There’s this site called familysearch.org that’s a completely free alternative of Ancestry.com.
It’s free because all of the indexing (turning scanned documents and stuff into online records) is done by volunteers – and anyone with an account can volunteer. There’s no requirements for how much indexing you have to complete or penalties for not finishing in time. You just do what you want when you have time. (All the info about it is on their website.)
They’ve got a whole lot of English records already, but they’re always in need of people who can index records in other languages.
Just a cool thing I thought I’d share!