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How to Host a Website for Free with a Custom Domain & SSL

Compare Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, and GitHub Pages for hosting static websites for free—including commercial and ad-monetized rules.

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Free static website hosting comparison with Cloudflare Pages

You can host a production-grade, fast website with a custom domain and automatic HTTPS for $0/month—as long as you pick a host whose free tier allows your use case.

Top 3 Free Static Hosting Platforms Compared

PlatformBandwidth (Free)Commercial / Ads Allowed?Auto SSL
Cloudflare PagesUnlimitedYesYes
Netlify (Starter)100 GB / monthYesYes
GitHub Pages100 GB / month (soft)Yes (static sites)Yes

Important note on Vercel Hobby: Vercel's free Hobby plan is strictly for non-commercial, personal use. If you plan to run Google AdSense or monetize your site, use Cloudflare Pages or Netlify instead.

How to Deploy on Cloudflare Pages (5 Minutes)

  1. Push your Next.js, Astro, or Vite project to a GitHub repository.
  2. Log in to Cloudflare Dashboard -> Workers & Pages -> Create -> Pages -> Connect to Git.
  3. Set your build configuration (for Next.js static export):
    • Build command: npm run build
    • Build output directory: out
  4. Click Save and Deploy.
  5. Under Custom domains, add your domain (e.g., yourdomain.dev). Cloudflare provisions free SSL automatically.

Why Edge CDN Hosting Helps SEO

Static HTML served from an edge CDN reduces Time to First Byte (TTFB) worldwide, directly improving your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Google Search Core Web Vitals.

Check out Next.js vs. React (Vite): Which Should You Choose? to pick the right frontend framework before deploying.

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