How to host an HTML file for free and get a link

Step by step

1. 1

   Check your file

   Open the HTML file in your browser by double clicking it. If it looks right there, it will look right online.

2. 2

   Open SiteUp

   Go to siteup.fyi on your computer or phone. You do not need to sign up.

3. 3

   Drop the file

   Drag the file onto the drop area, or press Choose HTML file. For a site with images or CSS, choose Folder or ZIP.

4. 4

   Choose a link and lifetime

   Type a link name such as my-page, or leave it empty for a random one. Pick how long it should stay online.

5. 5

   Publish and share

   Press Publish. A few seconds later you get the link, a QR code and buttons to share it.

What “hosting” actually means

A web page is just a file. Hosting means putting that file on a computer that is always online and can answer when someone opens the link. SiteUp does this for you and adds HTTPS, so browsers show the page as secure.

This works for static pages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, audio, video and fonts. Anything that runs in the browser works. Server code such as PHP, Python or a database does not run on SiteUp.

Prepare your files

If your page is a single file with everything inside it, you can publish it as it is. If it uses separate files, keep them together:

• Name the main page index.html. If you only have one HTML file, SiteUp renames it for you.
• Use relative paths such as img/photo.jpg, not paths from your computer such as C:/Users/....
• Use plain file names: letters, numbers, dashes and dots. Rename files like Fotoğraf (1).JPG to photo-1.jpg.
• Match the case exactly. On the web Photo.jpg and photo.jpg are different files.

Common problems and quick fixes

• Images do not show. The path or the case of the file name does not match. Open the page in your browser, right click the broken image and check its address.
• The page is tiny on phones. The page is missing the viewport tag. When you paste code, SiteUp adds it for you; for uploaded files add <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> inside <head>.
• Fonts look different. Fonts installed on your computer are not on your visitors’ devices. Include the font files in your folder or use system fonts.
• A login form is rejected. For safety, SiteUp does not host pages with password or payment fields.

Keep it online and up to date

Each site stays online for the time you choose: a day, a week, a month or a year. You can renew it from My sites in the same browser. To change the content, press Update files and choose the new files. The link and the QR code stay the same, which matters if you have already printed them.

Your manage link is the key to your site. Copy it somewhere safe so you can manage the site from another device.

When to use something else

For a long running project with many contributors, tools like GitHub Pages or Netlify are a good fit, but they need an account and a little setup. SiteUp is made for the moments when you want a link right now.

Common questions