static web hosting

From IndieWeb


static web hosting is a web hosting service (AKA static hosting or file hosting) that only supports serving static files for a web site, is often more reliable, cheaper (some are free), a good way for web developers to get started on the IndieWeb, and used by many community members.

Why

Advantages

  • Very cheap (sometimes free). See Amazon Date Edge's usage/billing.
  • Solutions like GitHub Pages and Netlify integrate well with standard source control operations. When you push a commit to GitHub, tools like Pages and Netlify automatically update your site.

Disadvantages

  • Can be complicated to set up
  • Require external services for dynamic functions such as receiving Webmentions, publishing with Micropub, etc.

IndieWeb Examples

IndieWeb community members using this approach:

Static web hosting services

GitHub Pages

Main article: GitHub Pages

GitLab Pages

GitLab supports static site hosting with GitLab Pages, supporting custom domains and SSL.

Available on gitlab.com and self-hosted services.

Amazon S3

Main article: Amazon

Google Cloud Platform

Main article: Google

Netlify

Main article: Netlify

Azure

Azure Advantages

  • See advantages for all "static domain hosting"
  • Provides detailed deployment logs which gives visibility into how a site has been deployed
  • Easy-to-navigate onboarding flow

Vercel

  • Vercel (free) - Supports custom domains SSL and integration with GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. Can be used with Next.js, Eleventy, Jekyll, Grunt, Nuxt, Angular, Vue, Hexo, Hugo, Gatsby and several (others). (Vercel is using Amazon Web Services)

Linode

Main article: Linode

Linode/Akamai offers S3-compatible object storage that supports static websites.

DigitalOcean

Main article: DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean's App Platform can be used to deploy static websites from a GitHub repository.

Previous Examples

Dropbox

Main article: Dropbox
  • As of 2017 Dropbox can no longer be used to host static websites. See the main article for more information.

See Also