Who static website hosting for designers actually serves

Designers who ship HTML—not designers who need a WordPress theme editor—are the audience. If your handoff is a folder with index.html, CSS, JS, fonts, and compressed images, you want a host that publishes those files without inventing a Node pipeline on your behalf. StaticHost is that kind of product: build or export locally, upload the finished tree, open an HTTPS preview, then attach DNS and wait for the certificate. It does not run npm or Hugo for you. It does not offer email mailboxes, a built-in CDN product, or a forever-free plan after a short trial. Plans are Starter $9, Pro $30, Scale $65, and Business $130 per month.

You are a fit when the client cares about typography, spacing, and a reliable padlock—not about editing posts in a PHP admin. You are a poor fit when marketing insists on a live CMS, server-side forms that send mail from the same box, or history-mode SPA routes with no matching files on disk. nginx here is try_files $uri $uri/ =404: missing paths stay missing. There is no silent rewrite to index.html.

The publish path from export to custom domain

  1. Finish the site on your machine (hand-coded, Webflow export, or any generator you run yourself).
  2. Confirm index.html sits at the root of the folder you will zip—not one directory deeper.
  3. Zip the contents of that folder, upload, and open the HTTPS preview hostname.
  4. Fix broken relative paths, missing fonts, and any http:// asset URLs while preview is still the only public surface.
  5. Add the client domain, create the DNS records StaticHost shows you, wait for verification, then wait for the certificate.
  6. Re-check the live domain once; use deploy history if a later zip is worse.

That order—preview TLS first, DNS second, certificate third—avoids launching a half-broken site on a vanity hostname. Related reading: static hosting for beginners, portfolio hosting, and resume sites.

Worked example: restaurant PDF menu plus HTML hours

A neighborhood restaurant wants a one-pager: hero photo, hours table in HTML, and a downloadable menu.pdf. The designer builds three files locally—index.html, styles.css, menu.pdf—plus a compressed hero JPEG. No CMS. No booking widget that needs a server. They zip those files with index.html at the archive root, upload to StaticHost on Starter ($9, 1 site, 2 GB), and open the HTTPS preview.

On preview they notice the PDF link used a desktop path. They fix it to /menu.pdf, redeploy, and only then point eat.example DNS. After verification, the certificate issues. Guests see hours in HTML (searchable, accessible) and open the PDF for the full menu. If the kitchen changes specials, the designer replaces menu.pdf, re-zips, and redeploys in minutes. Rollback exists if the wrong PDF goes up during dinner service.

What they did not do: ask StaticHost to compile anything, install a restaurant plugin, or host [email protected] mail. Forms, if added later, go to a third-party form endpoint. The host remains a file server with honest quotas.

Failure to avoid: skipping a database dump on a WordPress move

Designers sometimes inherit a WordPress brochure and decide to “just upload the theme files” to a static host. Static files are not a database. If you leave WordPress, you either export real HTML (or rebuild) or you stay on a PHP host with a proper migration—including a database dump, URL search-replace after HTTPS exists, and media sync. Uploading wp-content alone to StaticHost produces a dead tree: PHP will not execute, MySQL is absent, and permalinks that depended on rewrite rules will 404 under try_files $uri $uri/ =404.

Spend the hour on a real export or a real WordPress host. Do not treat StaticHost as a halfway house for half a CMS. The same discipline applies in reverse: when you *do* rebuild as static, leave the old database behind on purpose and verify every internal link against files that actually exist.

When to pick a different product

Choose another host if you need WordPress, Magento, or any PHP runtime. Choose a platform with edge functions if your “static” site is really an app with server logic. Choose a mail vendor for @domain inboxes—StaticHost will never be that. Choose a forever-free forge Pages product for class throwaways if $0 forever is the only constraint; StaticHost’s trial is short, then paid.

Stay here when the artifact is a folder of files, you can build or export on your laptop, and you want HTTPS preview before DNS. Pro ($30) adds staging for picky brand reviews; Scale ($65) and Business ($130) raise site and storage caps when you juggle many properties. No plan unlocks remote builds, SPA index fallbacks, email, or a CDN SKU.

File hygiene designers forget until preview

Exports love absolute paths, leftover CMS class soup, and font files referenced but never included. Before zip:

  • Grep for file:// and http://.
  • Open index.html offline and click every nav item.
  • Confirm web fonts are files inside the zip, not hotlinks that block on HTTPS.
  • Name the archive with a date so rollback conversations stay concrete.

StaticHost will serve exactly what you uploaded. That is the feature. Your craft is the tree. When a client asks why staging looks different from their laptop, the answer is almost always path discipline or a nested zip—not a missing CDN. Keep Pro ($30) in mind when brand review needs a non-production URL; keep Starter ($9) when you only need one live property and 2 GB is plenty for code-plus-compressed media.

FAQ

Can StaticHost run my design tool’s build for me?

No. Build or export locally (or in your own CI). Upload finished HTML/CSS/JS and assets only.

Why did an unknown URL show a 404 instead of my homepage?

Because routing is try_files $uri $uri/ =404 with no SPA index.html fallback. Ship real files or hash routes.

Do any plans include email or a CDN?

No. Plans are $9/$30/$65/$130 for sites and storage (plus staging/teams on higher tiers). Mail and CDN products are separate vendors.

Is there a forever-free designer tier?

No. There is a short trial, then paid plans. Use a free host elsewhere if forever $0 is required.