Share an HTML file someone can view on iPhone

How to upload and share an HTML file from a phone

Why sending the raw HTML file to an iPhone fails

When you send an .html file over AirDrop, iCloud Drive, email, or iMessage, iOS treats it as a document attachment rather than a live website. Tapping the attachment on an iPhone often opens a stripped-down quick preview where JavaScript will not run, or displays the raw HTML source code as plain text.

When you convert the HTML to a link first, the recipient just taps a normal web address. It opens straight in Safari with working scripts, stylesheets, and responsive mobile layout, without making your friend save files or figure out how to open an HTML file locally.

What if my HTML page has images, CSS, or folders

Mobile browsers generally cannot upload an unzipped folder. If your project has separate stylesheets, scripts, or images, put everything into one folder with index.html as the homepage, then compress that folder into a .zip file before you upload the HTML file bundle.

If you are uploading from a computer, you can drag a folder straight into the browser as long as the request stays under roughly 7 MB of files (sent as a single 10 MB encoded request). For bigger projects, zip the folder first.

• Free plan limits: single HTML file up to 10 MB, ZIP up to 25 MB (100 MB unpacked), up to 100 files per upload, and 10 deploys a minute.
• Automatic unwrapping: if your ZIP has a single top-level folder, ship.page unwraps it automatically so index.html sits at the root.
• Case sensitivity: file paths are case-sensitive, so make sure image.jpg in your code is not named Image.JPG in your ZIP.
• Static assets only: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, fonts, audio, video, WebAssembly, and JSON work; server code like PHP, Node.js, or Python does not run.

Tip: You can also generate a downloadable website QR code on the success screen so someone sitting next to you can open the page on their iPhone by pointing the Camera app at your screen.

How ship.page compares to GitHub Pages

If you just want to text a working prototype, class assignment, or calculator to a friend's iPhone right now, ship.page requires no account and publishes in seconds. Every uploaded page includes a noindex header so search engines stay out, and uploads are never listed publicly.

If you need a custom domain or want to host an open-source project up to 1 GB, GitHub Pages is the better pick. GitHub Pages is free for public repositories on GitHub Free (with a 100 GB monthly soft bandwidth limit and 10 builds an hour), though it is not allowed as free hosting for a commercial, e-commerce, or SaaS business.

To use GitHub Pages without installing Git, you create a GitHub account, make a repository, use the web uploader (Add file, Upload files, up to 100 files at a time and 25 MiB per file), and turn on publishing under Settings, Pages. Your site goes live at username.github.io/repository a few minutes later.

Managing links, updates, and privacy

You can publish on ship.page without an account. You can claim the page with a free account using Google or an email link (no credit card), and it stays online as long as you keep it. Free pages cannot be updated in place, so uploading a new version gives you a new link, and free pages display a small "Hosted on ship.page" badge that visitors can close.

If you need to edit your page and keep the same link after you have already texted it out, Pro is $4 a month (billed monthly, cancel anytime). Pro pages never expire (or you can pick any expiry from 60 seconds), remove the badge, add password protection, raise ZIP limits to 100 MB (400 MB unpacked) and 10,000 files, and include up to 5 custom subdomains like yourname.ship.place.