How Much Does Hosting Cost for a Static Website?

Hosting for a static website can come out free on a free plan, or a few euros a month with a traditional European provider. The larger platforms checked for this article price in US dollars rather than euros, so they sit here described rather than with a specific figure. The real cost depends more on the domain and traffic above the free ceiling than on the hosting itself.

Published 24.09.2026. Checked 24.09.2026.

Why is static hosting cheaper by nature?

Amazon Web Services' own documentation states the reason directly, beyond any single provider: static website hosting is "the lowest cost and lowest maintenance option (for example, there are no servers to maintain) and it provides high levels of reliability and scale." The files are served exactly as they are, often through a content delivery network, instead of through a server that assembles the page on every load. That difference is what keeps the bill low regardless of which provider you pick.

What are the free options?

GitHub Pages hosts static pages directly from a GitHub repository, with no separate fee named on the service page. Per GitHub's own documentation, the limit is structural, not a price: a maximum of one site per personal or organization account. There is also a maximum of one site per repository. The same documentation, however, says GitHub Pages is not intended for or allowed to be used as free web hosting to run an online business, an e-commerce site, or a site mainly for sales. For a company site, check this condition before choosing GitHub Pages.

Cloudflare Pages offers a separate free plan with its own ceilings. Per Cloudflare's technical documentation, the free plan allows up to 20,000 files in a project, up to 500 deployments (builds) a month, and up to 100 custom domains per project. The maximum single file size is 25 MiB. Above those ceilings the service moves to a paid plan.

What does traditional hosting priced in euro offer?

Not every static site runs on a platform like the two above; traditional shared hosting also serves static files well. German provider IONOS publishes its regular monthly prices directly in euro: the "Webhosting Standard" plan at EUR 6 a month, "Webhosting Plus" at EUR 11 a month, "Webhosting Premium" at EUR 16 a month and "Webhosting Ultimate" at EUR 28 a month, each with a one-off setup fee of EUR 10 and VAT included, checked on its page on 24 September 2026. These prices are an example of a real European provider with a public euro price, not an ErgoStrat offer. IONOS's page also lists a lower introductory price for the first months before the plan reverts to the regular monthly price above. This is a common practice among traditional providers, not an exception.

Which platforms are priced in US dollars?

Netlify publishes a free plan and paid tiers above it, but the two paid tiers with a published price sit in US dollars and the enterprise tier is by negotiation, so they stay here without a figure. Per Amazon Web Services' own documentation for hosting a static site through Amplify and Route 53, the monthly cost for a personal site outside the free tier usually comes out low. Within the AWS free tier it drops lower still. The amount is again in US dollars, not euro. A provider comparison by Bitcatcha places typical static hosting costs in a range from nothing up to a modest monthly amount, also in US dollars.

What actually moves the number?

Traffic above the free ceiling: some platforms, Netlify for example, count traffic against the free allowance; on Cloudflare Pages, requests to static files are free and unlimited, and the only ceiling is on the number of deployments.
The domain: per a comparison by wearetenet, registering and renewing a domain is a separate, recurring annual cost outside the hosting itself, and not always in euro depending on the registrar.
File count and deployments: platforms such as Cloudflare Pages count both against the free ceiling; a project with thousands of images reaches it faster than a text-only site.

Questions

Can a static site be entirely free?

Within certain ceilings, yes. GitHub Pages gives you one main site per account and one site per repository. Cloudflare Pages' free plan reaches up to 20,000 files and 500 deployments a month per project. Above those limits the service moves to a paid plan.

Can the domain end up costing more than the hosting itself?

Yes, depending on the plan. Hosting with a traditional provider such as IONOS starts at a few euros a month, while domain registration is a separate annual cost per the wearetenet comparison. On the cheapest or free hosting plans, the domain can be the larger of the two line items in the budget.

Is there a separate charge for an SSL certificate on a static site?

Usually not. GitHub requests and installs a free Let's Encrypt certificate automatically for any site with a custom domain. Cloudflare issues a free, publicly trusted SSL certificate by default to every domain added to the service, including on the free plan. With a traditional host such as IONOS, every plan comes with a free wildcard SSL certificate that covers the main domain and its subdomains. The plans themselves include up to 5,000 subdomains.

Sources

Hosting is a separate, small line item from the build.

A website build with us includes hosting that serves files, chosen in the step-two decision with the exact provider and price fitted to your case, not by default.

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