Netlify Review
Netlify invented this category and remains a superb, framework-neutral place to ship static and hybrid sites. The free tier is no longer the giveaway it once was, but Pro at a flat $20 with unlimited seats is honest value.
Review last updated 2026-08-20 · How we rate hosts
Scorecard
Pros
- Pioneered the Git-push-to-deploy workflow and deploy previews
- Framework-agnostic: equally good with Astro, Hugo, SvelteKit or Next.js
- Forms, serverless functions, redirects and split testing built into the platform
- Pro plan includes unlimited team members for a flat $20
Cons
- The once-legendary free tier has shrunk into a 300-credit allowance
- Credit-based metering makes real monthly capacity hard to predict
- Advanced features like log drains and SSO are gated behind Enterprise
Netlify plans & pricing
Promotional monthly rates as of August 20, 2026; most require the listed prepaid term and renew at the higher rate shown. Confirm on Netlify's site before buying.
| Plan | Intro price | Renews at | Storage | Sites | Bandwidth | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeApp Platforms | $0/mo | $0/mo | Unlimited | ~15 GB/mo (300 credits) | 300 usage credits a month; bandwidth burns 20 credits/GB, deploys 15 credits each, so heavy sites exhaust it fast | |
| PersonalApp Platforms | $9/mo | $9/mo | Unlimited | ~50 GB/mo (1,000 credits) | 1,000 credits a month, secret detection and priority email support; single member | |
| ProApp Platforms | $20/mo | $20/mo | Unlimited | ~150 GB/mo (3,000 credits) | 3,000 credits a month with unlimited team members, private Git org repos, concurrent builds and 30-day analytics |
Our Netlify review
Netlify coined the term Jamstack and built the workflow every platform in this category now copies: connect a Git repo, get atomic deploys, instant rollbacks, and a preview URL for every pull request. A decade on, that core experience is still among the best in the business, and unlike Vercel it plays no favorites between frameworks.
The platform bundles a lot beyond static file serving: serverless and edge functions, form handling without a backend, redirect and header rules from a single file, split testing, and managed database and blob storage. For small teams this replaces a surprising amount of infrastructure.
The free tier deserves a history lesson, because it is the thing long-time users grumble about. The old plan gave every account 100 GB of bandwidth and 300 build minutes. In 2025 Netlify moved to a credit system: Free accounts now get 300 credits a month, and with bandwidth costing 20 credits per GB and each production deploy 15 credits, that translates to roughly 15 GB of transfer for a modestly active site. It remains fine for portfolios and side projects, but the days of hosting a genuinely popular site on Netlify for free are over; Cloudflare Pages now owns that use case.
Paid pricing moved the right direction, though. Personal at $9 triples the allowance for solo builders, and Pro at $20 a month now includes unlimited team members rather than billing per seat, which makes it one of the cheaper ways for a whole team to share a deployment platform. Overages consume credits at published rates, so costs scale gradually rather than in cliff-edge jumps.
The weaknesses are at the edges: enterprise-grade features like SSO, log drains and the high-performance network sit behind a custom-priced Enterprise tier, and support below that level is email and forums. Build minutes on large sites can also burn credits quickly, pushing agencies with many active projects up the ladder.
Verdict: no longer the automatic free-tier default, but a mature, trustworthy platform whose flat-rate Pro plan is genuinely good value for teams. If your site is pure static and traffic-heavy, price out Cloudflare first; for everything else Netlify remains an easy recommendation.
Notable facts
- Coined the term "Jamstack" and popularized deploy previews
- Hosts millions of sites and acquired competitor Gatsby in 2023
- Moved from bandwidth-based to credit-based pricing in 2025
At a glance
| Founded | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, US |
| Data centers | Global multi-cloud edge network |
| Hosting types | App Platforms |
| Starting price | $0/mo |
| Support | tickets, email, knowledge-base |
| Free migration | No |
Frequently asked questions
What do Netlify credits actually buy?
Everything meters against one pool: bandwidth at 20 credits per GB, production deploys at 15 credits each, compute at 10 credits per GB-hour. The Free plan's 300 credits equal roughly $2 of usage, so think of it as a taster rather than a hosting allowance.
Is Netlify still free for hobby projects?
Yes, within reason. A low-traffic portfolio or docs site fits comfortably in the 300 monthly credits. A site with real traffic or frequent deploys will exhaust them and needs Personal at $9 or Pro at $20.
Bottom line
Netlify invented this category and remains a superb, framework-neutral place to ship static and hybrid sites. The free tier is no longer the giveaway it once was, but Pro at a flat $20 with unlimited seats is honest value.
Check current Netlify pricing →
