (strapi.io/discounts, linked from the pricing pages): 'significant Strapi Cloud discounts to qualifying Open Source and Non-Profit organizations.' Eligibility: OSS projects must have publicly available source code and meet the OSI definition (free distribution, derived works, integrity, licensing, non-discrimination); non-profits must prove non-commercial status plus web presence. No discount percentage is published; it is a code-based discount, not free access, and not aimed at students or startups. No education, startup, or partner-discount program appears on the official page — the Partner Program is for agencies/tech/professional-services partners.
Eligibility
OSS maintainers (public code, OSI-compliant licensing) and non-profits (proof of non-commercial status + web presence). NOT students, NOT general startups, NOT for-profits. No region limits stated.
How to claim
Claim: fill out the form at strapi.io/discounts — fields: email, first/last name, message that must include links to your open-source project or proof of non-commercial status. After verification you receive a unique discount code to apply at purchase. Optional in exchange: 'Powered by Strapi' link or a G2/SourceForge review.
Expiry
No stated end date; no deadline published on the page.
Gotchas
Discount, not free — you still buy a Cloud plan (from $35/mo Starter). No percentage disclosed. No trial of paid plans is offered alongside (August 2026 notes confirm no free trial). If a startup maintains an OSI-licensed open-source project, this may be its only official discount route; if it is a for-profit startup with no OSS project or non-profit status, no official Strapi discount applies at all.
2025–2026 changes (verified 2026-10-22): (1) Strapi Cloud Free Plan launched 2025-05-13 at StrapiConf ($0, no credit card, 10,000 API req/mo, 10 GB storage/bandwidth, 500 DB entries, 100 emails/mo, 1 prod environment on sleeping containers) was CUT on 2025-12-22 (API requests 10,000→2,500/mo; Essential plan 100,000→50,000; yearly billing at ~20% off introduced) and fully REMOVED on 2026-07-01; all existing free projects were deleted 2026-09-01. Strapi's official editor's notes (Aug 2026) state Strapi Cloud 'no longer offers a free plan or a free trial' — the legacy 5×14-day/21-day free trials (still documented in docs-v4) are also no longer offered, and the current pricing page shows only paid tiers: Starter $35, Pro $90, Business $450 per project/month. Plan-name/pricing churn: May 2025 (Free/Essential $15/Pro $75/Scale $375/Scale+) → Dec 2025 yearly billing → 2026 Starter/Pro/Business. (2) NO education/student license exists: the official discounts page lists only Open Source and Non-Profit programs; no .edu-based student discount or academic program is published anywhere on strapi.io (corroborated by third-party Noizz check of 2026-09-04: 'no student or academic discount'; costbench education-discount sections are unverified boilerplate). (3) NO dedicated startup program exists (closest: OSS/non-profit discount and the agency-oriented Partner Program). As of 2026-10-22 the only genuinely free Strapi offer is self-hosting the MIT-licensed Community edition; every hosted/Cloud free offer (Free plan, trials) is sunseted.