Question

Is there anywhere I can host my WCF service and SQL Server database for free?

Answer 1

Microsoft is offering introductory, limited accounts for Windows Azure and SQL Azure – to a certain point in terms of size of your database and traffic you generate, it’s free.

Windows Azure / SQL Azure info

Windows Azure / SQL Azure pricing info

Windows Azure Special Introductory Offer

Included each month at no charge:

* Windows Azure
      o 25 hours of a small compute instance
      o 500 MB of storage
      o 10,000 storage transactions
* SQL Azure
      o 1GB Web Edition database (available for first 3 months only)
* AppFabric
      o 100,000 Access Control transactions
      o 2 Service Bus connections
* Data Transfers (per region)
      o 500 MB in
      o 500 MB out

Any monthly usage in excess of the
above amounts will be charged at the
standard rates. This introductory
special will end on July 31, 2010 and
all usage will then be charged at the
standard rates.

Completely free SQL Server hosting is very hard to come by – you might find certain hosters that will use SQL Server Express (limited to 4 GB in size, 10 GB as of SQL Server 2008 R2 Express) which doesn’t incur licensing costs.

But ultimately: there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch! You want services -> you gotta pay (or run the machine yourself)