If you look closer, you can see that the free tier is mostly covering SaaS in order to lock you into their APIs.
The free tier for VMs isn't that generous.
For a startup, locking into an API that is initially free can often break their neck in the long run. Because for a startup, switching providers is a big distraction. It's often better to run VMs or colocated servers on an OSS stack.
I'd argue that OVH (European) is the cost leader for that in every market they are in.
I agree but the $0(*) people do win, they usually loose money for years and years and they are able to provide great service.
Eventually they lock you down and start recouping their investments from you but they do make some things possible simply because it costs nothing to try and as a result a lot of great things are incepted on those platforms.
For a startup, locking into an API that is initially free can often break their neck in the long run. Because for a startup, switching providers is a big distraction. It's often better to run VMs or colocated servers on an OSS stack.
I'd argue that OVH (European) is the cost leader for that in every market they are in.