Free Static Hosting- Fast.io Vs GitHub Page
Tags: webdev, frontend, hosting, guthub
Published: 2020-07-22 11:04:53

![Github Page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7os1nnnvepalueg8ztuk.jpeg)
The decision of which hosting platform to use has indeed kept developers puzzled and hanged. Knowing that your website is at the hands of the hosting providers. There are indeed a lot of Factor to be considered when choosing a platform. Factors such as Bandwidth allocation, Disk Space, Security and Protection, Backup services, live support are important things to be looked out for (to avoid story that touches the heart ;-) ).
In the course of looking for the best hosting platform, you might have come across various hosting platform that offers free hosting plans such as Netlify, 000webhost, Freehostia or maybe heard of 
Fast.io or GitHub page. 
Wondered how you can host your static site for free and probably receive feedback before fully launching it or creating a quality portfolio site with worry about hosting and domain name?
In this post, we will be examining two Platform for deployment of your static website, this could be for your portfolio or some website code you want to make public.

*NB: This Post is for educational purposes only and I’m not in anyway affiliated to the platform I’m about introducing.*

We will be Looking at Fast.io and GitHub Page. Just stay close and get your site up and running.

##Fast.io##
![Fast.io](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/k9oeguba0g4oogxgzql7.jpeg)<br/>

In a nutshell, Fast.io is a simple yet a powerful CDN hosting platform that Includes everything you need to host, deploy scale and publish your static content (such as images, website) right from your cloud storage such as Google Drive, MediaFire, Onedrive, GitHub, Dropbox and Box with Free SSL certificate and your content severed over CDN.
It may Interest you to Know that Fast.io is Product of Fast Technology Inc. which was founded by Derek Labian and Tom Langridge, who also co-founded MediaFire. With the URL extension of .imfast.io.
Changes Made in your cloud storage or branch on your repository as synced automatically without clicking any special button all thanks to the way it was automated.
Fast.io is a simple enterprise file distribution network that supports:
1. Foolproof Analytics collected directly on the CDN.
2. 100GB transfer a month using free tier.
3. Supports File Up to 2GB.
4. Free unlimited DNS.
5. Custom Domains with Automatic and free SSL.
6. Automatic image optimization and code minification. ETC


##GitHub Page##
![Github Page](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7os1nnnvepalueg8ztuk.jpeg)
Aside helping control and monitor our code alongside allow contributors to make input to our Codes, GitHub Offers one unique website to her users. GitHub is an Online Code repository hosting service built on top Git which makes writing, managing, versioning and deploying codes easier. 
GitHub pages is a static site hosting services that takes HTML, CSS and JavaScript File Straight from a repository on GitHub , optionally runs the files through a build process and publishes a website.
GitHub allows you host one site using your {username}.github.io without much stress. With GitHub Pages, you get one site per GitHub account and Organization and unlimited project sites.
GitHub page is the best option when thinking about your portfolio website, it doesn’t hurts when your site shows *{username}.github.io*. Moreover you website codes come to live when you use the project site. We will be focusing on the User Page (similar procedures can be used for organizational site). 
Moving On To The Fun Part: Creating your Statics Website.

**Perquisite**
1. Well, Just Have your Static site Ready (Make sure that your index.html file is at the root folder).

##Fast.io

For this tutorial we will be focusing on using Google drive, other cloud storage follows similar pattern.
1. Visit www.fast.io
       ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/5zad90grlyshdm353u4a.jpg)
2. Click on Sign up and fill up the required details (Email and Password) and Agree to the terms.
      ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/u0vda86x2y6agm4fe7j5.jpg)
3. Give your site a name.
      ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/pj1vgn5denvehz48hmxn.jpg)
4. Select a storage provider 
     ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/cb468efb99ram5dg6j6s.jpg)  
5. Connect to your Drive
      ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/8opzjyy7d3hykq778d7d.jpg)
6. Customize your URL (The only way you can change this is by using custom domain).
      ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/4iwp52q7nq48g5jn6mso.jpg)
7. Open your Google drive and add your files.
       ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/dbd1co7zomeuzl8lcswd.jpg)


##GitHub Page 

1. Create a new Repo named username.github.io(if the first part of the repository doesn’t match with your repository, it wont work.).
       ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/gwvl9ogudnt49l5f0vtl.PNG)
       ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ze4c0cs72v565e5nzwf4.PNG)
2. Clone the Repository. Click the “Set up in desktop” button. Save the project when the GitHub desktop app opens. Or go to the folder where you want to store your project and clone the new 
repo using the syntax
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/6i3ew5fdtzjgum3xuncs.PNG)

```git
~ $ git clone https://github.com/username.giuthub.io
```

Commit & Push your Codes to the repo.
        ![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/wdx7d2byz9ctsu7zhx5a.PNG)

And you are done.


Changing to custom domain aint hard too. See it in my next post. I hope this was worth your time.