Updated
Host an HTML file for free, and what each way does at the other end
By João Saraiva
You have an .html file, and someone else should see it working. A static host puts it at a link for free. Below: the one thing to do first, five free hosts and their limits, and what email or Drive does instead.
First, name it index.html
A host opens index.html when someone visits the bare address, the way a book opens at its first page. Name your main page index.html, all in lower case. If it has images, a stylesheet or other pages, keep them in one folder beside it, and upload the folder. A file called My Page.html on its own may still work, but the link then has to end in its name, and a space in a name causes trouble.
Five free hosts and their limits
What each one says on its own pages, read on 13 October 2026:
| Host | How you start | What free gives you | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netlify Drop | Drop a folder or zip, no account | A free plan with 300 credits, and your own domain with SSL | Until you sign up and claim it, the site sits behind a temporary password. Drops under 50 MB work best. |
| GitHub Pages | A GitHub account and a public repository | Sites up to 1 GB, and your own domain | A soft limit of 100 GB of traffic a month, and not for running an online business or a store |
| Static.app | Sign up for the trial, no card | A 7-day trial: 1 website, 50 MB | No free plan: after 7 days the site needs a paid one |
| tiiny.host | Upload an HTML file or a zip | 1 live site, uploads up to 3 MB, 5,000 visits a month | A tiiny.host banner, and you log in once every three months to keep it online |
| Solta Free | Paste or drop it, no account | Files up to 2 MB, folders up to 50 MB, 200 MB in all; public, unlisted or private, and a password on 1 site | A small Solta badge, the last 5 versions kept, and your own domain only on Pro and Team |
More side by side: eight tiiny.host alternatives and how to host your own website.
The other ways to send it, and what they do
A host isn't the only way to send an HTML file. Here is what each usual way gives the person at the other end.
Attach it to an email
- What they get
- A file to download and open from their own disk. On a computer it opens in the browser at a
file:///address, where some of what a page does is blocked. On a phone it depends on the mail app, and it often doesn't open as a working page. Anything the page loads from beside it, such as images, a stylesheet or a CSV, is missing unless it is built into the file. - After a change
- You send a new file. The old one stays in their inbox, and in every inbox it was forwarded to.
- Use it for
- A page that is one self-contained file, for one person, once.
Share it from Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive
- What they get
- The storage service's own preview of the file, which for HTML usually means the code as text or a download button, not the page running. These services share files, not pages. Google stopped serving web pages from Drive in 2016.
- After a change
- Replacing the file can keep the same link, but what they get is still a file.
- Use it for
- Handing over the file itself, to someone who will open it on their own computer.
Upload it to a static host
- What they get
- A working page at an https address. GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Netlify and tiiny.host serve your files as they are, so the page runs. On most of them the link opens for anyone who has it, and a public page can turn up in search results. A password, where a host offers one, is often on a paid plan: what a password on a page really protects.
- What you do
- It varies. Some want an account and a project first. Netlify Drop takes a folder or a zip with no account, and a site dropped while you are signed out sits behind a temporary password until you claim it by signing up, according to Netlify's own guide, read on 13 October 2026.
- After a change
- You upload again, and on most hosts the same address shows the new version straight away.
- Use it for
- A page meant for everyone, or a site you will keep building and updating yourself. A React file is different: served as it is, it shows a blank page, so it needs building into a page first.
Paste it into Solta
- What you do
- Paste the HTML into the box at the foot of this page, up to 2 MB, or drop the folder or a zip, up to 50 MB. No account is needed to start: an unclaimed site stays up for 24 hours, and claiming it keeps the address. A React file from Claude or ChatGPT works too, and so does a PDF on its own, which opens in Solta's viewer.
- What they get
- The page running at its own address, with no account needed to open it. You choose who can: public, unlisted or private on every plan, a password on every plan (one site at a time on Free), and named people who verify their email once on Pro and Team.
- After a change
- It waits as a draft, and the link keeps showing what it showed until you publish the change. Earlier versions keep their own addresses.
- Before it goes up
- Solta scans the file and refuses one with an API key or a password written in it, because anyone who opens the page could read it.
- Use it for
- Sending a page to particular people, and pages that will change after you have sent the link.