Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#1

Post by shovel » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:14 AM UTC

I still use Wordpress and shared hosting for most projects and microsites, simply because it's easiest and I'm not a developer. But I suspect there are better ways to do this in 2016/2017. Especially since I'm prepared to learn more.

Essentials: static hosting, custom domains, html, css, js Nice to have: php, FTP, markdown support

Am I missing out on AWS, Github, Digital Ocean, Heroku?

What are the pros and cons?

Re: Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#2

Post by CyberFonic » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:22 AM UTC

I use Google AppEngine with Python SDK. Whilst it is intended for web apps (and I use it for that too) it works well serving up static content alone. Very easy to add interactivity as and when the need arises. Also has access to Google Cloud services.

I like that I can check my changes on my notebook before uploading to the cloud.

Re: Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#3

Post by hashtagMERKY » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:24 AM UTC

For static sites I used to use surge [0], but now I use Neltify [1] for my site [2], because it offers free SSL on your own domain, and continuous deployment from a GitHub or Gitlab repository. You can set your own build options, for example to build Jekyll.

(I have no affiliation with Netlify I just think their service is neat.)

[0] https://surge.sh/

[1] https://www.netlify.com/

[2] https://gilly.tk

edit: formatting

Re: Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#4

Post by d0m » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:32 AM UTC

aws: s3/cloudfront.

Re: Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#5

Post by ekiara » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:36 AM UTC

Github Pages does pretty much everything you've listed. Also Github Pages explicity allows companies to setup and host their corporate websites on there.

PROS: It is free, always available, and the deploy is easy once you get the hang of git.

Re: Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#6

Post by zlib » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:39 AM UTC

Long time user of https://idleserv.net

Re: Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#7

Post by fao_ » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:39 AM UTC

I generally use nearlyfreespeech.net

I added about 5 gbp two years ago and it's down to about 4 gbp. It's cheap as hell and I only have to dump 5 pounds on there every few years or so.

Re: Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#8

Post by ekiara » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:40 AM UTC

hashtagMERKY wrote: post #3

For static sites I used to use surge [0], but now I use Neltify [1] for my site [2], because it offers free SSL on your own domain, and continuous deployment from a GitHub or Gitlab repository. You can set your own build options, for example to build Jekyll. (I have no affiliation with Netlify I just think their service is neat.) [0] https://surge.sh/ [1] https://www.netlify.com/ [2] https://gilly.tk edit: formatting

netlify looks great, and the free tier covers probably 90% of what all SMEs need. I'm curious, where are the sites actually hosted?

Does netlify provide the actual hosting or they allow you to setup deployment to a VPS? Also if netlify does the hosting, how good is their uptime/availability?

Re: Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#9

Post by Buetol » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:41 AM UTC

ekiara wrote: post #5

Github Pages does pretty much everything you've listed. Also Github Pages explicity allows companies to setup and host their corporate websites on there. PROS: It is free, always available, and the deploy is easy once you get the hang of git.

One big inconvenient is that they don't support HTTPS for custom domains

Re: Ask HN: What free or low-cost static site hosting do you use most?

#10

Post by curiousgal » Wed, Nov 23, 2016, 11:41 AM UTC

I run a cheap OVH VPS for hosting. I can host any number of websites I want and it costs less than any static hosting service.

Also, Github Pages and Gitlab Pages are great and free. You can't beat free if it's reliable and both of those two are reliable.