Free Static Site Hosting: Honest Comparison 2026

Take Masha. She's a nutrition coach with 9K Instagram followers, zero developer background, and a landing page she just built with Claude Code over a weekend. It works locally. She wants it online. She searches "free static site hosting" and finds four options — all of them free, all of them with catches she won't discover until later.

There are two types of free hosting: platforms that count your deploys and platforms that don't. Platforms that count will pause your site when you run out. Platforms that don't, won't. Everything else is detail.

This post is a factual breakdown of what each free tier actually gives you, where it stops, and which one makes sense for which situation.

TL;DR

Vercel Hobby (free) — zero bandwidth overage costs, but bans commercial use. Revenue-generating sites violate the ToS.
Netlify free — 300 credits/month. Each deploy costs 15 credits, each GB of bandwidth 20. Run out and all your sites go offline until next month.
Cloudflare Pages free — genuinely generous with no credit system. Requires Git or Wrangler CLI — not for non-developers.
Cybrix free — 1 project, unlimited deploys, commercial use allowed. Best fit if you build with Claude Code.

What "free static site hosting" actually means

A static site is a folder of HTML, CSS, and JS files. You hand it to a CDN, and the CDN serves those files to visitors. That's it. No server processes requests, no database runs in the background.

Because there's no compute, the cost of hosting a static site is almost entirely bandwidth — the data transferred to visitors. Most free tiers are generous enough that a small or medium site never hits a limit. The tricky parts are the other limits: deploy counts, number of sites, commercial use rules, and what happens when you exceed anything.

Vercel Hobby plan (free)

Vercel's free tier is called Hobby. The main limits relevant to static sites:

Unlimited projects
100 GB bandwidth per month (then capped, not billed)
6,000 build minutes per month
No custom domains on subdomains owned by third parties
Commercial use not allowed

That last one is the one most people miss. Vercel's Fair Use policy states that Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use. Sites that generate revenue — through sales, ads, affiliate links, or client deliverables — are required to upgrade to Pro. Source: vercel.com/docs/plans/hobby.

If your site is a portfolio with no monetization, Vercel Hobby works fine. If you're a freelancer hosting a client's site, a SaaS founder with a landing page, or anyone earning from the site in any form — you're technically violating the ToS on Vercel's free tier.

Vercel Pro costs $20/seat/month. Then bandwidth at $0.15/GB above the included credit, image optimization at $10/month extra, and monitoring at $10/month extra if you want it. Source: vercel.com/pricing.

Netlify free plan

Netlify's free tier uses a credit system introduced in 2024 and updated in April 2026:

300 credits per month included free
Each build deploys costs 15 credits
Each GB of bandwidth costs 20 credits
When credits hit zero, all your sites go offline until the month resets

That's roughly 20 deploys or 15 GB of bandwidth per month — whichever you hit first. If your site gets a traffic spike (a post goes viral, a product hunt launch), you could exhaust bandwidth credits fast.

The behavior on exhaustion is the key detail: Netlify doesn't throttle or slow down — it takes everything offline. Source: netlify.com/pricing.

Netlify's Pro plan was updated in April 2026 to $20/month flat, removing the per-seat model. You get 3,000 credits (~200 deploys) and the credit-based billing continues above that. Source: Netlify blog, April 2026.

Commercial use is allowed on Netlify's free tier — there's no equivalent to Vercel's non-commercial clause.

Cloudflare Pages free

Cloudflare's free tier is the most generous among the major players:

Unlimited sites
Unlimited bandwidth
500 deploys per month
20,000 build minutes per month
No commercial use restrictions

The catch is the deployment path. Cloudflare Pages' primary interface assumes you have a GitHub or GitLab repository. The non-Git alternative requires Wrangler — Cloudflare's CLI tool — which means you need Node.js, npm, terminal comfort, and enough familiarity to run:

npm install -g wrangler
wrangler pages deploy ./dist --project-name=my-site

For developers, this isn't a problem. For non-developers who built their site with Claude Code or another AI tool, it's a blocker. Wrangler was built for developers and assumes developer-level context. Source: developers.cloudflare.com/pages.

Paid plan: Workers Paid at $5/month adds higher function limits. Static-only sites rarely need it.

Cybrix free plan

Cybrix is a deployment platform built specifically for people who use Claude Code to build sites. The free tier:

1 project
Unlimited deploys
slug.cbrx.cc subdomain
7-day deployment history
Commercial use allowed

Deployment happens inside Claude Code — you say "deploy this" and the Cybrix skill handles the rest. No Git, no Wrangler, no dashboard interaction after the initial token setup. Source: cybrix.cc/pricing.

Under the hood it runs on Cloudflare Pages — same CDN as Cloudflare's own free tier, with a UX layer that makes it accessible without CLI knowledge.

On Netlify you need to: count credits, watch the monthly limit, remember when the reset date is, and build a mental model of how bandwidth and deploys interact. On Cybrix you need none of that. Deploy as many times as you want. The limit doesn't exist.

The 1-project limit on free tier is the main constraint. If you want multiple projects or a custom domain, Pro is $9/month.

Why "unlimited deploys" matters more than you think

Most people evaluating free hosting think about bandwidth — how much traffic can my site handle? That's the wrong question for anyone who builds with AI tools.

The more relevant number is how many times you can deploy per month. When you're vibe-coding — iterating on copy, adjusting layout, fixing something a client flagged — you deploy constantly. Ten times in a morning is not unusual. Thirty times in a week is normal for an active project.

Netlify's free tier gives you roughly 20 deploys per month before credits run out. At 15 credits per deploy and 300 credits total, you hit the ceiling in two active days. After that, every site on your account goes offline until the month resets. Source: netlify.com/pricing.

This is not a theoretical edge case. It's the default pattern for anyone using Claude Code to build and ship iteratively. Credit-based deploy limits are designed for traditional developer workflows where you deploy once per git push. They don't fit the vibe coding loop.

Vercel Hobby has no deploy limit for static sites — unlimited builds. Cloudflare Pages allows 500 deploys per month. Cybrix has no deploy cap on either tier.

Comparison table

Platform	Price	Projects	Bandwidth cap	Deploys/month	Commercial use	Deploy path
Vercel Hobby	Free	Unlimited	100 GB (then capped)	Unlimited	No	Git / CLI
Netlify free	Free	Unlimited	15 GB via credits	~20 via credits	Yes	Git / CLI / drag-and-drop
Cloudflare Pages	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited	500	Yes	Git / Wrangler CLI
Cybrix free	Free	1	Unlimited	Unlimited	Yes	Claude Code skill

Commercial use: the policy detail nobody reads

Vercel's Hobby plan is free. It is also explicitly for personal, non-commercial use only.

Vercel's Fair Use policy states: "Hobby plan is intended for personal, non-commercial use." Commercial use includes, but is not limited to: sites that generate revenue, sites with affiliate links, client work, sites that sell products or services, and sites that run ads. Source: vercel.com/docs/plans/hobby.

In practice, this means:

A landing page for your paid course — commercial use
A portfolio with a "hire me" contact form that leads to paid work — commercial use
An affiliate review site — commercial use
A Stripe buy button on any page — commercial use

Most people hosting on Vercel Hobby for these cases don't know they're violating the ToS. Vercel doesn't send a warning email — they terminate the project when they notice.

If your site is a personal blog, an open source project page, or a portfolio with no income attached, Vercel Hobby is fine. If there's any revenue connection, you need Pro ($20/seat/month) or a platform that allows commercial use on free tier.

Which free tier fits which situation

Personal portfolio or hobby project with no revenue — any of the four works. Vercel Hobby is a clean option if you're already in the Vercel ecosystem.

Commercial landing page or client site on a budget — Vercel is off the table (ToS). Netlify works if traffic is predictable and modest. Cloudflare Pages works if you're comfortable with Git or Wrangler. Cybrix works if you build with Claude Code.

You get occasional traffic spikes — avoid Netlify free. The credit system and site-wide pause on exhaustion is a real risk if a tweet or post drives unexpected traffic. Cloudflare Pages or Vercel are safer — neither takes your site offline on bandwidth limits.

You built the site with Claude Code — Cybrix free tier requires the least context-switching. You stay in Claude, say "deploy this", get a URL. No separate terminal session, no Git workflow.

You need multiple projects free — Cybrix free tier caps at 1. Netlify, Vercel, and Cloudflare Pages all allow multiple projects on free.

You need a custom domain for free — none of the four offer custom domains on their free tier in any meaningful way. All of them require a paid plan for custom domain support.

What you're actually paying for when you upgrade

The real question isn't "which is cheapest free" — it's "what do I lose at free and what does paid unlock?"

Vercel Pro ($20/seat/month): commercial use, custom domains, team collaboration, higher limits. For developers building serious projects.
Netlify Pro ($20/month): 3,000 credits, more deploys, form submissions, identity. For teams deploying frequently.
Cloudflare Workers Paid ($5/month): needed if you use Cloudflare Functions. Pure static sites rarely need this.
Cybrix Pro ($9/month): 10 projects, custom domain, 90-day rollback history, Telegram deploy alerts. For people actively iterating on multiple sites.

Is this for you?

Cybrix free tier is the right fit if: you build with Claude Code, you have one active project, and you don't need a custom domain yet.

Cybrix is not the right fit if: you need multiple free projects simultaneously (Netlify, Vercel, and Cloudflare Pages all allow unlimited projects on free), you need Git-based PR preview deploys, or you need a backend — Cybrix is static-only. For dynamic sites with API routes or databases, Vercel, Render, or Railway are better options.

Frequently asked questions

Can I host a commercial website for free? Yes, but not on Vercel — their Hobby (free) plan explicitly prohibits commercial use. Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, and Cybrix all allow commercial use on free tiers. Source: vercel.com/docs/plans/hobby.

What happens if I exceed Netlify's free tier limits? All your sites go offline until the next billing cycle when credits reset. Netlify doesn't throttle — it pauses everything. Source: netlify.com/pricing.

Is Cloudflare Pages really free with unlimited bandwidth? Yes. Cloudflare Pages free tier has no bandwidth cap for static sites. The limit is 500 deploys per month. The trade-off is a developer-focused deploy path (Git or Wrangler CLI required).

What is the best free static site hosting for non-developers? Netlify drag-and-drop requires zero technical setup. Cybrix requires a one-time skill install but then lets you deploy by talking to Claude — best fit if you already use Claude Code.

Do I need a credit card for free static site hosting? No — all four platforms (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, Cybrix) have genuinely free tiers with no credit card required.