Static website hosting cost: storage, CDN and requests

Von Rohit Athaide · Veröffentlicht am 4. Nov. 2026

Short answer: a static site is a set of files that need no server code: HTML, images, scripts. It is the cheapest way to publish on the cloud, and the bill has only a few parts. For a small site it can be close to nothing. For a busy one, data sent to visitors is the biggest part.

Key points

• Parts: storage, requests, data out, a CDN, a domain.
• Data out usually decides the bill for a busy site.
• A static web app service can fit inside a free tier.
• Image weight and caching headers matter more than the cloud you choose.
• Estimate page views times page weight.

What are the parts?

1. Storage. Your files sit in object storage. A typical site is a few hundred megabytes at most, so this part is small. See object storage pricing.
2. Requests. Each page and file fetched is a request. Charges are quoted per thousand or ten thousand requests.
3. Data out. Bytes sent to visitors are billed as egress, and this is usually the largest part for a busy site. See data transfer costs.
4. A CDN. A content delivery network caches files near visitors. It adds its own request and transfer charges but lowers the transfer from your storage. See using a CDN.
5. A domain and certificate. The domain name is a yearly fee. Most clouds issue certificates for their own load balancers and CDNs at no charge.

What does a worked example look like?

Made-up round numbers to show the method, not real prices. A site gets 100,000 page views a month. Each page loads 25 files and weighs 1.5 MB in total.

Now halve the page weight by compressing images: data out falls to 75 GB and, below the free allowance, that line becomes 0. Cutting page weight beat any change of cloud. Conversely a page of 6 MB with video would make data out 600 GB and the line 45.00, far more than the rest of the bill combined.

Which two ways are there to host?

Both are equivalent as ways to serve static files. Check the free allowance of the second type, since a small site may stay inside it. See free tiers explained.

What makes it grow?

• Large images and video. Compress images and use modern formats.
• No caching headers, so every visit downloads every file.
• Bots and scrapers. They count as traffic.
• Serving files from a different region than your visitors.

Which mistakes are common?

• Uploading original camera photos.
• Linking to a large video on the home page.
• Disabling the CDN cache for assets that never change.
• Leaving a download folder open to the public.

Decision checklist

• What does one page weigh, and how many files does it load?
• Are images compressed and cached?
• Is there a CDN in front?
• Does a free tier cover the traffic?

Next steps

Estimate it with the storage compare page and the egress compare page. If the site grows into an application, read what does it cost to host a SaaS app.