Google offers $300 in credit that you can use on anything you like for one year as soon as you sign up right off the bat, and AWS has offered the Free Tier almost since inception.
For startups, Google[1], Amazon[2], Microsoft BizSpark[3], OVH Digital Launch Pad[4], Digital Ocean[5], have startup programs that you can apply to with varying amounts of service credit (usually expiring afer one year). (Don't write off OVH: theirs seems to be the smallest, but their stuff is by far the highest value.. 2GB instances for $3.49/month and great DDoS protection; however, their cloud dashboard takes a little time to get used to, but seems pretty powerful once into it.)
1. $20k to $100k in service credits @ Google: https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/
2. $5k at Amazon, $15k in accelerators: https://aws.amazon.com/activate/
3. Up to $120k at Microsoft: https://bizspark.microsoft.com/
4. $500 to $100k at OVH: https://www.ovh.com/us/dlp/
5. up to $100k at Digital Ocean (not sure if this is actually launched yet -- we applied for https://userify.com but never heard back): https://www.digitalocean.com/hatch/
For startups, Google[1], Amazon[2], Microsoft BizSpark[3], OVH Digital Launch Pad[4], Digital Ocean[5], have startup programs that you can apply to with varying amounts of service credit (usually expiring afer one year). (Don't write off OVH: theirs seems to be the smallest, but their stuff is by far the highest value.. 2GB instances for $3.49/month and great DDoS protection; however, their cloud dashboard takes a little time to get used to, but seems pretty powerful once into it.)
1. $20k to $100k in service credits @ Google: https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/
2. $5k at Amazon, $15k in accelerators: https://aws.amazon.com/activate/
3. Up to $120k at Microsoft: https://bizspark.microsoft.com/
4. $500 to $100k at OVH: https://www.ovh.com/us/dlp/
5. up to $100k at Digital Ocean (not sure if this is actually launched yet -- we applied for https://userify.com but never heard back): https://www.digitalocean.com/hatch/