Nowadays it’s very easy to publish on the web for free.

There are countless blogging platforms and website creators. But these platforms usually end up controlling your content. Sometimes you cannot even export your own data!

The other extreme is to set up your own server by yourself. Buy a VPS (virtual private server) or a shared hosting somewhere, install a web server, and upload your files. This is a lot of work already! Specially if all you want is to publish a static website.

You already know HTML and CSS, and maybe a bit of JavaScript. You just want a place where you can drop your files and see it on the web!

Here is a list of services that allow you to do that, in no specific order:

Netlify

Netlify allows you to drag & drop a zip with your files. You can also connect it to your project from Github, Gitlab or Bitbucket. I use Netlify for a lot of my projects, such as desk.glitchy.website.

Vercel

Vercel is very similar to Netlify. They are also the company behing Next.js, so they have many integrations with it. I use Vercel for my personal website and for glitchy.website.

Surge

Surge allows you to easily publish your static website from the command line.

Github Pages

Github Pages allows you to directly from your GitHub repository. Just edit, push, and your changes are live. This blog itself is hosted on Github Pages.

GitLab Pages

GitLab Pages allows you to publish static websites directly from a repository in GitLab.

Closing Words

With these services, you can host your own static website for free. If having your own domain is important, then you will have to buy one, but that’s the only thing you need, as many of these services allow you to use your own custom domain as well.

I recommend you familiarize yourself with the options and not to put all your eggs in one basket. The beauty of static website is that something happens to the provider, you can just copy your files to another one, and you’re done! Keep it simple.