Vercel alternatives for hosting a static site for free

Your options

• ship.page

  Best for

  Publishing an HTML file, ZIP or folder in seconds in the browser with no signup, no Git and no build step.

  Free

  Free forever with unlimited uploads, no bandwidth limits, 10 MB single HTML files, 25 MB ZIPs (100 MB unpacked) and 100 files per upload.

  Catch

  Static files only with no custom domains; anonymous links stay online 30 days, or 90 days with a free account and free restore.

• Cloudflare Pages

  Best for

  Static sites that need a free custom domain and unmetered bandwidth connected to a Cloudflare account.

  Free

  No bandwidth quota, 500 builds a month, 20,000 files per site, 25 MiB per file, 100 custom domains per project and a name.pages.dev address.

  Catch

  Requires a Cloudflare account, and Cloudflare's docs now suggest starting new projects on Workers.

• Netlify

  Best for

  Git-based workflows that rely on free deploy previews and branch builds.

  Free

  300 credits a month on a name.netlify.app address, where deploy previews are free, a production deploy costs 15 credits and bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB.

  Catch

  The 300-credit limit is a hard cap with no top-ups; when credits run out every project is paused and shows Site not available.

• GitHub Pages

  Best for

  Open-source documentation and personal sites already stored in a public GitHub repository.

  Free

  Sites up to 1 GB at owner.github.io with custom domains, a 100 GB monthly soft bandwidth limit and a 10 builds per hour soft limit.

  Catch

  Requires a GitHub account and public repository on GitHub Free, and is not allowed as free hosting for a commercial, e-commerce or SaaS business.

• Render

  Best for

  Teams already running backend services on Render that want static sites in the same workspace.

  Free

  Free static deploys at an onrender.com address with custom domains and 5 GB of outbound bandwidth a month on the Hobby workspace.

  Catch

  Extra bandwidth is $0.15 per GB, and without a payment method Render spins services down when the 5 GB runs out until the next month.

• Vercel

  Best for

  Next.js apps and projects that rely on server functions and Git deployments.

  Free

  Hobby is $0 with 100 GB of fast data transfer, 1,000,000 CDN requests a month, 100 deployments a day and a vercel.app address.

  Catch

  Restricted to personal, non-commercial use (Pro starts at $20 a month), and vercel deploy --temporary without an account expires after one hour unless claimed.

Free static hosting alternatives to Vercel compared

When should you stay on Vercel or pick another host?

Vercel is built for Next.js and server functions. If your site runs server-side Node.js, Python, PHP or a database, ship.page is not a match because it serves static files only. Keep server apps on Vercel, or look at Netlify or Cloudflare if you want a full-stack alternative.

If you only have static HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, fonts, audio, video, WebAssembly or JSON, a full Git pipeline is often unnecessary overhead. Look at our Vercel comparison to see how direct browser uploads compare to CLI and repository workflows.

For static sites that need a free custom domain, Cloudflare Pages (up to 100 custom domains per project), GitHub Pages and Render all support custom domains on their free tiers, while ship.page does not offer custom domains on any plan.

What are the commercial use rules on free plans?

Many developers look for free website hosting after reading the fine print on free tiers. Vercel Hobby is restricted to personal, non-commercial use, and moving to Vercel Pro starts at $20 a month. GitHub Pages also prohibits using its free hosting for a commercial, e-commerce or SaaS business.

Other hosts cap usage with hard cutoffs instead. Netlify gives you 300 credits a month (15 credits per production deploy and 20 credits per GB of bandwidth) and pauses every project with a Site not available screen when credits run out. Render includes 5 GB of monthly bandwidth on a Hobby workspace and spins services down until next month if you have no payment method on file.

• Vercel Hobby: personal, non-commercial use only; Pro starts at $20 a month.
• GitHub Pages: public repositories on Free; no commercial, e-commerce or SaaS businesses.
• Netlify Free: 300-credit hard limit pauses all sites when exhausted; Personal is $9 a month, Pro is $20 a month.
• Render Hobby: 5 GB monthly bandwidth; extra is $0.15 per GB or services spin down without a card.
• Cloudflare Pages: no bandwidth quota and 500 builds a month, though docs now point new projects to Workers.

How can you deploy without an account or Git?

Since October 2026, running vercel deploy --temporary in Vercel's CLI publishes without an account, but that temporary link expires after one hour unless you claim it with a Vercel account. If you want to publish HTML without GitHub and keep the link up for weeks, ship.page works right in the browser.

On ship.page, an anonymous upload stays live for 30 days with no bandwidth limits and no ads. If you sign in with a free account, you can claim the upload for 90 days, and when it goes offline you can restore it from the dashboard for free for another 90 days (up to three months after expiry).

Developers who prefer automation can still skip the browser: publish with one curl command (POST https://ship.page/deploy), use the MCP server at https://ship.page/mcp, or run the GitHub Action. See our guide to the best free static hosting for more ways to ship static builds.

Tip: If your static app uses client-side routing, switch to hash routes (#/about) on ship.page because there is no single-page-app fallback and file paths are case-sensitive.