Did you sign up with a ".edu" email address? Is your university in the list of supported countries?
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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You're asking a support question for a provider that most of us here have never heard of. I'd wait a day or two and then maybe open a ticket with the provider.
Maybe also look here: https://lowendspirit.com/discussion/10104/free-vps-for-open-source-developers-with-fossvps
Thanks!!! Turns out they want a credit card and won’t accept the gift cards I have (I don’t even have a debit card yet nor a job)
Interesting, it says "Payment Method: No Card / Privacy First" on their website.
Maybe you could try a prepaid credit card from a store.
I would not use that for job experience. I would review what local job listings are looking for in experience, and practice those things.
You can run a local server on just about anything. An old PC or laptop, a VM on your current PC, even a raspberry pi or similar SBC. Even a recent Android phone, though I would really not recommend that, as it's not the same experience.
Isn't Oracle still giving out free servers? They are known to pull the plug on those without warning, but it should be enough to play around with and set it up in a way that you can get it running again quickly if it goes down, which is very valuable knowledge.
Oracle says it's not available in my location
You should check out this similar question here: https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/selfhosted/p/650864/stupid-question-but-are-there-free-vps-vm-instances-for-a-jobless-girl-who-wants-t
Thanks! That's me LOL
Don't you have 5€/mo even? Because that what Hetzner VPS costs. Or a little spare for used Raspberry Pi 4?