20 Best Static Web Hosting Services (2024): Free & Cheap Sites

Hosting your projects or static sites is a must-do act for developers, that way employers and colleagues can see what you’ve built.

But this is just a demo/side projects, not some company based web application, which actually brings us to the question how do I host my static site for free?

Well, I will be sharing with you all available static web hosting platforms which are totally free and also the ones that have free usage with quota allocation, so whenever you exceed the space, you pay for an upgrade.

Well, we only need to host a static web page that has HTML, CSS, js and images nothing much, so we can’t even exceed the quota.

Here we go,

• What is Static Web Hosting?
• Static vs Dynamic Website: What is the Difference?
• What Are The Advantages of Static Websites?
• How to Simplify Your Hosting Experience With Static Site Generators
• List of Free Static Site Hosting
• Best Cheap Web Hosting For Developers/Students

What is Static Web Hosting?

Static web hosting comprises of static web pages with fixed and invariable content, made up with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, which when visited displays the same information to all visitors, It is a quick and easy way of creating a website by using your own domain name, so when users visit your web page a static web page from the static web hosting server will be rendered.

Static & Dynamic Sites: What is the Difference?

Static websites contain fixed content, building them can easily be done in plain HTML, users can only interact with a static page is by clicking hyperlinks and filling in forms.

While Dynamic websites are based on HTML and CSS as well as server-side scripting which is required to make it fully functional, Mostly of these sites were using best domain hosting.

HTML coding is used to create the basic design elements, while server-side languages are used to manage events and control actions that may occur on the dynamic page.

Creating a Static website, you don’t need to use complex software language or programs.

Knowledge in HTML and CSS along with VSCode or Sublime should be enough to build a simple static website, static web pages include elements such as text, js, CSS and multimedia.

They are not as technical as a dynamic website, they are not as effective as dynamic websites also.

Users will always see the same design and content each time they visit the website unless you change the source code manually.

But dynamic websites will generate content and displays it based on what actions the users make on the pages.

Special code editor like IDE (Integrated Development Environment), will be required to build dynamic websites, alongside strong Backend skills using server-side language programming.

Advantages of Static Websites

Static websites have a lot of advantage over dynamic or cms based websites because you have full control over the development env, the codes, and not just some heavy themes or heavy plugins, here are static websites pros:

1. Faster performance and small page size
2. Lower cost
3. Less time to create
4. Easier for search engines to index
5. More secure
6. Full Site Control

But Static Website has its cons which everyone believes to be un interactive UI, well Netlify CMS solve a bit of it, so you don’t have to manually create markdown files again, Netlify CMS does everything check their docs out.

Simplify Your Hosting Experience With Static Site Generators

Since you’ve decided to build a static website overusing a Heavy CMS platform, the question now is how do you achieve this goal without writing some long code or program?

Static Site Generators to the rescue, most of the static site generator are open source-based, so they are community-based platforms.

So the community has already done the job for you, performance and security problems you might be thinking of are been rectified by like minds who handed the project, and your contributions also will be welcomed.

But the common static site generators are Hugo, Gatsby, Hexo, Jekyll Vuepress, Gridsome and many more, also you can check how I rebuilt my portfolio using Hugo.

Also, there is a CMS based static site generator developed by the Netlify team called Netlify CMS, it’s a was GUI based cms that saves the output as markdown.

Also, a friend built a Firebase CMS, whereby you can write articles in GUI and output will be saved as JSON in Firebase Database, check it out.

List of Free Static Site Hosting

1# DigitalOcean

I got introduced to DigitalOcean through Hackertofest( The Pull Request fest for Developers to contribute to opensource ).

Digitalocean has 13 data centers around the world, reducing latency by offloading static contents like images, CSS and javascript to their GlobalCDN, Quick CMS setup with 1 click.

They just introduced their new feature which Apps, allowing developers to deploy their codes straight up from their github repo, all you need is authorize DO access to your Github account.

Digitalocean supports All Static Websites generated by any static site generator ( Hugo,Gatsby,Hexo,Jekyll and many more) and Dynamic apps (NodeJs,Ruby,Python,Go,PHP,Docker).

Wanna try them out? Here is $100 Digital Ocean Coupon.

• Number of websites: 3 free static website
• Storage and bandwidth:
• Domains: You can add custom domain or use the generated domain (yourappname.ondigitalocean.app)
• Key Features: DDos Mitigaton, Auto/Continuous deployment from GitHub, Automatic SSL/TLS certificates (HTTPS).

2# Netlify

Started using Netlify early this year, even though I have created an account with them since 2018, lol, was still new to the static site hosting then.

Netlify is Trusted by the likes of Facebook, Citrix, Verizon, Peloton, and Kubernetes, Netlify leverages serverless functions and continuous deployment to deliver sites up to 10 times faster than other configurations.

The platform bet heavily on JAMstack, unifying JavaScript, APIs, and prerendered Markup for an impressive infrastructure well-suited for businesses and developers looking for a commercial solution.

Netlify originally made a splash in static hosting with the drag-and-drop deployments at BitBalloon, but leaders brought the service under the Netlify umbrella to create Netlify Drop.

• Number of sites: One website with 300 build minutes per month
• Storage and bandwidth: 100GB storage and 100GB bandwidth per month (soft limits)
• Domains: Custom domain name or a netlify.com subdomain
• Key features: Global CDN deployment, HTML forms, and instant cache invalidation

3# Firebase Hosting

Am a good fan of Firebase, and I use them for almost all my projects, because of the all in one web packages that it has, Features like Serverless and NoSQL Database and many more.

With Firebase Hosting You can run static or dynamic sites on Google’s SSD-powered infrastructure, with built-in analytics, performance monitoring, and crash reporting tools to help you optimize your site.

• Number of sites: Multiple websites within a single Firebase project
• Storage and bandwidth: 1GB storage and 10GB bandwidth per month
• Domains: Custom domain name or subdomains on web.app and firebaseapp.com domains
• Key features: Zero-configuration SSL certificates, global CDN, A/B testing, and analytics

4# Surge.sh

One amidst the best Static web publishing for frontend developers, it’s simple, you will publish your HTML, CSS and js files freely, surge also has paid plan called surge plus(Surge Professional), where you can upgrade your account to bolster it with server-side features.

• Number of sites: Unlimited Publishing
• Domain: Custom Domain
• Key features: Basic SSL

5# Forge

Simple static hosting for HTML sites and javascript apps, Forge is a Speed promising Static Hosting provider, easy to sync with GitHub and dropbox, Advanced .htaccess rules with Forge Server.

I also love Forge for their easy to migrate Site Dashboard, well Forge platform has limited offers for free, Upgrading your Forge account gives you access to more goodies.

• Number of sites: Unlimited publishing on one project
• Storage and bandwidth: 5GB of storage and 1GB bandwidth per month
• Domains: Custom domains supported
• Key features: Super Fast CDN, TurboJS, .htaccess rewrites and redirects, plus live site preview.

6# Heroku

Heroku is a Cloud Application Platform, Heroku is also a platform as a service (PaaS) that enables developers to build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud, Heroku is available for students, developers, enterprises.

Starting out with Heroku, you will need to add your Credit card to activate your account. Charge of $1 will be made to see if the credit card works, and it will be refunded back to your account, so you don’t need to panic.

Heroku is good for mostly Server Side Integration apps

7# Github Pages

Github is a development platform of choice for more than a million developers, Github is a trusted resource for hosting and reviewing code, managing projects, and building software for both individuals.

Recent Github got acquired by Microsoft, the company’s static hosting service, Github Pages, takes code straight from a GitHub repository, optionally runs the files through a build process, and publishes a website. The configuration is simple, and updates are a simple edit and push away.

• Number of sites: One site per GitHub account, plus unlimited project websites
• Storage and bandwidth: 1GB storage and 100GB bandwidth per month (soft limits)
• Domains: Custom domain name or a github.io subdomain
• Key features: HTTPS support, built-in integration with static site generator Jekyll

8# GitLab Pages

GitLab is an alternative to GitHub, its also used by millions of the developer to host, store their codes manage project amidst team, and work with developers remotely around the globe.

GitLab Pages takes code straight from a GitLab repository, optionally runs the files through a build process, and publishes a website. The configuration is simple, and updates are a simple edit and push away.

• Number of sites: One site per GitLab account, plus unlimited project websites
• Domain: Custom domain name or a gitlab.io subdomain
• Key features: HTTPS support, supports most static site generators

9# 
Vercel (formerly ZEIT)

Vercel is the optimal workflow for frontend teams, All-in-one: Static and Jamstack deployment, Serverless Functions, and Global CDN, Vercel promises a scalable, fast and simple static sites deployment, all you need to do Is push your codes to git and your site will be live.

I see vercel as a great alternative to Nelify, works with all frontend frameworks and static sites generators

• Number of sites: Unlimited websites and API
• Domain: Custom domain and a subdomain with .now.sh
• Key Features: HTTPS-enabled, Serverless Functions, High-performance CDN network
  Check out their documentation on limits of a free account 

10# Stormkit

Stormkit is a great next-gen hosting and deployment platform for frontend application management (Javascript applications).

They handles all technical issues for you, leaving you to focus on building your application, alo you don’t have to worry about any config file, you don’t need to learn something new again to deploy your apps.

All that is needed for your app deployment is just to a “git push” and your app will be live, so the only thing you need to do is authenticate your GitHub, Gitlab or Bitbucket account with your stormkit account.

Stormkit hosting platform also support any Nodejs or Jamstack application, like VueJs, NextJs, NuxtJs, Angular, React, Svelte, and many more.

• Number of sites/app: 1 app
• Domain: Unlimited Domains
• Storage and Bandwidth: 50GB
• Key Features: Unlimited deployments, Unlimited environments, TLS certificates included

11# HostMan

Hostman hosting platform is enough to keep a startup moving, these guys have the best setup for Both Frontend and Backend engineers, no stress, just code and deploy.

They have a blazing fast CDN service which is free and available in 45 locations around the world as of the time of writing.

Also you don’t need any special config file or setup to deploy your apps, all you need is just a “git push” command and you apps will be live.

HostMan support a lot of frameworks, so there is nothing like PHP doesn’t work here, just the way firebase is, you know.

Hostman supports 22 frameworks, which include Javascript frameworks, PHP, Go, Ruby apps, NodeJs, Docker Containers, Elixir and Python apps.

But the only thing we can host for Free on Hostman Is our Static Websites, Lol.

• Number of websites: 10 websites
• Storage and bandwidth: 100GB/month
• Key features: Free SSL, Free CDN, Version rollback, Slack & email notifications.

12# Render

Render is a unified platform to build and run all your apps and websites with free SSL, they offer a global CDN, private networks and auto deploys from Git.

Render is almost similar to Hostman where you can host many different frameworks of application like Rust, Go, PHP, Ruby, JamStacks, Node, Python, Ruby and Docker Containers.

• Number of websites: Unlimited websites
• Storage and bandwidth: 100GB/month
• Domain: Custom domains with fully managed SSL
• Key features: Lightning-fast CDN, Free SSL

13# Begin

Begin is a frontend friendly hosting platform, Begin supports every major vendor-agnostic frontend framework such as VueJs, React, Svelte.

Also they help you manage your entire build pipeline and AWS-native CI/CD deployments all from a single human-usable manifest.

• Number of websites: Up to 5 apps
• Storage and Bandwidth: Limited throughput and database usage
• Key Feature: Global CDN, Cron tasks.

14# Azure

Azure is offering a free service offers that comes with a lot of goodies that comes with it. Hosting and a lot of other goodies, which is available for 12 months and 200$ credits to explore Azure for 30 days with 25+ free service.

Its a good package a developer can get thier hands around, to test and praticalize a lot of things.

Give it a try.

15# Aerobatics

A TurboCharged static web hosting. This is one of the Blazing fast performance on our highly tuned, purpose-built CDN. Expand the possibilities of static sites with plugins.

Aerobatics is a good choice for Frontend developer teams, and a good choice for students who are working on side projects, they offer 30-day free trial

• Number of sites: 1 website
• Domain: Subdomain on aerobaticapp.com
• Key Features: Cloudfront CDN, Speed optimisation, SSL, HTTP/2

16# DriveToWeb

Drivetoweb is a serverless web hosting, DriveToWeb lets you host static web sites using free cloud storage like google drive, Microsoft OneDrive So you don’t need to buy or rent a server anymore.

• Number of sites: Unlimited websites
• Storage and Bandwidth: Unlimited
• Domain: Custom domain
• Key features: Cloudflare CDN, Configuration of 404 pages, Blogging with Static site generator (Hugo).

17# Neocities

Neocities is a social network of 300,400 web sites that are bringing back the lost individual creativity of the web. They offer free static web hosting and tools that allow you to create your own web site.

Neocities is an ads-free platform, which operates its own caching CDN in 11 datacenters in the world, they are open-source platform, and they also promise they will never share your data with any third parties.

• Number of sites: Unlimited websites
• Domain: Custom domain
• Storage and Bandwidth: Unlimited
• Key Features: Blazing fast CDN, Free SSL, HTTP/2

18# TiinyHost

TinyHost is a platform for quick and speedy deploy, all you have to do is drag and drop, it’s the simplest way to display your static site projects in 20 seconds, no registration needed, to unlock key features like Custom SSL + CDN, custom domain, you need to go pro

• Number of sites: Unlimited websites
• Storage: Upload unto 3mb zip
• Domain: Subdomain with .tiiny.site extension, No custom domain for the free plan
• Key Features: Custom SSL, CDN.

Cheap Web Hosting for Students and Developer

Apart from hosting your works, chances are you will work on clients projects where free hosting won’t be a good option but a cheap hosting will be the best option, which gave birth to the following platform

19# Amazon S3

Well, this guy is popular within the developer market space, but I did have a bad experience with AWS, having a huge amount of bills just for running a VM that I forgot to terminate.

I felt sick when I saw the mail of my bills anyway, but that won’t stop me from sharing you what the offer, s3 is awesome for hosting static websites, AWS has data centers around the world and well promising storage to host anything.

20# InterServer

These guys are awesome, offering the fastest Web Server (LiteSpeed) for their customers, they are student-friendly hosting provider, they also offer $4.00/Month STANDARD PACKAGE FOR FREE FOR THE FIRST YEAR FOR STUDENTS

You have access to Unlimited Cloud APPs, Unlimited websites, Unlimited emails, SSD enhanced server, and you can upload your static site codes to the file manage via an Easy to use Cpanel.

Also offers FREE web hosting for Non-Profit Organisation, So when next you building projects for NON-Profit Org, make use of Interserver, here is the guide to use the Non-Profit Free Hosting Plan.

Conclusion

Now that you have a list of free hosting platform, you have to resume back to work, code and deploy via CLI by hitting the enter button on your keyboard.

Likewise, if you are building a local shop or local business web app for clients next time, give your self the hosting money for knowing how to host website free😂.

And if you are a CS student, your days of buying hosting plan for assignments is over, save your funds to buy some CS book or spray them on snacks

On my end I prefer using Firebase and Netlify mostly, backed with Cloudflare integration, because I want that global CDN of 150+ datacenter 😎.