Free software for startups in 2026: the SaaS and developer-tool deals worth claiming
Short answer: most software companies will give an early-stage startup their paid plan free for six to twelve months, or credits worth $5,000 to $100,000, if you are new to the product, under a funding cap and apply with a company email. The biggest offers you can apply for directly, with no investor referral, are Grafana Cloud (up to $100,000), Kong (up to $100,000), Retool (a free year worth up to $60,000), Amplitude (a free year of Growth, valued at $60,000), PostHog ($50,000) and Statsig ($50,000+). JetBrains, Notion, Intercom and Tailscale cover the rest of a typical stack. Only a few, such as Datadog and GitHub, need a referral from an investor or accelerator.
The Grant Index tracks 113 open programs from SaaS, developer-tool, data, security and fintech companies, and 76 of them need no investor, accelerator or partner referral. Each one is checked against its official page, and the "Verified" date is on every listing. This guide picks the deals that matter most at each layer of the stack and points out the rules that get applications rejected.
1. Three kinds of "free"
Startup software deals come in three shapes, and they behave very differently after the first year:
- Credits. A dollar balance you spend on usage, typically valid for 12 months. Good for metered products such as observability, databases or CI minutes. Unused credits expire.
- A free paid plan. The full paid tier at no cost for a fixed period, such as six months of Notion Business or a year of Tailscale's business plan. Easy to use, but you move to list price at the end.
- Stepped discounts. Intercom takes 93% off in year one, 50% in year two and 25% in year three. JetBrains gives 50% off for five years. These are worth less on day one but keep paying off.
Before you build on any of them, look up what year two costs. A free year that locks your team into an expensive tool is not a saving.
2. Developer tools and infrastructure
| Program | What you get | Who qualifies | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grafana Labs Startup ProgramGrafana Labs | Up to $100,000 in Grafana Cloud credits for 12 months + 20% ongoing discount | Credits for 12 months or until your next funding round, then a guaranteed 20% off list. Ideally under $10M raised and under 25 employees, but others can apply. | 2026-10-22 |
| Kong for StartupsKong | Up to $100,000 Kong Konnect Plus credits (12 months), then 50% off list price for 2 years | Konnect Plus credits for 12 months, then 50% off list for two years. For teams shipping AI, API or agent infrastructure that are live or launching within 6 months. | 2026-10-30 |
| Retool for StartupsRetool | 100% off Retool Team/Business for year one (up to $60k), 25% off year two | 100% off monthly Team or Business plans for a year, then 25% off in year two. Under $10M raised, founded in the last 10 years, new customers only. | 2026-10-22 |
| CircleCI for StartupsCircleCI | Up to $20,000 in CircleCI compute credits + free Starter Support | Compute credits plus free Starter Support, for up to 24 months. Pre-seed to Series A, founded in the last 5 years, with an accelerator or VC or at least $500K raised. | 2026-10-22 |
| JetBrains Startup ProgramJetBrains | 50% off up to 10 IDE, 10 team-tool and 10 JetBrains AI subscriptions for up to 5 years | 50% off IDEs, team tools and JetBrains AI for up to 5 years. Privately owned, established within 5 years, with a website. | 2026-10-22 |
| PagerDuty for StartupsPagerDuty | 6 months free (20 seats, 20,000 events, 1,000 AI Actions); dollar value not stated | 6 months free with 20 seats and 20,000 events. New PagerDuty customers at seed to Series B. | 2026-10-22 |
| Tailscale for StartupsTailscale | 1 year free on a Tailscale business plan for up to 30 users; dollar value not stated | A year of a business plan free for up to 30 users. Product startups from pre-seed to Series A or B (the page is inconsistent), new to Tailscale, applying from a work email. | 2026-10-22 |
Retool. The order of steps matters: you upgrade to a monthly Team or Business plan first and then apply. The discount is worth up to $60,000 in year one, is for new customers only and can't be combined with other offers.
Grafana Cloud. Accepted startups agree to be a reference customer. The credits last 12 months or until you raise your next round, whichever comes first, so apply soon after a raise rather than just before one.
JetBrains. The discount covers up to 10 IDE subscriptions, 10 team or learning tools and 10 JetBrains AI subscriptions. Review takes about 48 hours, and each organization gets the offer once.
CircleCI and Tailscale. Both are stricter than they look. CircleCI wants proof of backing: an accelerator, a VC or at least $500,000 raised. Tailscale rejects service businesses, agencies and ecommerce, prefers teams under 25 people, and asks for logo rights and a case study in return.
3. Product analytics and databases
| Program | What you get | Who qualifies | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| PostHog for StartupsPostHog | $50,000 in PostHog credits for 12 months + partner perks | $50,000 in credits for 12 months plus partner perks. Company under 2 years old with under $5M raised; apply after you add a paid plan. | 2026-10-22 |
| Amplitude Startup ScholarshipAmplitude | Year one free on Amplitude Growth (up to 100M events/mo, ~$60K value), then 40% off year two | Growth plan free for a year (up to 100M events a month), then 40% off annual Plus in year two. Under 20 employees and under $10M raised. | 2026-10-22 |
| Statsig for StartupsStatsig | $50,000+ in credits (1B events) with Enterprise features for 12 months | Enterprise features and 1B events for 12 months. Founded less than 5 years ago with under $50M raised; aimed at apps with 25K+ monthly users. | 2026-10-22 |
| Mixpanel for StartupsMixpanel | First year free on the Mixpanel Startup Plan (1B events/yr + add-ons); dollar value not stated on docs | First year free on the Startup Plan. Incorporated less than 5 years ago, no more than $8M raised, never on a paid Mixpanel plan. | 2026-10-22 |
| TiDB AI Startup ProgramPingCAP | Up to $100,000 in TiDB Cloud credits as you grow, plus technical guidance | Credits granted as your usage grows. Pre-seed to Series B AI startups building agents, RAG or AI infrastructure. | 2026-10-30 |
| SurrealDB Startup ProgrammeSurrealDB | $5,000 in credits for SurrealDB Cloud or Agent Memory, valid 12 months, plus a named Solutions Engineer | New on our list: SurrealDB Cloud credits valid for 12 months. Seed to Series A companies building on SurrealDB. | 2026-11-04 |
PostHog. You need a company email domain and an account created after 1 January 2023, and the credits are given once per founder and organization. Since 14 September 2026 the credits no longer cover PostHog's AI features, and the Y Combinator deal doesn't stack with this one.
Amplitude. You apply inside the product after signing up. Amplitude says 96% of applicants are accepted. Year two is 40% off the Plus plan, so price that in before you send every event you have.
Statsig. Statsig says the program suits companies with more than 25,000 monthly active users. If you are smaller, its free Developer tier is the better fit, and you can apply for the program later when you need more events.
4. Support, CRM, workspace and marketing
| Program | What you get | Who qualifies | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notion for StartupsNotion | Up to 6 months free on Notion Business plan with Notion AI (Notion cites up to $12,000 value for 100 seats) | Business plan with AI free for 6 months via a partner, 3 months with a business website and company email, or 1 month for small teams. Non-paying customers with no earlier promotion. | 2026-10-22 |
| Intercom Early Stage ProgramIntercom | 93% off year 1, 50% off year 2, 25% off year 3 + free Fin AI Agent usage (300 outcomes/month in year 1) | 93% off in year one, 50% in year two and 25% in year three. Up to $10M raised, fewer than 15 employees, not a current customer. | 2026-10-22 |
| Zendesk for StartupsZendesk | Zendesk Professional Suite + Copilot free for 6 months (up to 1–2 years with VC/accelerator partner), up to 50 agents | Professional Suite with Copilot free for 6 months, longer through a partner. Brand-new Zendesk customers, Series B or earlier. | 2026-10-22 |
| HubSpot for Startups — Startup trackHubSpot | 90% off year 1, 50% off year 2, 25% off year 3 on Professional/Enterprise products (dollar value not stated) | 90% off year one, then 50% and 25%. Pre-seed to Series A with an approved partner or verified venture funding. | 2026-10-22 |
| Infobip Startup TribeInfobip | Up to $60,000 in Infobip product credits (SMS, WhatsApp, voice, email, chat) plus support, conference pass and partner deals | Credits for SMS, WhatsApp, voice and email, sized per application. No VC or accelerator needed; existing customers generally excluded. | 2026-10-23 |
| Adobe for StartupsAdobe | 12 months free of Adobe Firefly Pro Plus, Acrobat Studio (incl. Adobe Express Premium) and Semrush | New in November 2026: 12 months free of Firefly Pro Plus, Acrobat Studio with Adobe Express Premium, and Semrush. Founded within 5 years, under $15M raised. | 2026-11-04 |
Intercom. Year one includes 300 Fin AI outcomes and 15 qualifications a month. Phone, SMS and WhatsApp are billed at list price, so a support team that lives on the phone will still pay.
Notion. The length of the free period depends on how you apply. With a partner code from an accelerator or investor you get six months, and with only a business website and company email you get three. Notion's Business plan costs $20 per member per month, which is where our $12,000 ceiling comes from: six months for a 100-person team.
HubSpot and Zendesk. These are the two in this group that lean on backing. HubSpot asks for an approved partner or verified venture funding, and Zendesk's longer free periods come through VC and accelerator partners.
5. Security and compliance
| Program | What you get | Who qualifies | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stytch Startup ProgramStytch | Unlimited Stytch usage (auth, authorization, fraud prevention) until Series A or 3 years from incorporation; dollar value not stated | Free authentication, authorization and fraud prevention until Series A or 3 years after incorporation, whichever comes first. | 2026-10-23 |
| TrustCloud SOC 2 for StartupsTrustCloud | Free SOC 2 readiness tooling (Type I/II controls and policies, live trust portal, AI questionnaire answers) for companies of 20 employees or fewer; dollar value not stated | Free SOC 2 readiness tooling and a trust portal while you have 20 employees or fewer. Auditor fees are not mentioned, so budget for the audit itself. | 2026-10-23 |
Enterprise buyers often ask for SOC 2 before they sign, and that is a common first big bill. Free readiness tooling gets your policies and controls in place, but the audit firm is a separate cost. Before you buy compliance software, check whether a free year of these tools covers what your first enterprise customer is asking for.
6. Perk bundles from banks and company formation
Some of the biggest numbers you will see come from bundles. A bank, card or formation service collects partner deals and unlocks them when you open an account:
| Program | What you get | Who qualifies | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe AtlasStripe | $2,500 in Stripe product credits + over $50,000 in partner discounts (Google, Xero, AWS, etc.); $500 incorporation fee | Paid service: $500 one-time formation fee, including state fees and the first year of a registered agent. Includes $2,500 in Stripe credits for the first year and partner offers; $500 back if you open a Stripe Treasury account within 7 days of incorporating. | 2026-11-04 |
| Mercury PerksMercury | 270+ partner perks (e.g. AWS $5k credits, GitHub $10k credits, Notion 6 months free, Gusto 3 months free); total not stated | 270+ partner perks for Mercury customers, each with its own terms. Mercury does not publish a total. | 2026-10-22 |
| Brex Startup PerksBrex | Partner-perk value: Brex advertises 'over $350K' in discounts and credits on AI/SaaS tools for Brex customers (marketing aggregate across all partner offers, not cash or a single credit) | Partner discounts and credits for approved Brex customers. The advertised total adds up every partner offer; it is not cash. | 2026-10-22 |
| Ramp Rewards / Startup PerksRamp | Partner-perk value: Ramp advertises 'over $350,000 in partner rewards' (aggregate across all partner offers, e.g. Datadog up to $100k credits, Amplitude up to $40k, Stripe $25k fee-free processing); not cash | Partner rewards for approved Ramp customers, for example Datadog credits. Also an aggregate of partner offers, not cash. | 2026-10-22 |
Treat a "$350,000 in perks" headline as a catalogue, not a balance. You will use a handful of these offers, and many of them are the same programs listed above, reached by a different door. The useful part is that a bundle can unlock a deal that would otherwise need a referral: Ramp's list includes Datadog credits, for example.
7. Deals that need a referral
| Program | What you get | Who qualifies | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Datadog for StartupsDatadog | Up to $100,000 in Datadog credits for one year | Series A or earlier and new to Datadog. Only through an official referral partner; there is no direct application. | 2026-10-22 |
| GitHub for StartupsGitHub | $10,000 in GitHub credits (Enterprise Cloud, Copilot, Advanced Security, Actions) | For startups with an approved investor, incubator or accelerator partner and outside funding up to Series B. Enterprise Cloud only. | 2026-10-22 |
If you have no investor yet, look for a partner that opens these doors without one: accelerators with open applications and the banking and formation bundles in section 6. For hosting and compute, the same rules apply to the big clouds; see our cloud credits guide and AI credits guide.
8. How to get approved
- Use a company domain. PostHog, Tailscale and Notion all reject personal email addresses, and several programs check that your website is live.
- Apply before you pay, unless told otherwise. Most deals are for new customers only, so a paid month can disqualify you. Retool and PostHog are the exceptions: they ask you to be on a paid plan when you apply.
- Mind the funding caps. PostHog stops at $5 million raised, Mixpanel at $8 million, Retool, Amplitude and Intercom at $10 million, Adobe at $15 million and Statsig at $50 million. Apply before your next round closes.
- Each offer is usually once only. JetBrains, PostHog and Tailscale give the deal once per organization, so don't spend it on a side project.
- Put the end dates in a calendar. Note when each free period ends and what the paid plan costs, then cancel or downgrade in time.
FAQ
What software can startups get for free?
Most categories have a startup program: observability (Grafana Cloud, up to $100,000 in credits), internal tools (Retool, a free year worth up to $60,000), product analytics (Amplitude, PostHog, Statsig, Mixpanel), IDEs (JetBrains, 50% off for five years), workspace (Notion, up to six months free), customer support (Intercom, Zendesk), networking (Tailscale) and authentication (Stytch).
Do I need investors to get startup software deals?
Usually not. Grafana, Kong, Retool, PostHog, Amplitude, Statsig, JetBrains, Intercom and Tailscale accept direct applications. Datadog and GitHub need an approved partner, HubSpot needs a partner or verified venture funding, and CircleCI wants an accelerator, a VC or at least $500,000 raised.
Can bootstrapped startups apply?
Yes. Tailscale says bootstrapped founders are welcome, and most other programs set a funding ceiling rather than a minimum. Check the age limit too: PostHog wants companies under two years old, while Retool allows up to ten.
What happens when the free period ends?
You move to a paid plan or downgrade. Some programs soften the change: Retool gives 25% off in year two, Amplitude 40% off its Plus plan, Grafana a guaranteed 20% off list, and Kong 50% off for two years. Statsig lets you move down to its free tier.
Are the big perk bundles from Brex and Ramp worth it?
They can be, but the headline totals add up every partner offer and are not cash. Their main value is unlocking individual deals, sometimes ones that would otherwise need a referral, once you are an approved customer.
Program terms change often. Every program page linked above shows its official source and the date we last verified it; confirm on the provider's page before you apply. Spotted something out of date? Report a correction.
Related guides
Browse the full lists: Free developer tools for startups · Data & analytics perks for startups · Business software perks for startups · Security & compliance perks for startups · Banking & payments perks for startups