Expert Guide

Best Free Static Site Hosting in 2026: Limits Compared

Eight free static hosts compared on builds, bandwidth, file caps, commercial-use rules and the first paid step, as of October 2026.

Louis CorneloupFounder, Dupple · 28,000+ Devshot subscribers · Updated Oct 2026

Product links may be affiliate links. How we rate 8 tools compared

TL;DR

Cloudflare Pages is the best free static host in 2026. Its free plan allows 500 builds a month, and Cloudflare says requests for static assets are free and unlimited. GitHub Pages is the pick when the code already lives in a public GitHub repository. Netlify and Vercel are free to start, but Netlify's 300 credits cover about 15 GB of bandwidth a month, and Vercel's Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use only.

Key facts8 tools compared: Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, Firebase Hosting, AWS…

Updated: October 18, 2026
Top pick: Cloudflare Pages (best for: Blogs, docs and marketing sites that need the most free headroom and unmetered static requests)
Top pick price as of October 18, 2026: Cloudflare Pages: Free plan: $0, 500 builds a month, 1 concurrent build, 100 projects, 100 custom domains per project

8 tools compared: Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, Firebase Hosting, AWS Amplify, Render, GitLab Pages
GitHub Pages (best for: Open source projects, documentation and portfolios whose code already lives on GitHub): Free for public repos on a GitHub Free account; 1 GB site, soft limits of 100 GB bandwidth a month and 10 builds an hour
Netlify (best for: Small teams that want a managed deploy flow and can keep traffic inside 15 GB a month): Free: $0 with 300 credits a month; Pro: $20 a month flat with 3,000 credits and unlimited members
Vercel (best for: Personal projects and Next.js experiments; a business site needs Pro): Hobby: $0 with 100 GB Fast Data Transfer, personal non-commercial use only; Pro: $20 a month per developer seat

A free static host stays free only until one of its caps bites, and each host caps something different. Cloudflare limits builds, GitHub sets a soft bandwidth ceiling, Netlify pools bandwidth and deploys into one credit balance, and Vercel and GitHub restrict what a site may be used for.

The decision usually turns on one question: will the site earn money? Two of the eight hosts below restrict commercial use, and the first fixed upgrade is a flat fee on Netlify Pro or a per-seat fee on Vercel Pro.

Toolradar data: of the 310 hosting and deployment tools we evaluated, Vercel is listed as an alternative to 55 tools and Netlify to 48, the two most cross-shopped platforms in the category as of October 2026 (Toolradar's hosting and deployment ranking).

Top Picks

Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.

#1 Top pick

Cloudflare Pages

The best free default on this list: static asset requests are free and unlimited, and the cap that binds is 500 builds a month.

Pricing

Free plan: $0, 500 builds a month, 1 concurrent build, 100 projects, 100 custom domains per project

Best for

Blogs, docs and marketing sites that need the most free headroom and unmetered static requests

Visit Cloudflare Pages Details

GitHub Pages

The simplest free option when the code is already on GitHub and the site is not a shop.

Pricing

Free for public repos on a GitHub Free account; 1 GB site, soft limits of 100 GB bandwidth a month and 10 builds an hour

Best for

Open source projects, documentation and portfolios whose code already lives on GitHub

Visit GitHub Pages Details

Netlify

One credit pool pays for bandwidth and production deploys, so 300 credits buys about 15 GB or 20 deploys.

Pricing

Free: $0 with 300 credits a month; Pro: $20 a month flat with 3,000 credits and unlimited members

Best for

Small teams that want a managed deploy flow and can keep traffic inside 15 GB a month

Visit Netlify Details

Best Free Static Site Hosting in 2026: Limits Compared: 8 tools compared, updated Oct 2026
Tool	Pricing	Best for
Cloudflare Pages	Free plan: $0, 500 builds a month, 1 concurrent build, 100 projects, 100 custom domains per project	Blogs, docs and marketing sites that need the most free headroom and unmetered static requests
GitHub Pages	Free for public repos on a GitHub Free account; 1 GB site, soft limits of 100 GB bandwidth a month and 10 builds an hour	Open source projects, documentation and portfolios whose code already lives on GitHub
Netlify	Free: $0 with 300 credits a month; Pro: $20 a month flat with 3,000 credits and unlimited members	Small teams that want a managed deploy flow and can keep traffic inside 15 GB a month
Vercel	Hobby: $0 with 100 GB Fast Data Transfer, personal non-commercial use only; Pro: $20 a month per developer seat	Personal projects and Next.js experiments; a business site needs Pro
Firebase Hosting	Spark: $0 with 10 GB storage and 360 MB of transfer a day; Blaze bills per GB beyond that	Prototypes and small apps that already use Firebase for auth or data
AWS Amplify	Free for 12 months on the AWS Free Tier: 1,000 build minutes, 15 GB served and 5 GB stored a month	Teams already on AWS that want managed builds for a front-end or static app
Render	Static sites are free to deploy; custom domains: 2 on Hobby, 15 on Pro, then $0.25 a month each	Teams that may move a static site into a web service later, on the same account
GitLab Pages	Free on GitLab.com: 1 GB maximum site size and up to 150 custom domains per Pages website	Projects already on GitLab that want Pages from the same repo and CI pipeline

Pricing read from each vendor's own pricing page, checked Oct 2026. Every vendor here publishes a price.

Top Pick

Cloudflare Pages

The best free default on this list: static asset requests are free and unlimited, and the cap that binds is 500 builds a month.

Pricing: Free plan: $0, 500 builds a month, 1 concurrent build, 100 projects, 100 custom domains per project

Best for: Blogs, docs and marketing sites that need the most free headroom and unmetered static requests

Pros

Static asset requests are free and unlimited on the free plan, per Cloudflare's own docs
Up to 20,000 files per site and 25 MiB per file, so a large docs site fits
The free plan allows 100 projects, each with up to 100 custom domains

Cons

One concurrent build, so a large site that rebuilds on every push queues up
The 500-build cap counts every rebuild, so frequent commits to one repo use it up fastest

GitHub Pages

The simplest free option when the code is already on GitHub and the site is not a shop.

Pricing: Free for public repos on a GitHub Free account; 1 GB site, soft limits of 100 GB bandwidth a month and 10 builds an hour

Best for: Open source projects, documentation and portfolios whose code already lives on GitHub

Pros

Publishes straight from the repository you already use, with no separate hosting account
Builds run through a custom GitHub Actions workflow skip the soft 10-builds-an-hour limit
The 1 GB site size and soft 100 GB monthly bandwidth limit are published, so the ceiling is clear before launch

Cons

On a GitHub Free account the repository must be public, so a private client repo cannot publish here for free
GitHub says Pages is not intended for an online business or e-commerce site

Netlify

One credit pool pays for bandwidth and production deploys, so 300 credits buys about 15 GB or 20 deploys.

Pricing: Free: $0 with 300 credits a month; Pro: $20 a month flat with 3,000 credits and unlimited members

Best for: Small teams that want a managed deploy flow and can keep traffic inside 15 GB a month

Pros

Pro is one flat monthly fee for the whole team, with unlimited members
Pro includes 3,000 credits, which covers about 150 GB of bandwidth at 20 credits per GB
The pricing page does not restrict commercial use on the free plan

Cons

Bandwidth and production deploys draw on the same 300 credits, so a busy month can run out early
The free plan lists credit rates instead of fixed bandwidth or build-minute caps, so the monthly ceiling has to be worked out

Vercel

The best framework fit for Next.js, but Hobby is for personal, non-commercial projects only.

Pricing: Hobby: $0 with 100 GB Fast Data Transfer, personal non-commercial use only; Pro: $20 a month per developer seat

Best for: Personal projects and Next.js experiments; a business site needs Pro

Pros

Hobby includes 100 GB of Fast Data Transfer and 1M CDN requests a month
Hobby is free with one developer seat, which covers a solo personal project
Pro adds 1 TB of Fast Data Transfer and 10M CDN requests, with a usage credit included

Cons

Hobby is for personal, non-commercial use only, and it cannot buy additional usage
Pro is billed for each developer seat, so a 3-person team pays for three seats before usage

Firebase Hosting

The daily transfer cap is the tight part: 360 MB a day comes to about 10.8 GB over a 30-day month.

Pricing: Spark: $0 with 10 GB storage and 360 MB of transfer a day; Blaze bills per GB beyond that

Best for: Prototypes and small apps that already use Firebase for auth or data

Pros

Custom domains and SSL are included on the free Spark plan
Spark includes 10 GB of storage at no cost on the Hosting row
Past the free tier, Blaze bills storage at $0.026 per GB and transfer at $0.15 per GB

Cons

The 360 MB a day allowance is daily, so a single launch-day spike can use it up in one go
Pay-as-you-go Blaze has no fixed monthly ceiling, so a traffic spike turns straight into a bill

AWS Amplify

The only published build-minute allowance on this list, but the free tier ends after 12 months and then bills per GB served.

Pricing: Free for 12 months on the AWS Free Tier: 1,000 build minutes, 15 GB served and 5 GB stored a month

Best for: Teams already on AWS that want managed builds for a front-end or static app

Pros

1,000 build minutes a month, the only published build-minute allowance on this list
Runs under the same AWS account as other services, for teams already on AWS
After the free year, the published rates are $0.15 per GB served and $0.01 per build minute on the Standard instance

Cons

The free tier is a 12-month offer, so the first bill arrives after the first year
It needs an AWS account, so it takes more setup than a Git-connected host like Cloudflare Pages

Render

Free to deploy, but Render publishes no bandwidth figure for static sites, so check the dashboard before launch.

Pricing: Static sites are free to deploy; custom domains: 2 on Hobby, 15 on Pro, then $0.25 a month each

Best for: Teams that may move a static site into a web service later, on the same account

Pros

Static sites are free to deploy, and they count against the workspace's included bandwidth and pipeline minutes
Custom domains are included per plan: 2 on Hobby, 15 on Pro and 25 on Scale
Moving from a static site to a web service keeps the same account and dashboard

Cons

The docs do not state the included bandwidth in GB or the pipeline minutes, so the free ceiling sits in the dashboard
Hobby includes 2 custom domains, and each extra one costs $0.25 a month

GitLab Pages

Free on GitLab-provided infrastructure, but the docs publish no bandwidth or request figure.

Pricing: Free on GitLab.com: 1 GB maximum site size and up to 150 custom domains per Pages website

Best for: Projects already on GitLab that want Pages from the same repo and CI pipeline

Pros

Runs on GitLab-provided infrastructure at no additional cost, per its docs
Up to 150 custom domains for each Pages website on GitLab.com
Deploys from the same CI pipeline as the rest of the project

Cons

The 1 GB maximum site size follows the 1 GB CI artifact limit
The docs publish no bandwidth or request figure, so the monthly ceiling is unknown

What it is

A static site host serves prebuilt HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images from a CDN, with no server to run your code. Its free tier is a set of caps on builds, bandwidth, storage and commercial use.

Why it matters

Three things decide the bill on a free host, and none of them is the price. The first is the build cap, which counts every rebuild a push triggers. The second is bandwidth, which Netlify and Vercel meter and GitHub caps softly. The third is the file and storage cap, which Cloudflare sets at 20,000 files per site and Firebase at 10 GB of storage.

Read the commercial rule before the numbers. GitHub Pages is not intended for an online business or e-commerce site, and Vercel's Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use only.

A site that also needs a database is a different comparison, and our free database hosting guide covers it.

Key features to look for

Build capEssential

Cloudflare Pages allows 500 builds a month on the free plan, with one build at a time. A site that rebuilds on every commit can use that up in a busy week.

Bandwidth modelEssential

GitHub Pages sets a soft 100 GB a month. Netlify charges 20 credits per GB, Vercel's Hobby plan includes 100 GB of Fast Data Transfer, and Firebase allows 360 MB a day.

Commercial useEssential

Vercel Hobby is for personal, non-commercial use only, and GitHub Pages is not for online businesses or e-commerce sites. Cloudflare Pages, Netlify and Render publish no commercial-use restriction.

Upgrade path

Netlify Pro is one flat monthly fee for the whole team, and Vercel Pro is billed per developer seat. Firebase moves to pay-as-you-go Blaze, and AWS Amplify's free tier lasts 12 months.

Pricing

Prices and limits were read on each vendor's own pages on October 10, 2026. Methodology: we list each free tier, and the first paid step where a host has one, only as the vendor documents it on its own site, with the figure it publishes. Where a host publishes no number, the row says so instead of estimating one. We did not run hands-on load tests, so every limit here is the vendor's own, and the derived figures are our arithmetic on those limits.

Three figures change the decision. Netlify's 300 credits turn into about 15 GB of bandwidth at 20 credits per GB, and a production deploy costs 15 credits. Firebase's free transfer is 360 MB a day, about 10.8 GB over 30 days. Vercel Hobby's 100 GB applies only to non-commercial use.

Past the free tier, the overage rates are where the plans really differ. Vercel Pro charges from $0.15 per GB of Fast Data Transfer beyond 1 TB, from $2 per million CDN requests beyond 10M, and $0.007 per build minute. Render's docs and GitLab's docs give no overage rate.

For the paid plans in depth, see our Vercel vs Netlify comparison. Once a site outgrows every free tier here, our cheap VPS guide prices the next step.

Sources: Cloudflare Pages limits, Cloudflare Pages functions pricing, GitHub Pages limits, GitHub Pages site setup, Netlify pricing, Vercel pricing, Firebase pricing, AWS Amplify pricing, Render static sites and GitLab.com limits.

Plan	Price	Best for
Cloudflare Pages Free	Free	500 builds a month, 1 concurrent build, 20,000 files per site, 25 MiB per file, 100 projects
GitHub Pages	Free	Public repos on a GitHub Free account; 1 GB site, soft 100 GB bandwidth a month, soft 10 builds an hour
Netlify Free	Free	300 credits a month; bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB and a production deploy costs 15 credits
Netlify Pro	$20/month	3,000 credits a month, unlimited members
Vercel Hobby	Free	100 GB Fast Data Transfer, 1M CDN requests, 1 developer seat, personal non-commercial use only
Vercel Pro	$20/month per developer seat	1 TB Fast Data Transfer, 10M CDN requests, a usage credit
Firebase Spark	Free	10 GB storage, 360 MB of transfer a day, custom domain with SSL
AWS Amplify, AWS Free Tier	Free for 12 months	1,000 build minutes, 15 GB served and 5 GB stored a month; paid rates apply after the free year
Render static sites	Free	Bandwidth and pipeline minutes count against the workspace's included amounts, which the docs do not state; 2 custom domains on Hobby
GitLab Pages on GitLab.com	Free	1 GB maximum site size, up to 150 custom domains per Pages website

Mistakes to avoid

×Reading Netlify's 300 credits as 300 GB. They buy about 15 GB of bandwidth at 20 credits per GB, and each production deploy takes 15 credits, so 20 deploys use the whole allowance.

×Putting a client site on Vercel Hobby. Hobby is for personal, non-commercial use only, and the paid step is Pro, billed per developer seat.

×Counting on Firebase's free transfer for a launch. Spark allows 360 MB a day, and traffic past that is billed per GB on Blaze.

Expert tips

→Check the commercial-use rule before comparing prices. Two of the eight hosts restrict it, and that rule can disqualify a host before price matters.

→Find the cap that binds first. For most sites it is the build count on Cloudflare, the daily transfer on Firebase or the credit pool on Netlify.

→Watch the usage dashboard from launch, because the caps reset daily or monthly and the first traffic spike sets the pattern.

The bottom line

Pick Cloudflare Pages for most static sites: the free plan has the most headroom on this list, and its static requests are free and unlimited. Pick GitHub Pages when the repository is public and already on GitHub, and skip it for a store. Choose Netlify when a team wants a managed deploy flow inside 15 GB a month, and Vercel only for personal or non-commercial projects, or when a paid seat is already in the budget.

Tool pages: Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, Firebase Hosting, Render and GitLab Pages. For the wider field, read best static site generators, the Netlify review, the Vercel review, Vercel pricing and cheaper Vercel alternatives.

Cite this: Devshot, "Best Free Static Site Hosting in 2026: Limits Compared", October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free static site hosting in 2026?

Cloudflare Pages is the best free static host for most sites in 2026. Its free plan allows 500 builds a month, 20,000 files per site and 100 custom domains per project, and Cloudflare says requests for static assets are free and unlimited. GitHub Pages is the free pick when the repository is public.

Is Vercel free for commercial use?

No. Vercel's Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use only, and it cannot buy additional usage. The paid step is Pro, billed per developer seat, and it includes a usage credit.

How much bandwidth does Netlify's free plan include?

Netlify's free plan gives 300 credits a month, and bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB, so the credits cover about 15 GB if nothing else uses them. A production deploy costs 15 credits, so 10 GB of traffic plus 6 deploys uses 290 of the 300 credits.

Can I run an online store on GitHub Pages for free?

No. GitHub says Pages is not intended for an online business or e-commerce site, so a store needs another host. Check each host's commercial-use terms before launch, because Vercel's Hobby plan rules out commercial use altogether.

What is the cheapest paid upgrade from a free static host?

For a team, Netlify Pro has the lowest fixed price on this page: one flat monthly fee, with 3,000 credits and unlimited members. Vercel Pro is billed per developer seat, so a team pays for every seat. Firebase moves to pay-as-you-go Blaze, billed per GB beyond 360 MB a day, and AWS Amplify's free tier lasts 12 months before it bills per GB served.

Sources

Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.