How to host a personal website

Hosting is the computer that sends your site to visitors. You don't need to run one yourself; you only need to choose which service does it.

Option 1: a page or website builder (hosting included)

If you'd rather not touch files at all, use a builder. You make the site in the browser and press Publish; the builder hosts it for you.

• Good for: a one-page site, a portfolio, a small business page.
• Free version: usually an address on the builder's domain and their branding.
• Watch for: limits on pages, storage or features on free plans, and whether you can take your content with you.

On Liite, a block page on the Free plan lives at liite.co/yourname, doesn't expire and holds up to 15 blocks. A custom domain and badge removal come with Pro. Start from the personal website template if you don't have a site yet.

Option 2: a static host (for your own HTML)

If you wrote your site in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, or built it with a static site generator, a static host serves those files as they are. There's no server code to maintain.

Two widely used free options, with limits from their own docs:

• GitHub Pages hosts a site from a GitHub repository at username.github.io or your own domain. On GitHub Free it works with public repositories. GitHub lists a 1 GB limit for published sites and a soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB a month, and says it isn't meant for running an online business or e-commerce site.
• Cloudflare Pages deploys from a Git repository or an upload. Its Free plan allows up to 20,000 files per site, a 25 MiB maximum per file and 500 builds a month.

Liite can host static files too: upload one HTML file, a zip or a folder with an index.html and it goes live at yourname.liite.site, with a code editor in the browser. On the Free plan uploads are limited to 3 MB, need a card on file to publish and go offline 7 days after your last publish, so it suits quick shares. On Pro, uploads can be 25 MB and stay up. See the developer portfolio page for that route. Our post on putting an HTML file, zip or PDF online walks through the upload step by step.

Option 3: traditional web hosting

Shared or managed hosting gives you space on a server that runs PHP and a database. You need it for self-hosted WordPress and similar software.

• Good for: a blog with many posts, plugins, or a site you want full control over.
• Cost: a monthly or yearly fee, often with a cheaper first year.
• Watch for: renewal prices, backups, and who handles updates and security.

For a personal site with a few pages, this is usually more than you need.

Which one to pick

• You want it online today with no code: a builder.
• You wrote HTML yourself and want it free for the long term: a static host.
• You need WordPress or server code: web hosting.

Steps to go live on any host

1. Make or upload your site.
2. Publish on the free address the host gives you.
3. Open it on a phone and a computer and click every link.
4. If you want your own domain, buy one from a registrar and add the DNS records your host gives you. Our guide to getting a domain for a personal website walks through it.
5. Check how the link looks when you share it, using the checker below.

Moving hosts later

Keep a copy of your content (text, images, any HTML) somewhere you control. With your own domain, moving is a matter of rebuilding the site on the new host and changing the DNS records; the address people know stays the same. Without one, you'll need to tell people the new address, so it's worth getting a domain if you think you'll switch.