You have one HTML file. You need it on the internet. This should be the easiest problem in computing, and it almost is, except that a dozen services want to solve it for you in slightly different ways and the differences only bite later.
The one question that sorts everything: is this page for everyone or for someone? Public pages want a host. Pages meant for a specific client, team or reviewer want a sharing tool. Here is the landscape, honestly.
The permanent, public hosts
GitHub Pages
Free, reliable, no expiry, straight from a git repository. If the page is code-adjacent and you already use GitHub, this is the default answer. The costs: initial setup (repo, settings, sometimes a DNS wait), a long default URL, and everything is public unless you pay. Updating means pushing a commit, which is either natural or a chore depending on who you are.
Netlify Drop
The gold standard for zero-setup public hosting. Drag a folder onto the page, get a URL. Claim it with a free account and it stays up. Custom domains work on the free tier. If you want a permanent public page and do not care about passwords or feedback, use this and be happy.
Cloudflare Pages
Similar deal with an exceptionally generous free tier and Cloudflare's network speed. Slightly more developer-flavored setup than Netlify. Both are excellent; the differences at single-page scale are cosmetic.
The quick-share tools
Tiiny Host and similar
Upload, get a link, no git anywhere. The convenience is real. The catch across most of this category is the free-tier clock: links commonly die after 7 days, file size caps are tight, and passwords or custom domains live behind the paywall. Nothing wrong with that model, but know it before your portfolio link goes dark mid-job-application.
commentable (ours)
commentableis built for the "for someone" half of the question, so the free tier is shaped differently. Pages are encrypted in your browser before upload, so we cannot read them. Free links live 30 days with an email reminder before expiry, and there is no cap on how many you create. Your logo and colors on the page, free. Password protection, free. And every page accepts pinned comments from viewers, no accounts needed, because in our experience a page shared with a person is usually a page awaiting their opinion. Permanent links and your own domain are the paid tier.
Fair warning about our bias here, but the comparison table below is straight.
The ones that do not work anymore
Google Drive used to render HTML files as web pages. That ended in 2016, and the workarounds die every year or two. Dropbox similarly serves HTML as a download now. If a tutorial tells you to share HTML through cloud storage, check its date.
Side by side
| Setup | Free link lifespan | Password | Private | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Pages | Repo + push | Forever | No | No | No |
| Netlify Drop | Drag & drop | Forever | Paid | No | No |
| Cloudflare Pages | Git or CLI | Forever | No | No | No |
| Tiiny Host | Drag & drop | ~7 days | Paid | Partial | No |
| commentable | Paste or drop | 30 days (email reminder) | Free | End-to-end encrypted | Yes, no login |
So, concretely
- Portfolio, docs, anything public and lasting: Netlify Drop, or GitHub Pages if you live in git.
- Client work, drafts, internal pages: a sharing tool with encryption and a password. The page being findable is a bug, not a feature.
- Anything you want opinions on: a link with comments built in, so the opinions land on the page instead of in five channels. More on that in the feedback guide.
And whichever you pick, send the link, not the file. Files get downloaded, break offline, and fork into out-of-date copies. Links stay current.