🚀 How to Get Free Hosting and Domain with Netlify (Step-by-Step Guide)

What You’ll Need

• Basic website files:

  • index.html (your main webpage)

  • style.css (your CSS styles)

  • scripts.js (your JavaScript)

• A Netlify account (free signup)

• A ZIP file of your website folder (optional for drag & drop method)

---

Step 1: Prepare Your Website Files

Make sure your files are named exactly like this:

File Type	Recommended Filename	Purpose
HTML	index.html	Main entry point for your site
CSS	style.css	Styling for your website
JavaScript	scripts.js	JavaScript for interactivity

Example basic files:

index.html

style.css

scripts.js

---

Step 2: Create a Free Netlify Account

1. Go to https://www.netlify.com.

2. Click Sign up and create a free account using email, GitHub, or other options.

---

Step 3: Deploy Your Website to Netlify

You have two easy ways to deploy:

Option A: Drag & Drop Your Website Folder

1. Once logged in, click Sites from the top menu.

2. Click the New site from Git button if you want Git integration, or scroll down and click Deploy manually → Deploy site by drag & drop.

3. Create a folder on your computer and place your index.html, style.css, and scripts.js files inside.

4. Zip the folder or just select all the files and drag them into the Netlify drop area.

5. Netlify will upload and deploy your site automatically.

Option B: Deploy Using GitHub (Optional, for advanced users)

• Push your website files to a GitHub repository.

• In Netlify, click New site from Git and connect your GitHub account.

• Select your repo and deploy automatically.

---

Step 4: Get Your Free Netlify Subdomain

• After deployment, Netlify will give you a random URL like:
  adorable-cat-12345.netlify.app

• You can rename it to something easier:

  1. Go to your site dashboard on Netlify.

  2. Click Domain settings → Change site name.

  3. Enter your preferred subdomain name (if available).

---

Step 5: Visit Your Live Website

Open your Netlify subdomain URL in any browser to see your live website!

Your website is now live with:

• Free HTTPS (SSL)

• Global CDN for fast loading

• Unlimited bandwidth on the free tier

---

Bonus: How to Update Your Site

• For drag & drop sites, simply drag and drop the updated files again on the site dashboard.

• For Git-based deployment, push your changes to GitHub; Netlify will rebuild automatically.

---

Summary

Step	What to do
Prepare files	Create index.html, style.css, scripts.js
Sign up on Netlify	Free account at https://www.netlify.com
Deploy website	Drag & drop files or use Git integration
Get subdomain	Rename for easy URL
View live site	Visit yourname.netlify.app

---

Conclusion

Netlify makes it extremely simple to host your static website for free, with an easy-to-use interface, fast global delivery, and secure HTTPS by default.

Start today by creating your HTML/CSS/JS files named index.html, style.css, and scripts.js, then upload to Netlify. Your site will be live in minutes!