The "Free-Tier" Trap: How I Built the Ultimate AI Dev Stack by Deconstructing 7 Major Vendor Plans
We're in a golden age for AI developers. Vercel, Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud... the tech giants are throwing a massive "free party," and their generous Free Tiers are hard to resist. But we all know the deal. This is the classic "Honey and Poison" scenario. "Free" is the most seductive marketing word in the world, and it can also be the deepest trap. You think you're getting a deal, but you quickly discover: you want to use Vendor A's static hosting, but you get stung by Vendor B's outrageous file egress fees. You try to run your project on Vendor C's full-stack backend, only to find Vendor D's database features have been "neutered." If you insist on using a single vendor to solve all your problems, you're just walking straight into their well-designed, sweet-talking vendor trap. They are betting you're too lazy to migrate. They're betting you'll pay the huge price of vendor lock-in just to save yourself a little hassle upfront. That's why on the AI development battlefield, the real pros are never loyal to a single brand. The core secret to maximizing free resources is: Never go all-in with one provider. We have to act like smart commanders, deploying elite units from each service, integrating their unique strengths to build our own "Free-Tier Avengers." I've researched, deconstructed, and battle-tested all the major free plans on the market. This is the ultimate "Free-Tier Pro" stack I've put together for your reference: 1. The Command Center (Frontend / WebApp): Vercel (Hobby Plan) Auto-deploys from GitHub. SSL, DDoS protection, WAF, and DNS are all handled with one click. The integration with backend services is seamless, and the 100G of core traffic is incredibly generous for personal projects or small-to-medium products. For pure static sites, Cloudflare Pages crushes the competition on speed.Cloudflare's backend (Workers) is too limited. All things considered, Vercel remains the top choice for the "Command Center." 2. The Armory (Files / Media Streaming): Cloudflare R2