Starting with Oracle is complex and requires time, right? Everybody keeps saying that, so it must be true, right? Wrong on both counts. Oracle Cloud Free Tier is both straight-forward and free. Testing things quickly and/or running small things indefinitely without being charged sound appealing to you? Just follow the steps below and you’re ready to go.
Overview
All roads lead to Rome: Go to cloud.oracle.com or oracle.com or search “Oracle always free” on google or simply click here to get to start your journey.
Don’t be confused by the “always free” vs “30-day”. It’s actually both. If you scroll down, you will see the detailed explanation:
As a part of the “always free” which you use for an unlimited period, you get access to the core services. As you can see this also includes free infrastructure. So you can run for example 2 nice little Linux machines on OCI (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure) for free and do with them whatever you want. No more virtual-boxing on your own laptop and using up resources.
Database-wise you have both classic databases as well as NoSQL Databases at your disposal. In both cases with pretty much all the features at your disposal.
The “30-day” package adds even more capabilities. The full list is way too long to even start mentioning it all in here. Simply click here and browse the catalog.
Signing Up
The signup page will ask you for very basic information.
Next step is verifying your email:
After email verification you will get the full account creation form. The usual credentials choice is there but most importantly the selection of the physical home region of your cloud instance. Data security, governance different legislation still apply.
Click “Continue” to provide your address:
Click “Continue” again to add a phone number for verification:
Enter your mobile number and click “Text me a code”.
You will need to provide a credit card in case you want to upgrade. Don’t worry, nothing will be charged to you. Click “Provide Payment Method” and then “Credit Card”.
Fill out the credit card details and submit them. Little tip here: If you don’t want to provide your main/private credit card, there are always free services like Revolut which can provide you with a new credit card in no time and also free of charge. The free-free tier experience so to speak.
Finalize sign-up by accepting the agreement and clicking “Start my free trial”.
Voilà. You’re done. Simply sign in with your own credentials which you defined initially.
