You built a static site, maybe by hand, maybe with a generator, and now you just need it online. You do not want to wire up Git, configure a build, or learn a hosting dashboard. This guide explains what a static site actually is, when the big platforms are heavier than you need, and the simplest zip-and-drop way to put one online for free.
What counts as a static site
A static site is just files: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and fonts. The server does not run any code to build a page on the fly. It hands over the same files to everyone, and the browser does the rest. There is no server-side language like PHP or Python generating pages, and there is no database.
If your project is a folder of those files with an index.html at the top, it is static. That covers a huge amount of the web: portfolios, resumes, landing pages, documentation, event pages, marketing one-pagers, and most pages an AI tool spits out. Anything interactive on a static page runs in the browser through JavaScript, which is why a contact form that just opens an email or a tab-based UI is still static, while a page that needs to save data to a server is not.
A quick test: if you can open index.html by double-clicking it on your own computer and it basically works, it is static and easy to host.
When GitHub, Netlify, and Vercel are heavier than needed
GitHub Pages, Netlify, and Vercel are excellent tools, and if you are building software for the long haul they are worth learning. But they assume a developer workflow:
- A Git repository to push your code into.
- An account, often connected to that repo.
- Sometimes a build command and a deploy pipeline to configure.
- A dashboard to learn before the first page is live.
For a polished static site you just want to share this afternoon, that is a lot of ceremony. You are not maintaining a release pipeline. You have finished files and you want a link. When the goal is simply "put these files online," all that setup is overhead you can skip.
The fast way: zip it and drop it
The shortest path is to bundle your folder and upload it once.
- Put your whole site in one folder, with
index.htmlat the top level (not buried inside a subfolder). - Check that your CSS, JavaScript, and images use relative paths like
css/style.cssorimages/logo.png, not absolute paths tied to your computer. - Zip the folder. On most systems you right-click the folder and choose "Compress" or "Send to compressed folder."
- Open the free HTML hosting tool, drop the zip in, and click Get my link.
Snapy unpacks the zip and serves the whole site on one link. Your index.html loads first, and your CSS, JavaScript, and images load from their paths, exactly like a normal website. No Git, no build, no account. Each file can be up to 100MB, which is plenty for most static sites.
One thing to watch: keep index.html at the root of the zip. If you zip the parent folder so the files land inside mysite/index.html, the link may not find your homepage. Zip the contents, or make sure index.html is at the top level.
Works with static site generators too
If you use Hugo, Jekyll, Eleventy, Astro, or plain HTML, run your normal build once to produce the output folder. Generators name it differently:
- Hugo:
public - Jekyll:
_site - Eleventy:
_site - Astro:
dist
Zip that output folder and upload it. You are publishing the finished, already-built site, so there is nothing to build on the hosting side. This is also why Snapy works for these: it serves the static output, not the source project. If your generator produces server-rendered or dynamic output, that part will not run on static hosting, but a fully static build will.
Give it a clean link, and control
Once the site is live you can shape how it behaves:
- Pick a readable name like
portfolio.snapy.page. - Add a password if the site is private or a work in progress.
- Set an expiry date if it is only needed for a while.
- Turn on view analytics to see how many people opened it.
- Grab a QR code to drop into a slide, a flyer, or a poster.
Good times to use this
- A portfolio, resume, or personal site.
- A landing page or an event page.
- A client demo or a prototype.
- Documentation or a one-page guide.
- A class project or a quick experiment.
An honest limit
Snapy serves static content only. It does not run server-side code, server-side rendering, or a database. If your site needs to process form submissions on a server, run user logins, or store data in a backend, a static host cannot do that part. For everything that is plain files in a browser, which is most small sites, it is the fastest route online.
FAQ
Do I need to know how to use Git? No. The zip-and-drop flow skips Git entirely. You just upload the finished files.
What if I only have one HTML file, not a folder? You can drop the single file directly. There is a focused walkthrough in how to host an HTML file free.
Why does my site show a blank page or a file list instead of the homepage?
That usually means index.html is not at the root of the zip. Re-zip so index.html sits at the top level, not inside an extra folder.
Will the links and images break after upload? They work as long as you used relative paths inside your project. Absolute paths pointing to files on your own machine will not resolve once the site is online.
Is it really free with no signup? Yes. No account is required. If you are comparing options, this works as a way to host a static site without Netlify or host an HTML page without GitHub, and here is a free Tiiny Host alternative.
If you only have a single page, see how to host an HTML file free.
Ready? Host your static site now.