MongoDB is now offering a free tier on Microsoft Azure for its Atlas service, allowing users to deploy a 512 MB storage cluster with features like multi-document transactions and type conversions. This free tier, called M0, also grants access to end-to-end encryption, high availability, and fully managed upgrades, making it suitable for learning MongoDB, prototyping, and early development. The free tier can be paired with MongoDB Stitch to simplify backend logic and integrations with the Azure ecosystem, and is available in three regions: East US, East Asia, and West Europe. Creating a free cluster is easy, requiring only selecting Azure as the cloud provider, choosing the M0 tier, giving the cluster a name, and clicking "Create Cluster".