Hosting a MySQL DB on hobby‑scale projects: Costs, Quirks, and Work‑arounds

I’ve been experimenting with MySQL on several cloud platforms including Railway, GCP Compute Engine, and other “free‑tier” services. Compared with PostgreSQL, getting a stable, free MySQL deployment has proven trickier (container-related errors, opaque usage‑based billing).

Have you run into the same hurdles? What are your work‑arounds? Any favourite low‑cost hosts? Any billing horror stories? Your tips could help everyone keep projects alive without breaking the bank.

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others.