Cheap static hosting for a portfolio without fairy tales

A portfolio should not require an enterprise contract. StaticHost Starter at $9/mo hosts one site with 2 GB—enough for compressed case studies. Pro $30 adds sites and staging; Scale $65 and Business $130 raise ceilings further. There is no forever-free tier after a short trial. Build locally, upload files, HTTPS preview first, DNS second, certificate after verification. No remote npm/Hugo. No email. No built-in CDN product. nginx: try_files $uri $uri/ =404 without SPA index fallback.

Cheap means picking the lowest plan that fits—usually Starter—and refusing upsell myths.

What free portfolio hosts cost you

Free hosts work for many students. They cost lock-in to forge URLs, less commercial staging, and the risk of treating free hostnames as permanent brand assets. When you freelance, clients may prefer you on a paid host with a custom domain and clear vendor relationship. $9 is often less than one hour of your rate.

Related guides: best free HTML hosting, static hosting cost, and static hosting for freelancers.

Publish path on a budget

  1. Export or code the portfolio locally.
  2. Optimize images aggressively—2 GB is plenty if you are sane.
  3. Zip contents with index.html at root.
  4. Deploy; review HTTPS preview on mobile.
  5. Attach yourname.com; DNS; verification; certificate.
  6. Stay on Starter until you truly need another site or staging.

Worked example: a local plumber brochure site (portfolio piece)

A freelancer builds a plumber brochure as both a client deliverable and a case study. The live client site sits on the freelancer’s Pro plan ($30) beside their own portfolio. Staging holds plumber copy for approval; production receives the signed-off zip. DNS for the plumber’s domain waits until preview is clean; certificate follows verification.

The freelancer’s portfolio links to the case study write-up (static HTML) without embedding WordPress. Forms on the plumber site use an external endpoint. Nobody expected forever-free client hosting. Nobody uploaded a nested zip. When the case study is published on the portfolio, images are compressed derivatives—not the client’s full resolution dump—keeping Starter/Pro storage healthy.

Failure to avoid: changing WordPress URLs before HTTPS exists

Freelancers migrating a client from WordPress to a static portfolio-era brochure sometimes rewrite URLs to HTTPS in the old CMS before the new domain terminates TLS on StaticHost. Chaos follows: mixed warnings, incomplete replacements, editors confused about which host is canonical.

Sequence: finish the static build; prove it on HTTPS preview; point DNS; wait for verification and certificate; only then treat https://client.com as canonical. If WordPress is still live during transition, do not force HTTPS siteurl changes until TLS works there too. StaticHost will not run the PHP site—exported HTML only.

Cheap does not mean incomplete TLS

TLS on preview and on custom domains after verification is part of the hosting workflow. “Cheap SSL” marketing elsewhere often confuses free certificates with free hosting. Here hosting is paid ($9+); certificates accompany the product after DNS verifies. You still pay the registrar for the domain name itself.

When to spend $30 instead of $9

Buy Pro when you need staging for client approval or a second site for the client while keeping your portfolio. Do not buy Scale to “make the portfolio faster” via a nonexistent CDN SKU. Do not buy Business for email—email is never included.

Portfolio routing that stays cheap to maintain

Use real HTML paths for case studies. Avoid history-mode SPAs that need rewrites StaticHost will not provide. Hash filters are fine. Multipage templates are fine. Each choice keeps you on cheap plans instead of shopping platforms for fallback features you should not need.

FAQ

Can students get forever-free portfolios here?

No forever-free tier. Use a free host for forever $0; use StaticHost when paid predictability helps.

Are plans really $9/$30/$65/$130?

Yes—those monthly figures are the product ladder.

Does cheap hosting include a mailbox for inquiries?

No. Use a mail vendor; forms via third parties.

Why did my React portfolio deep links 404?

No SPA index.html fallback. Pre-render or hash-route.