I am looking to get some hosting for a static website. Sadly, doesn’t seem like privacyguides recommends any web hosting services… It would be nice if it did!
Anyway, these are my requirements:
Cheap. Money is tight right now.
Reputable. I don’t want some random shell-company registrar in Seychelles that is probably a honeypot
Good with privacy (Duh, why else would I be asking here?)
Good whois privacy protection
Preferably can do both Domain and Webhosting (not a must)
Beginner friendly (aka probably offers WordPress)
So far, I have found 1984 and Porkbun. But I am open to any reasonable suggestions. I would especially appreciate experienced members (or privacyguides team members) to chime in, as this is a new thing for me
I am not familiar with your knowledge regarding hosting static websites, but if it’s static in the sense that it’s pure HTML, CSS, and maybe a bit of JS, Codeberg Pages should suffice
They provide subdomains based on your Codeberg username for free, but you can add your own.
Hosting a website there is free as well, see my webpage for which I don’t pay a cent.
Another option for static websites (HTML, CSS, JS, pictures) is neocities.org
It’s completely free (I think 1 GB of storage), and you don’t need to give them any information about yourself (no name, no phone number, no payment info; just an email).
If you pay for premium ($5/month) you can host any file types you like and connect a domain to it. Neocities - Become a Supporter
The cheapest and most secure way to host your static website would be Arweave. In fact, it’s not a host, though. It’s a decentralized infrastructure that you can build upon.
I would also look into actually static pages (you mention Wordpress, but that is a PHP and database-powered CMS) aka Jamstack. Then you can use the already mentioned Codeberg Pages for free or sourcehut pages for cheap.
As for domain, well not registering one in your name in is both cheap and privacy-friendly. You can use the domain that’s coming with your hosting solution. But if you want one, I would probably choose Porkbun for a cheap option that doesn’t suck. (Hint: Namecheap sucks.)
Cloudflare pages meets all your requirements. They’ve got the most secure and reputable services around. Privacy-wise, they’re solid too since you don’t need to run any 3rd party JS from them on your website. If you choose to put your email there, they can protect your email from crawlers and bots. The website itself can be locked down too if you really want to avoid getting crawled.