- 4steps
- €0no card
- SSLfor your domain too
- PHPthere when you need it
From an index.html on your desktop to a live address
An HTML site is the simplest thing a web server can host: files in a folder, served as they are. Here is the whole path.
- 1
Create the account and order the plan
Email, telephone number and postal address, then the free plan from the Hosting screen. Choose the name for your hosted.hostna.com address. No payment step.
- 2
Wait for the activation email
A person checks the account and switches the plan on, then sends the panel login. Nothing to do in between.
- 3
Upload the files
Open the file manager in the panel, go to httpdocs, delete the placeholder, and upload your folder — index.html at the top level, CSS, scripts and images beside it. Or connect by SFTP with the FTP account and drag the folder over.
- 4
Open the address
Your site is live at https://yourname.hosted.hostna.com with a certificate already in place. Connect your own domain from the panel whenever you are ready; a certificate is issued for it too.
When GitHub Pages is the better answer, and when it is not
Being honest about the alternative is cheaper than a visitor who chose wrong.
If your site is pure HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you keep it in Git, and you never need a server-side language, a static host such as GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages or Netlify is a very good home: deploy on push, a global CDN, generous free traffic. Use it.
Choose a web hosting plan like this one when any of the following is true: the contact form has to send an email from the server; you want a mailbox on the same domain; the site will grow into WordPress or a PHP application; you want a control panel and FTP rather than a build pipeline; or you want the site served from Germany by a company you can write to in German. The free plan does all of that, and the path from it to a paid plan is a click in the same account.
- Any static site generator works: build locally, upload the output folder.
- Directory index is index.html; index.php also works if you add one later.
- Redirects and a custom 404 page work through a .htaccess file in httpdocs.
- Served over HTTP/2 with TLS, from Germany — close to every visitor in Europe.
Questions about Host an HTML Website for Free
Do I need a domain to put an HTML site online?
No. The plan gives you a name of your choosing under hosted.hostna.com with its own certificate. A domain of your own can be connected at any time; it is registered separately because a domain is never free to register.
Can I use a static site generator?
Yes. Build the site on your computer with Hugo, Jekyll, Eleventy, Astro or anything else, and upload the generated folder. There is no build step on the server, which also means nothing on the server can break your build.
How big can the site be?
500 MB in total and 10 GB of traffic a month. A text-and-images site rarely uses more than a few tens of megabytes; keep video on a video platform and embed it.
Is HTTPS included for my own domain?
Yes. Once the domain points at the plan, a Let's Encrypt certificate is issued for it from the panel and renewed automatically.
Can I add a contact form later?
Yes. That is the point of a real web host: add a small PHP script that sends through the plan's mailbox over SMTP, and the site keeps its address.
More about the free plan
- Free HostingThe plan, the limits, the way in.
- Free Hosting Limits, ExplainedEvery number, what it means, and what happens at the edge.
- Free Hosting ComparedStorage, traffic, ads and cards, side by side, with sources.
- Free PHP and MySQL HostingPHP 8.5, one MySQL database, phpMyAdmin, FTP.
- Free WordPress HostingOne-click install and what fits in 500 MB.
- Free Hosting With EmailOne mailbox, IMAP and SMTP, on your own domain.
- Free Hosting for StudentsPortfolio, coursework, first client site — no card, no student ID.
- Free Hosting for Nonprofits and ClubsA club site with its own mailbox, no ads, GDPR-safe.
- Free Hosting in EuropeServer in Germany, GDPR by default, available across the EU.