Your school is a Fondation Simafri partner
It confirms your enrolment directly, so all you need to do is name it in your application.
Simafri VPS for Students
Free VPS for students: your own server to learn on and launch projects
Simafri VPS for Students is Fondation Simafri's free VPS for students, yours for 10 months. You get a VPS Pro 1, root access, a fresh backup every night and Full-Stack Assistance: a real machine to put your assignments, your thesis and your portfolio online.
10 months free of charge
VPS Pro 1 1 vCPU, 2 GB memory, 20 GB NVMe
Full-Stack Assistance built in
The program
What you get
Fondation Simafri
Simafri VPS for Students
Free10 months, fully covered
- VPS Pro 1 with 1 vCPU, 2 GB of RAM and 20 GB of NVMe storage
- Full-Stack Assistance built in
- A gift from Fondation Simafri
This offer is subject to available stock.
Built into your VPS
What your free VPS gives you from day one
Root access via SSH
Sign in with your own key on a port reserved for you, then install whatever your courses require: Python, Node.js, PHP, PostgreSQL or a bot.
Xeon CPU and ECC memory
Your coursework runs on Intel Xeon server processors with ECC memory that fixes errors on the fly, the very hardware behind our clients' production servers.
Fast, mirrored storage
Your code and data live on datacenter NVMe drives set up as a mirror, with their integrity verified around the clock.
A full copy every night
Try things without worry: each night, an encrypted copy of your whole server is stored off the machine, and the seven most recent are kept on hand.
HTTPS from the first click
Share your project with your professors or a recruiter at a secure address: we issue and renew the certificate for you.
Protection against flood attacks
Anti-DDoS filtering runs on the network at all times, keeping flood attacks well clear of your final presentation.
Uptime, always watched
Around the clock, our monitoring confirms your server is responding, and every alert lands with our team first.
Full-Stack Assistance
Stuck on a config, a query or a bug? Describe what you're seeing: we track down the cause and walk you through the fix.
Full-Stack Assistance
Hit a wall? We find the cause and point the way
Labs, group projects and theses raise questions that go beyond any lecture. Full-Stack Assistance is included with your free VPS: describe the problem, and we trace it to its source, be it the operating system, a database or your code, then explain how to fix it. You stay in charge of the server, and next time you will know how to handle it yourself.
My class project works on my laptop but fails on the server.
We put the two environments side by side, pinpoint the version or setting that differs and tell you exactly what to adjust.
My API slows to a crawl the night before my demo.
We trace where requests are losing time and show you which query or setting needs fixing.
There are four of us pushing the same group project to one server.
We suggest a way to split accounts, permissions and directories so each person can publish their part without stepping on anyone else's work.
I'm setting up a database on a server for the first time.
We suggest the database engine and access rules that fit your project, and you set them up with our guidance, one step at a time.
Who can apply
Your free VPS comes through your college or university
Every college and university can join
Its leadership can email us at fondation@simafri.com, and we will gladly set up the partnership for you and your entire cohort.
The program has a limited number of spots. This offer is subject to available stock.
Put it to work
A free VPS for your courses, your thesis and your portfolio
A student project changes the moment it leaves your laptop and goes live at a real address, ready for others to try. Simafri VPS for Students gives you that server for 10 months, built on the same machines as our VPS Pro line.
Assignments and labs
Whether it's a web app, a REST API, a chatbot or a networking assignment, you handle the deployment, read the logs when something breaks, and learn what really happens on a Linux machine, from the operating system all the way up to the HTTPS certificate.
Thesis and capstone work
The prototype behind your thesis, the database for your capstone or the service your evaluation committee will test runs on a server that is backed up nightly and protected against flood attacks until the day of your defence.
Your portfolio and first deployments
An online portfolio, a demo link for a recruiter, a first automated deployment straight from your GitHub repository: you show up to co-op and job interviews with working projects and real server experience.
The process
Getting your free VPS in 3 steps
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Apply
Fill in the form on this page with your school, your program and what you plan to run.
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Your enrolment is confirmed
Your school vouches for your enrolment, and the Foundation follows up with you.
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Your server is ready
Upload your public SSH key to your my.simafri.com account; the command to connect shows up there as soon as your server is running.
When the 10 months are up
Wrapping up your gift period
We give you a heads-up thirty days before the gift ends, so the choice is yours: keep going at the regular rate, or have your data handed back to you.
Under the hood
Your VPS Pro 1, component by component
With Simafri VPS for Students, you receive a real VPS Pro 1: the same size we sell to our clients, with identical components.
- Processor
- 1 vCPU on a server-class Intel Xeon processor
- Memory
- 2 GB of ECC RAM that corrects errors as they happen
- Storage
- 20 GB on mirrored datacenter NVMe SSDs
- Integrity
- Every data block carries a checksum
- Backups
- An encrypted off-machine copy each night, with seven nights of history
- Network
- Always-on anti-DDoS filtering
- Linux distributions
- Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky Linux or AlmaLinux
- Upgrades
- Scales up to a bigger VPS Pro without a reinstall
FAQ
Simafri VPS for Students: your questions answered
How long do I get the VPS for free?
For 10 months, with Fondation Simafri covering your VPS Pro 1 throughout. Thirty days before the end, we reach out: stay on at the regular rate, or collect your data.
What specs does the free VPS have?
It's a VPS Pro 1 with 1 vCPU, 2 GB of RAM and 20 GB of NVMe storage, plus root access, an encrypted nightly backup, anti-DDoS filtering, uptime monitoring and Full-Stack Assistance.
Who is eligible for the free VPS for students?
Students whose college or university partners with Fondation Simafri, since the school confirms their enrolment. Spots are limited. This offer is subject to available stock.
Can my school partner with the Foundation?
Absolutely. Its leadership just needs to email fondation@simafri.com, and we'll build the partnership with them. From then on, every student there can apply for a VPS.
Who can help if I get stuck?
Full-Stack Assistance, which comes with your VPS. Send us your question or a description of what is happening; we track the cause down, anywhere from the OS to your own code, and explain the next steps. You put the fix in place yourself, which is a great way to learn.
Is it suitable for my thesis or capstone?
Definitely, it was designed with that in mind: the prototype, database or service you present to your committee stays online and is backed up nightly.
Which Linux distributions can I pick from?
Four: Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux. With root access, you can then add anything your project depends on.
What happens if I break something?
No harm done: the previous seven nightly copies are kept encrypted, off the machine. Ask our team to restore one, and carry on from where you were.
Does my project get HTTPS?
Yes, from the day it goes live. We issue and renew the certificate for you.
How do I apply?
Complete the form on this page, telling us your school and what you plan to run, or email fondation@simafri.com.
Get in touch
How to apply for your VPS
Fill out the form, and Fondation Simafri will review your application and reply.
This offer is subject to available stock.