web hosting

 Web hosting  can be the primary regular cost in maintaining an IndieWeb site; this page lists several options from free on up depending on your publishing needs, like a static, shared, private, or dedicated server.

Typical for-pay hosting services more expensive than most domain name registrations/renewals. Web hosting services serve web pages on a domain of your choice.

Criteria
Hosting providers aren't one size fits all. Picking one is in some ways like picking a cell phone provider. There are lots of factors that determine whether a given provider is right for you personally. etc. Here are some questions you'll want to think about to get started.


 * How much code do you want to write: none, some, lots?
 * How much are you willing to pay? Nothing, a little, or more?
 * Do you want individualized customer support?
 * Do you need any guarantees on availability, e.g. an SLA?
 * How much risk tolerance and security expertise? Will you keep up with patches, etc?
 * If you're technical, do you need a shell account? Do you need root?

See hostingnotes for some unstructured notes on the offerings of specific providers (in early 2014).

Services by Type
Here are various levels of web hosting service available from different providers, roughly ordered from easiest/cheapest/friendliest to most powerful/technical.

Custom domain silos
Some silos allow you to configure your profile to use your own domain name, thus at least giving you some ownership over your permalinks (that you can potentially transfer to your own web host later) and are thus worth considering as a content hosting service.
 * micro.blog ($5/mo): instructions
 * Tumblr (free): instructions
 * WordPress.com ($5/mo): instructions
 * Squarespace (starts at $8/mo): instructions
 * Blogger (free): instructions
 * NeoCities ($5/mo):

micro.blog is highly recommended. It provides almost complete hosted IndieWeb. It supports articles, notes, photos, replies, podcasts custom domains, microformats, micropub, webmentions, and IndieAuth out of the box!

Tumblr is also recommended as a second choice because:
 * It has beautiful, usable, mobile friendly default templates
 * It has a friendly posting and admin interface
 * It has many posting options (web, mobile apps, email, instant messaging)
 * It supports user-centric site icons (your profile icon/avatar is automatically hosted as your personal site icon)
 * RSS feeds provided by default, and h-feed/h-entry are fairly straightforward to add to customized templates

Advantages of custom domain silos

 * Zero maintenance. No software or servers for you to maintain or update (e.g. security updates).

Disadvantages

 * Choice of configuration typically limited to templates
 * Terms of service may limit your options for monetizing your site.
 * Maintaining URL permalinks may be challenging when you switch to another (more self-owned / self-run) solution.

Hosted CMS Software as Service
Some open source software is hosted on various domains and can be set up to serve your personal domain for you.


 * Wordpress.com (small fee): instructions
 * WP Engine (fee): instructions
 * IndieHosters (fee):

Advantages of hosted CMS software

 * Regular security updates
 * Easier migration from hosted to your own web server / VPS (as compared to silos above).

Disadvantages

 * Choice of software platform typically limited to plug-ins and perhaps javascript.
 * Terms of service may limit your options for monetizing your site.

Static domain hosting
Simpler and more portable to a dynamic content web hosting solution, static hosted domain solutions are (likely) even more reliable while still be free or very cheap:

File hosting services which provide serving static files over HTTP

Advantages of static hosting

 * Very cheap (sometimes free). (See 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

 * Complicated to set up.
 * Your data is owned by another party.

GitHub Pages

 * GitHub Pages (free) - GitHub Pages is designed for hosting simple static web pages. In addition to github's instructions, there are several guides on how to use GitHub Pages to host your website:
 * Based on Jekyll
 * http://opentechschool.github.io/social-coding/extras/github-pages.html
 * Example: BootStrap blog powered by Jekyll and Github pages
 * An advantage to using a Github based solution is that you can easily transfer it to another web host simply by deploying from github to your web host.
 * GitHub Actions give you control over when and how your website deploys. You can schedule your site to be deployed at a particular time. This is useful if you have posts written for future dates on your Jekyll blog.

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

 * Amazon S3 (very cheap): instructions (via ).

Google Cloud Platform

 * Static hosting can be done using Cloud Storage service.

Netlify

 * Netlify (free) - Supports various static site generators: Jekyll, Grunt, Middleman, Hexo, Hugo, Gatsby

Azure

 * Azure Storage offers static website hosting with support for custom domains. For more details, see Static website hosting in Azure Storage and What is Azure Static Web Apps?

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)

Dropbox

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

IndieWeb static hosting users
IndieWeb community members using this approach:
 * Aral Balkan (UK 2012-2013) (S3)
 * Leonardo Zangrando lionzan.me (S3)
 * (JAMStack GitHub + Netlify's CDN) (settings here)
 * hosts www.jvt.me on Netlify, which was previously hosted on his own infrastructure
 * User:Tomasparks.name I use Linode's s3 and backblaze_b2.
 * hosts (corlaez.com) on (render.com)

Shared Hosting
FTP access with PHP or Perl CGI in a shared hosting environment
 * Dreamhost supports PHP, CGI/FastCGI, and Python via Passenger/WSGI (although it's easy to run afoul of their process limits)
 * SollHost
 * Krystal UK Based, very good shared servers with incredible support. They have packages for both beginners and large companies alike.
 * Pair has been around forever, has lots of reasonable plans, and is generally very clueful.
 * freeshell.org aka the SDF Public Access UNIX System
 * a small orange has nice shared hosting starting at 250MB for $35/year. Good customer support. has had good experiences with them in the past.
 * Name.com
 * Reclaim Hosting
 * HostGator is based in Texas and has decent support.
 * Hostinger is based in Lithuania, has good PHP shared hosting as well as cloud and VPS offerings. Plans are well priced, especially if you do multi-year deals. Managed TLS previously cost extra but appears to be free as of 2022

Previous Recommendations

 * Empowering Media is shutting down EOD 2019-03-06 Eastern Time.
 * Supportem Submit Support Ticket
 * Webfaction was acquired by godaddy before 2018 and no longer exists. Some employees left to start Opalstack, which is similar but a little pricier
 * previously: has lots of plans, supported languages and databases; runs Apache/ngnix.

Other Opinions

 * HostJury is a crowd-sourced web host review service, though whether the crowd is sufficiently large and diverse to reduce the bias to a useful level is unclear.

Advantages of Shared Hosting

 * No ads or other items on your page
 * Zero OS /LAMP maintenance. Shared hosting services will automatically handle updating your server's operating system, HTTP server, language support (e.g. PHP).
 * Ability to install your own backend scripts (e.g. PHP) to run your website

Disadvantages of Shared Hosting

 * Little to no choice of HTTP software. Typical shared hosts require you to use whatever HTTP server they maintain, e.g. Apache, Lightspeed HTTP, etc. HTTP server software then becomes another factor in how you pick a shared hosting provider.
 * Fixed bandwidth/storage limits (typically)
 * Very little configuration control, eg of domain setup
 * Usually no ability to use newer technologies like websockets
 * Unless you're relatively technical, apps are installed through stores like Installatron that are themselves silos
 * Limits in what stacks you can run (e.g. usually just PHP, maybe CGI or FastCGI; support for WSGI/node/Passenger/etc. is extremely rare)

IndieWeb community members using this approach

 * Tantek Çelik with tantek.com running Falcon (CASSIS/PHP) on Dreamhost
 * Ben Werdmüller with werd.io running Known on ???
 * Ryan Barrett with snarfed.org running WordPress on Pair
 * Kartik Prabhu with kartikprabhu.com running Django (based on Python) on Webfaction
 * Colin Tedford with colintedford.com running WordPress on Dreamhost since 2005
 * npdoty.name with several static, PHP and Node.js sites on Webfaction
 * with BoffoSocko.com running WordPress on 1&1
 * with https://gregorlove.com running ProcessWire on Dreamhost
 * runs various sites including WordPress instances and homebrew PHP sites on HostGator.
 * publishes his static_site, ethanyoo.com, with nearlyfreespeech

High-level language-specific runtime environment

 * Heroku
 * Google App Engine
 * OpenShift
 * Rackspace
 * AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Advantages of Platform as Service
Disadvantages:

IndieWeb community members using this approach

 * Ryan Barrett with Bridgy on App Engine
 * runs the Publ CMS example/documentation site on Heroku, mostly to demonstrate the feasibility
 * However this would not be a good match for a larger site as Heroku has fairly significant storage limitations (by design)

Virtual Private Server
 Virtual Private Server  (VPS) is a hosting model where you get root access to a virtual system and can install whatever you want
 * Bytemark (UK)
 * Flosoft (DE)
 * Hosteurope (DE)
 * Used by
 * Linode
 * screenshot of support email re: virtual machine hardware failure
 * Gandi provides simple pre configured virtual machines with PHP / NodeJS / MySQL / PgSQL / MongoDB starting 5$ a month. Servers are both in Europe and in the USA.
 * Digital Ocean is similar to Linode, but starting at $5/mo.
 * Atlantic.net is similar to DigitalOcean and Linode, but offers a "GO" plan for $0.99 a month.
 * Pair (see above)
 * Google Compute Engine
 * Amazon AWS
 * Rackspace
 * Prgrmr
 * Used by tommorris.org
 * LowEndBox is a site for reviews/offers of inexpensive VPS services from various companies. Your mileage may vary.
 * Vultr Vultr is like AWS but simple.
 * Dreamhost also offers a VPS-like thing that is a middle ground between shared hosting and a full VPS
 * Advantage: still has the nice Dreamhost service/site/etc. management tools, and lets you run your choice of service stack
 * Disadvantage: the way they manage the memory utilization is by hard-killing your container if you ever allocate too much, and they count kernel cache allocations against that but there's no way to limit the cache size; end result: Google indexes your site, your site goes down because the cache size spiked

Advantages of a VPS
Disadvantages:
 * full control over software stack
 * being able to run as many tools as needed or required
 * all maintenance is your responsibility
 * must be comfortable as a sysadmin

IndieWeb community members using this approach

 * aaronpk
 * Kyle Mahan runs Python/Flask on a Digital Ocean VPS
 * Jeremy Keith runs PHP/MySQL/Apache on a Digital Ocean VPS
 * cweiske
 * runs Python/Flask on a $5/mo Digital Ocean VPS
 * uses Elixir on a $20/mo Digital Ocean VPS with additional storage
 * runs Flask/Publ CMS on a $20/mo LiNode VPS
 * runs Mysql/Postgres/PHP/Nginx on a 6€/mo Netcup VPS
 * runs Mysql/Postgres/PHP/Nginx on a 6€/mo Netcup VPS

Dedicated Server
A discrete, physical server, on a rack or otherwise, which you get full access to, can optionally upgrade (for an additional monthly fee if the server is rented), and install whatever you want.


 * Bytemark (UK)
 * Flosoft (DE)
 * Used by Bear
 * Kimsufi provides low cost dedicated servers in several datacenters across the world.
 * Rackspace
 * ServerBeach
 * SoftLayer
 * Used by Ben Werdmuller
 * Hetzner (Germany)
 * Used by and Shane Hudson
 * they have "remarketed" servers offer for a very nice price Hetzner Online Server Auction

Advantages of a server

 * Full control (as VPS) and speed; no need to share resources beyond bandwidth
 * large disk space could be used for online backup and server could be a host for a group of sites/peole

Disadvantages

 * Price (although depending on load they can be more cost effective than a VPS)
 * See VPS

IndieWeb community members using this approach

 * Ben Werdmuller
 * Bear
 * Peter Molnar
 * Shane Hudson (In process of migration)

Home server
Home Hosting (or self-hosting) is the practice of keeping your personal data at home on a home server, typically on second-hand hardware or single-board computers.

Setting up a personal cloud allow unexperienced users to administrate their own server at home through nice user interfaces.

Hosting services on a dynamic IP address requires to use a dynamic DNS provider.

For more information about self-hosting, see home server.

IndieWeb community members using this approach

 * since 2011-12-19 (but only really started hosting real services 2014-08-19)

Appliance Server
Similar to a VPS except the server is pre-configured to run an application for you. The appliance server is chosen based on the application you want to run. This might help less technical users get started with their own server.


 * Network Presence

Disadvantages

 * More expensive than a VPS

Articles
Articles about web hosting recommendations, problems, challenges. Newest first.


 * 2014-03-27 Brent Simmons: What Did I Just Learn?
 * 2014-03-27 Brent Simmons: On Running Your Own Servers, and Why We’re Not
 * 2013-02-01 Kathy E. Gill: Mini-rant: Web hosting company set up policies
 * mentions AcornHost, Dreamhost, FatCow, MediaTemple
 * 2012-05-20 Lifehacker: Five Best Web Hosting Companies
 * mentions A Small Orange, Bluehost, Dreamhost, HostGator, InMotion Hosting, Linode, nearlyfreespeech, Rackspace
 * 2010-05-23 Lifehacker: Five Best Personal Web Hosts]
 * mentions: 1&1, Bluehost, Dreamhost, HostGator, nearlyfreespeech

Is using 3rd party hosting still indieweb
Q: If you use one of the 3rd party hosting options above (i.e. everything except for home hosting), you are still hosting your content on a webserver which is controlled by a third party, which thus could control your data. How is a setup where a 3rd party could control your server and data still indieweb?

A: Since it's the indie*web*, not indie everything, the important part is to own your web identity, which basically means owning the URLs. As long as you control the URLs, you can move between backend providers as you wish. You are in control of your online identity if you own the URLs.

Q: I get a server 5XX error when visiting my website which uses PHP. What could be the issue? A: It could be many things, but it should be outside the the request and requester control. When using PHP, you should try to find a common place in your program to add the debugging statements `ini_set(‘display_errors’, 1);` and `error_reporting(E_ALL);` which should notify you where problems are coming from. It can be better to test changes on your own machine instead of doing this on a live site, as secrets may be leaked and attackers or potential attackers could gain insights to help them attack your site or the application you use.