Best offer on record: Xata Open Source (self-hosted, free forever). 5 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Xata Open Source (self-hosted, free forever) high confidence
Xata's core Postgres branching platform is open source under Apache 2.0 (github.com/xataio). Self-hosting it on your own infrastructure is $0 platform fee and includes copy-on-write branching, scale-to-zero (wake-up ~10s), OpenEBS/Mayastor storage and community support. It does NOT include managed observability, SOC 2/GDPR compliance, multi-region, or dedicated support — you operate your own cluster. This is the only PERMANENT free path; there is no permanent free hosted/managed tier.
Eligibility
Anyone; no .edu email, no startup age/funding cap, no credit card, no region restriction. Requires you to provision and operate your own infrastructure (Kubernetes + CloudNativePG + OpenEBS). Self-managed.
How to claim
Free forever, no trial clock, no CC required. Clone the xataio GitHub org and deploy on your own cluster to use the platform at $0.
Expiry
None (permanent, Apache 2.0 open source).
Gotchas
It is self-hosted, not a managed service: you carry all ops burden, no multi-region, no SOC 2/HIPAA compliance tooling, no 24/7 support, and wake-up is ~10s (vs ~1s on managed Xata Cloud). The managed convenience (SOC 2, multi-region, dedicated support) requires paid Xata Cloud or BYOC.
Xata Cloud 14-day free trial (managed) high confidence
The fully managed Xata Cloud (SOC 2/GDPR, multi-region on AWS+GCP) is offered as a 14-day free trial with NO credit card required during the trial. After the trial you must add a credit card to continue. Post-trial billing is pure usage: from $0.012/hr for a micro instance (<=2 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, ~$9/mo) up to $1.536/hr (32 vCPU, 128 GB), plus $0.28/GB/month storage billed by the minute. No per-branch or per-user fees; scale-to-zero means idle branches cost no compute.
Eligibility
Anyone who signs up at console.xata.io; email required, no credit card during the 14-day trial, no .edu or startup proof. A credit card IS required to keep using it after the trial. Managed Xata Cloud currently runs on AWS us-east-1 and eu-central-1 (third-party-reported), so US/EU regions apply.
How to claim
Start the 14-day managed trial at console.xata.io; no card needed to begin. Add a card afterward to convert to pay-as-you-go.
Expiry
14 days, then pay-as-you-go.
Gotchas
This is a trial, not a free tier: the clock runs and a card is mandatory after 14 days. After the trial you still pay for compute hours plus $0.28/GB/mo storage — a side-project database that wakes up frequently keeps accruing cost, and idle branches still incur the storage line. The 'no CC required' promise applies only to the trial window. The docs (n8n quickstart) confirm: 'To keep using Xata after the free trial, add a credit card in the billing system.'
Xata Cloud $100 onboarding / signup credit (unconfirmed) medium confidence
Several 2026 third-party pricing trackers and the open-source release coverage describe a $100 onboarding/signup credit applied during the first 14 days of Xata Cloud. This credit is NOT shown on the live xata.io/pricing page nor in the machine-readable pricing.md I read today (both only state a '14-day free trial', no dollar figure), so its current availability is unconfirmed.
Eligibility
Reported as tied to new Xata Cloud signups / the trial; no .edu or startup proof found (unverified); a credit card is required to continue past the trial.
How to claim
Reported as a '$100 onboarding credit (first 14 days)' by third-party trackers; not confirmed on the live official pricing page today. Verify via the signup flow or sales contact before relying on it.
Expiry
Reported as tied to the first 14 days / signup; unconfirmed.
Gotchas
Could not verify the amount against the live official pricing page or pricing.md today; the figure and whether it is still offered may have changed. Treat as unconfirmed. Corroborating third-party sources: srvrlss.io and dev.to coverage of the Apache 2.0 release both cite a '$100 signup credit' alongside the 14-day trial.
Startup program / startup credits — not found medium confidence
No dedicated Xata startup program or startup-only credit exists on the official site, and Xata does not appear in 2026 free-startup-credits aggregators (e.g., StudentPerks startup-credits list). Xata's free-adjacent offers are generic to everyone (open-source self-host, 14-day trial, the reported $100 credit), not gated on startup age or a funding cap.
Eligibility
N/A — no official startup program found; therefore no startup age or funding cap, because the program does not exist. A sales contact (cal.com/team/xata/xata-sales) is the only bespoke path.
How to claim
No official startup program found as of 2026-10-22. Any discount for a startup would be via the generic 14-day trial (and the reported $100 credit) or a direct sales conversation.
Expiry
N/A (absence-based finding).
Gotchas
This is an absence finding, not a confirmed program. A third-party SaaSOffers page lists a generic 'free plan' as a startup deal, but that is an aggregator description, not an official Xata startup program. Confirm with Xata sales before assuming a startup offer exists.
Education license / student (.edu) offer — not found medium confidence
No Xata education license, .edu program, or student-specific offer was found on the official site or in 2025–2026 sources, and Xata is not listed in GitHub-Student-Developer-Pack-style aggregators. The only free paths available to a student are the same generic ones: open-source self-hosting (free, no CC) and the 14-day Xata Cloud trial.
Eligibility
N/A — no .edu email requirement because no education program was found; students are not treated differently from any other signer for the trial or OSS.
How to claim
No official education/student license found as of 2026-10-22. Students get the same generic 14-day trial and open-source self-host path as anyone; no .edu credential is required or requested.
Expiry
N/A (absence-based finding).
Gotchas
Absence finding, not a confirmed offer. Verify with xata.io or Xata sales before concluding that no education program exists.
Major 2025–2026 sunset/change: the permanent free hosted tier that students/startups relied on is GONE. Xata's original product was a hosted 'serverless data platform' (spreadsheet-style UI, REST/TypeScript data API, full-text search, file attachments over Postgres) that shipped a permanent free tier with 15 GB of storage, no cold starts and no pausing. Sunset timeline: (1) On January 10, 2025 Xata pulled the search and files APIs out of the free plan; (2) in May 2025 Xata announced a rebuilt product centered on vanilla, unmodified Postgres with copy-on-write branching and data anonymization (pgstream) — the old platform was briefly renamed 'Xata Lite' and now returns HTTP 410 Gone at lite.xata.io; (3) in late 2025 Xata open-sourced its core under Apache 2.0, and the permanent free hosted tier was replaced by 'self-host the open-source version' plus a 14-day Xata Cloud trial (with a reported $100 signup credit) and no permanent free cloud plan. Consequence: if you used the old Xata free tier for a managed database, it no longer exists — the only permanent-free option is self-hosted open source; the managed path is the 14-day trial then pay-as-you-go ($0.012/hr + $0.28/GB/mo) or BYOC (quote-based). Note: WebSearch budget was exhausted mid-task, so verification relied on the official pricing page + pricing.md + n8n docs read today plus multiple corroborating 2026 third-party trackers; the $100 credit could not be confirmed on the live official page.