Deploying Production-Grade Node.js on Oracle Cloud Free Tier

Deploy Any Node.js App 24/7 for Free on Oracle Cloud — Complete Guide

Oracle Cloud Free Tier provides a permanent ARM Ampere A1 VM with 4 cores and 24GB of RAM. This always-on compute instance includes 200GB of block storage and 10TB of monthly bandwidth.

Why This Matters

Engineers often face resource constraints on platforms like Railway or Fly.io where free tiers either spin down during inactivity or offer minimal RAM. Oracle’s offering provides a full Virtual Machine environment, allowing for complex architectural patterns like background workers and persistent state that are cost-prohibitive on other providers. This shifts the economic model for side projects and small-scale production apps by removing the hosting overhead for high-memory requirements.

Key Insights

• ARM Ampere A1 Flex instances provide 24GB RAM and 4 OCPUs permanently free as of 2026.
• Systemd service configuration ensures 24/7 uptime with automated restarts and log management via journalctl.
• Resource efficiency: A 4,500-line trading bot with 12 background workers can operate on as little as 50MB of RAM.
• Oracle provides 10TB of monthly outbound bandwidth, significantly higher than most free tier cloud alternatives.
• Ubuntu 24.04 compatibility allows for modern Node.js 20.x runtime environments on ARM architecture.

Working Examples

Installing Node.js 20.x on Ubuntu

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs

Systemd service configuration for persistent application management

[Unit]
Description=My Node.js App
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
User=ubuntu
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu/my-app
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node app.js
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Practical Applications

• Use case: Running high-concurrency Telegram bots like @solscanitbot using background workers for real-time processing. Pitfall: Neglecting systemd daemon-reload after configuration changes which prevents the service from starting correctly.
• Use case: Hosting database-heavy applications utilizing the 200GB block storage allocation. Pitfall: Selecting the wrong VM shape during setup, as only the VM.Standard.A1.Flex is eligible for the high-resource free tier.

References:

• https://dev.to/tatelyman/deploy-any-nodejs-app-247-for-free-on-oracle-cloud-complete-guide-45e5