Where to host a single HTML file for free
You can host a single HTML file for free, permanently, on GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Netlify or Vercel. All four serve static pages over HTTPS with a custom domain at no cost. The differences that decide your choice are not price or disk space. They are what each provider's terms permit, whether your file sits in a public repository, and whether you need to control who opens it.
What this comparison does not publish
Free-tier comparisons copy numbers from each other until nobody knows where they came from. When we went to check bandwidth and build quotas, we found 2026 sources contradicting each other about the same service in the same year: some describe a monthly allowance in gigabytes and build minutes, others describe a credit system with a hard ceiling.
You cannot publish both. So this article publishes no bandwidth figure, no build minutes and no monthly quota. What it does publish is what actually changes your decision and does not change every week: what each service is built for, and what the contract allows.
For the numbers, open the provider's own pricing and limits pages on the day you decide. It is the only source worth quoting, and it takes five minutes per service.
The comparison
| Service | Free tier | Account needed | Custom domain on free | Password on free | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Pages | Permanent | Yes | Yes | No | Portfolio, docs, open-source project |
| Cloudflare Pages | Permanent | Yes | Yes | Partial, via Cloudflare Access | Public pages that may spike |
| Netlify | Yes | Yes | Yes | Paid feature | Static sites with automatic builds |
| Vercel | Yes, Hobby plan | Yes | Yes | Paid feature | Personal projects and prototypes |
| Netlify Drop | Yes | No | No | No | A throwaway link in thirty seconds |
| Surge.sh | Yes | Yes | Yes | Paid feature | Publishing from the command line |
| tiiny.host and similar | Limited | Yes | Paid feature | Depends on plan | Single-file upload without Git |
| Google Drive and SharePoint | Does not host | Yes | No | No | Nothing: they store the file, they do not serve the page |
This table describes how each service is designed, not the size of its free allowance. Free tiers change without notice, so confirm on the provider's page before you send a link to anyone.
The two things most comparisons get wrong about GitHub Pages
GitHub Pages is the best free option for anyone already using GitHub, and its documented limits do not constrain a portfolio. Two other things might, and they almost never appear in a comparison.
Commercial use is not permitted. GitHub's documentation states that GitHub Pages "is not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web-hosting service to run your online business, e-commerce site, or any other website that is primarily directed at either facilitating commercial transactions or providing commercial software as a service." The same page adds that GitHub Pages sites "shouldn't be used for sensitive transactions like sending passwords or credit card numbers."
On the free plan, your repository is public. GitHub Pages is available in public repositories with GitHub Free, and in public and private repositories on the paid plans.
Put those together and the freelancer hosting a client proposal on free GitHub Pages is publishing that file to an open repository, for a commercial purpose the terms exclude. It is all written down. It is just never quoted.
Choose GitHub Pages if the page is public anyway, it is yours, and it is not a business operation. For a portfolio, open-source docs or a personal site it is free, permanent, and better than anything paid on this list.
Hosting and sharing are different problems
Every free option above solves hosting: making the file reachable at a URL. None solves sharing: deciding who can see it, knowing who did, and controlling what happens when the link gets forwarded.
That is not a shortcoming. Static hosts were built to serve the same page to everyone as fast as possible, the opposite of restricting access.
If your question is "is the page live?", stop reading comparisons and use GitHub Pages or Cloudflare Pages. If your question is "did the client open the proposal, and when?", no free host answers it, because none was built to.
If the file came out of an AI tool, the full walkthrough is in how to publish AI-generated HTML.
Where I LOVE HTML fits, and where it loses
I LOVE HTML is a Brazilian product for publishing and sharing HTML pages, including the files that Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools generate. You upload a file or a .zip and get a link with a password, an expiry date, a custom address, a record of who opened it and how long they stayed, a QR code that keeps working when you change its destination, and the last 25 versions kept. The free plan covers 5 files; paid plans start at $3 per month for 100 files and $10 for 500.
Where it loses, to be specific: there is no Git integration and no automatic deploy from a repository, so anyone publishing from a commit will prefer GitHub Pages, Netlify or Vercel. And for a high-traffic public page with no need for a password or open-tracking, Cloudflare Pages is the better choice and it is free. If that is your case, use Cloudflare.
What I LOVE HTML does better is the deliverable: the proposal, the report or the dashboard that goes to one specific person, and that you want to update, expire or follow up on after sending.
FAQ
Can you host an HTML file for free permanently?
Yes. GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Netlify and Vercel all offer free tiers with no expiry for static content.
Can I use GitHub Pages for my business site?
GitHub's terms do not permit using it as free hosting to run an online business, e-commerce site or software as a service. Cloudflare Pages carries no such restriction and is also free.
Is my file private on a free host?
On GitHub Pages Free, no: only public repositories are supported. Elsewhere the file is reachable by URL, which is not the same as sitting in an open repository, but still means anyone with the link gets in.
Can I password-protect a page for free?
Not directly on any of these free tiers. Cloudflare Access is the partial exception and requires setup.
Can Google Drive host an HTML file?
No. Google deprecated Drive web hosting on August 31, 2015 and shut it down on August 31, 2016. Drive still stores the file, but serves it as a document to download.
How much bandwidth does each free tier include?
We deliberately do not publish that figure, because 2026 sources contradict each other and more than one provider changed its allowance mid-year. Check the provider's limits page on the day you decide.
GitHub quotations come from GitHub Docs, GitHub Pages limits. This article covers third-party pricing and limits and is reviewed quarterly.