Skip to content
Register

Evaluating 'free trial' without credit card traps

Deals & Offers by kat_fold 6 replies 480 views
kat_fold

Moderator OP

Moderator

#1

Hey folks, wanted to share what actually works for finding no-CC trials and what does not. I have been testing these for six months for our community resource list.

Real finds so far:

  • Hetzner gives 48 hours via GitHub OAuth, no payment method.
  • RackNerd has a 7-day sandbox with phone verification only.
  • Vultr used to require prepaid balance but dropped that in May.

The bad: GreenCloudVPS's "no credit card" trial harvests your email for third-party lists. I signed up with a tagged address; within 72 hours it received hosting spam from two unrelated "marketing partners." Abuse report filed with their upstream.

I am maintaining a clean list in the sticky. Only providers that respect the signup data they collect. Please share your own verified finds or warnings below.

~be kind or be gone~
Aleksi

Member

#2

I tested KnownHost last month. Their trial needed a card but did not charge until day 8. I cancelled at day 6 and never got billed. Clean experience overall. The dashboard was minimal but functional. No spam either. Adding to your list seems reasonable. Though it is not strictly no-CC as requested. Worth a separate category perhaps; -- Marcus

YU

Member

#3
kat_fold said:
Please share your own verified finds or warnings below.

They asked for government ID. Is this normal sir? I feel not comfortable giving this. Dropped articles in signup form too, looked suspicious. 🙏

HE

Member

#4

GreenCloudVPS trial went down after 4 hours; ticket open; no response; 36 hours now; would not trust with real workload

LU

Member

#5

GreenCloudVPS went down on me too after 3 hours, ticket still open

netop_mares

Member

#6

Government ID for a trial? That's a stretch, Joko.

sarahjey

Member

#7

Same, I cancelled KnownHost at day 5, no charge

learning on $5 VPS and prayers

Post a reply

You need an account to reply. Log in or register to join the conversation.

Post reply Preview Save draft