Linode Cloud Free Trial [$100 Credit + 60 Days} [2025}

Wanna try Linode for free? In the post, I have covered all steps to claim a free $100 credit for your startup, SaaS, and website.

Linode (now renamed Akamai) is a quite popular cloud platform that provides a range of cloud products, such as VPS, dedicated servers, and block storage, at affordable prices.

No matter if you’re a blogger, student, developer, or business owner, you can try it and see if it meets your needs.

Now let’s dive in the tutorial

Linode Startup Free Credits

How Do I Claim Linode’s Free Cloud Trial?

Signing up with Linode is relatively easy. Just prepare your phone number and one payment method out of Google Play, Paypal, or Credit Card that authenticates the genuine users. Now get into the simple tutorial with a few steps.

1. Visit above link

2. Click on the email button.
3. Enter your email, username, and password.
4. Now confirm your email in your inbox.

5. Verify your phone number
6. Select a payment method and complete the payment setup
7. Enter your name and address.

8. Agree to the master services agreement

9. Click Create Account

Congratulations! Your account has been created with a free $100. You can check it out in the billing section.

What is Included in the Trial?

You will get the following items:

What Can You Do During the Linode-Free Tier Period?

Linode offers various products for start-ups, websites, AI, data analysis, streaming content, SAAS, and e-commerce. You can set up a base for these.

Linode Plan Pricing

While your trial period ends. You will be charged according to the plan that you have opted for.

They offer their plans in five major categories to fulfill almost all kinds of cloud customers, including bloggers, businessmen, scientists, gamers, etc.

Shared CPU Plan: The plan has been launched for beginners like bloggers and web admins. The higher plan of the group packs huge resources that are apt for a SaaS and medium-level e-commerce website.

Dedicated CPU Plan: The plan is designed to serve high CPU-intensive workloads that require 100% sustained CPU usage, like high-traffic websites, video rendering, machine learning, and data processing. You can run game servers like Minecraft and Team Fortress

Premium Plan: It is like a dedicated CPU plan. The only difference is that it adds the latest generation of AMD EPYC for consistent high performance.

It is ideal for enterprise-grade, business-critical, and latency-sensitive applications. As of now, the plan is only available in the USA and France.

High Memory Plan: The plan provides dedicated CPU instance resources with high memory capabilities, which are suitable for caching systems, high-performance databases, and in-memory data processing.

GPU Plan: The plan is GPU-optimized virtual machines accelerated by the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000, harnessing the power of CUDA, tensor, and core to execute complex processing, deep learning, and ray tracing workloads.

The plan is recommended for machine learning, AI, big data processing, video encoding, and graphic processing.

Data Centers

Like resources Linode is rich in the availability of data centers across the world. They have 14 data centers
in the USA, Canada, Germany, France, the UK, India, Singapore, Australia, and Japan.

• Newark
• Washington DC
• Toronto
• Chicago
• Atlanta
• Dallas
• Fremont
• Frankfurt
• Peris
• London
• Mumbai
• Tokyo
• Singapore
• Sydney

Conclusion

Linode, the No. 1 IaaS provider on G2, has a slew of tools for beginners and developers, including Git, SSH, one-click apps, an uncluttered dashboard, a cloud firewall, and 24×7 support.

Even some features, such as 1-click server migration to another data center and server cloning, are not available on their main competitor, Kamatera.

Furthermore, you can use their cloud resource for 30 days with a free $100 credit.

FAQ

1. Is Linode’s Free Trial Truly Free, or Do I Need to Add a Credit Card?

Unfortunately, Linode (now rebranded as Akamai Cloud) does require a credit card or PayPal for identity verification. This isn’t an upfront charge, it’s purely for validation. However, as a VPS veteran, I strongly advise monitoring your billing page. Many users on Reddit have reported post-cancellation charges, so use a virtual or limited-use card if you’re just testing.

2. What Can I Deploy During the Linode Free Trial Period?

You can spin up up to 20 VPS instances, each with enterprise-grade Intel and AMD CPUs. That’s plenty of room to:

• Host unlimited websites (Apache, Nginx, LiteSpeed)
• Run SaaS or test AI workloads
• Deploy VPNs, Minecraft servers, or Kali Linux RDP
• Use 100+ one-click apps like WordPress, CyberPanel, and GitLab
• Experiment with object storage, load balancing, and Kubernetes clusters

In short — whether you’re a developer, startup founder, or sysadmin, the Linode trial gives you a full sandbox environment with near-production-level infrastructure.

3. How Does Linode Compare to Kamatera in 2025?

From a performance standpoint, Linode’s latency and TTFB are exceptional, I’ve measured 22ms TTFB with 100% uptime across multiple regions.
However, Linode’s edge has slightly diminished since Akamai’s acquisition, where account verifications and billing became stricter.

By contrast, Kamatera offers more flexibility:

• No auto-charges post-trial
• 24 global data centers
• Live chat + phone support
• One-click app deployment with full root access

If you’re purely testing workloads, Linode’s $100 credit is fantastic, but for safer, long-term trials, Kamatera wins on trust and billing clarity.

4. What Happens After the 60-Day Linode Trial Ends?

Once your 60-day window or $100 credit expires, your active servers will be paused, and you’ll need to add funds to continue.

You can upgrade to a paid plan starting at just $5/month for a 1 GB RAM VPS, ideal for small web projects or staging environments.

If you don’t intend to upgrade, make sure to delete your resources manually to avoid any auto-billing mishaps. Linode does not automatically cancel unused instances.

5. Is Linode Still Worth Trying in 2025?

Yes, but with a few caveats.
Linode remains one of the most developer-friendly clouds, featuring:
✅ 100+ one-click apps
✅ Cloud Firewall & NodeBalancer
✅ Server cloning & migration tools
✅ Uncluttered dashboard and API

That said, the credit card verification policy and occasional billing complaints are red flags for absolute beginners. If you’re testing production-level workloads, Linode delivers unmatched value for $0 — but if you’re worried about hidden charges, Kamatera or Vultr’s 30-day trials are safer bets.