March 2025 was a tough month for developer free tiers. With 2 negative changes versus 0 positive, the trend continues toward tighter limits and eliminated offerings. Developers relying on free tiers should review their dependencies.
2
Total Changes +1 vs last month
2
Negative
0
Positive -1 vs last month
0
Neutral
Changes by Type
Change Type
Count
Limits Reduced
1
Pricing Restructured
1
Biggest Losers
Vendors that eliminated or reduced free tiers
PDFMonkey (1 negative change)
PDFMonkey cut its Free plan from 300 to 20 documents a month on 2025-03-24. It announced the change on 2025-02-24, alongside a new €5-a-month Starter plan with 300 documents. Source ↗
Google Maps Platform (1 negative change)
On 2025-03-01 Google Maps Platform replaced its $200 monthly recurring credit with a free monthly usage cap for each Core Services SKU, set by category (Essentials, Pro or Enterprise); Dynamic Maps, an Essentials SKU, gets 10,000 free loads a month. Source ↗