Is there a way to host Pocketbase db to Vercel or any other free platforms?

[albeniskerqeli10]

I'm using Pockethost to host my Pocketbase database, but I noticed that it has a slow response when handling frontend requests. So, are there any free, better alternatives like Vercel or other platforms to host Pocketbase?

[ganigeorgiev]

Other free options that are commonly used are Hop.io or Fly.io.

Side-note: If you use Vercel, then I suspect that you use also Next.js SSR or RSC. A lot of developers seem to jump straight to it, but my general recommendation would be, if you are not working on a website, to NOT use JS SSR/RSC and prefer client-side rendering (eg. SPA). If you use JS SSR/RSC you no longer have "just frontend".
If that's the case, the slow response times could be caused by the different locations of the servers because you are probably proxy-ing every client request from your node server to PocketBase (aka. browser->node->PocketBase). PocketBase comes with its own API rules to manage the access to your data and it is safe to make direct client-side request against it. Prefer the node server only for one-off admin actions (eg. captcha verification, Stripe webhook handling, etc.) to limit the excessive requests between the services.
Another possible cause could be also just some resources restriction/temp unavailability of the PocketHost server (you may want to check their repo to see if someone else has reported something).

[albeniskerqeli10]

No, I'm using Vercel just for the frontend (React + Vite), and I'm not using Next.js at all.

However, I will explore these two options for Pocketbase to see if the issue truly lies in the database hosting.

[RayyanNafees]

Fly.io is no longer free

They gone down the same path as Heroku did

[ganigeorgiev]

@RayyanNafees I haven't personally tested to see what has changed but I think it is still free. Based on their Pricing docs new users starts with $5 credit but if your usage doesn't exceed the free allowance this credit will be never used:

The free trial credit doesn’t expire.
Usage beyond our free resource allowances consumes your free trial credit.

It seems that now all new registrations require a credit card (previously it was required only for specific regions).

All plans require a credit card on file

[RayyanNafees]

Though it works good with Cloudflare Pages & Render for free

[WombleWoo7547]

Use Cloudflare tunnels, buy a rpi 0, install docker and plug it into a spare usb socket and call it a day. Easy $10 one-time payment and after 2 months pays itself off instead of using cloud resources ($5 a month "nanode" on akamai).