r/web_design • u/Sainticus • 1d ago

age old question- web hosting?

Hello. I have a small charity that has come to the stage of needing a website, we are still waiting for funding so I need free hosting right now but I cannot find anything sufficient.

I've been out of the coding game for over 10 years now but I feel I'm still somewhat capable if needs be. I just don't know any of the new terminology.

What I need a site for is to host a live Web chat like chatango. And a play button that plays the radio station, in my mind this is just a button at the top of the screen but it could also embed a player or redirect to the radios website.

Mezello has been my favourite quick builder to use. It's clean, no crazy advertising but you need a premium subscription to add custom html so I am unable to add the chatango code.

Any advise would be appreciated as its been a few weeks now of me signing up for different sites 😮‍💨

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14

u/ohlawdhecodin 1d ago

If you're able to code everything on your own, you can host a static websit (HTML/CSS/JS) on GitHup pages, for free, forever. You can even link your domain.

Are you US or EU based? I've got multiple VPS machines (located in France and Germany) and I can host a simple website for you, if you need some space. Let me know :)

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u/Sainticus 1d ago

I tried Github. I found it very confusing, watched hours of tutorials, but my brain hurt!

8

u/DevelopmentSudden461 1d ago

GitHub is as simple as it gets, if that was possibly too much to handle. Looks to hire someone briefly. Once it’s up it’s done and dusted

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u/Sainticus 16h ago

Simple? I couldn't even find the button to just to start writing code. I was just opening random pages, I made 6 projects from different parts of github and non were the right thing. You can't even paste code.

I watched loads of tutorials with people saying 'just click this button' I've never seen that button!

Simple is opening g dreamwaver, pressing new, typing code, it even tells you when you have an error.

1

u/HungYurn 15h ago

As the name suggests, you upload code to github via git

3

u/AdeptLilPotato 1d ago

AI is good at helping with problems many people have faced (typically simple problems)

This is one of those, you can get step-by-step hand-held guidance if you use most any of the AI models out there.

Some examples: V0, Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT

Just use the free versions with the later versions for the amount of credits / chats you’re available. If you can’t do it with one model, swap to another. You have no need for buying an advanced version with your problem.

1

u/Sainticus 16h ago

Yeah I might give this a try. I've manged with frappe to get player button and live chat working.

1

u/Bitter-Advisor-2898 19h ago

if you can find a way to push your code into github, it should very easy from there

5

u/deepseaphone 1d ago

It seems like you're still building the site, actively looking for a website builder? If you want free hosting you have to find a website builder that can export code. Frappe has a very simple website builder that can probably handle a small charity site, thats free apart from a domain. And they offer custom code injection, so you would be able to insert a live chat.

Webstudio offers code export for your website, so you could host it anywhere thats free.

There are also local website builders like Publii or Onlook that offer a drag and drop interface for website building. Hosting can be done through a hoster of your choice afterwards.

Like another commenter already mentioned, I would definitely consider Github Pages or Cloudflare Pages, since hosting is completely free. You just have to pay for a domain. If you're not comfortable with their interface, you can use tools like Sevalla that handle the hosting for you (on Cloudflare pages in this case). They have a free plan for small sites.

Live Chat could be handled with external scripts, so you don't need any databases for the main site. Chatwoot has a free Live Chat module (although not sure it fits your usecase) and Frappe has a Helpdesk solution you can selfhost or use through their cloud system.

Depends on what functionality you actually need.

A radio is another thing alltogether, but if the station offers an embed, I would go with that and try to override its style it with CSS (if possible or allowed).

2

u/Mindkidtriol 1d ago

Why don't you approach codedesign website builder easy and supportive

2

u/Chanclet0 1d ago

If it's just front stuff you can just use github

1

u/0x61656c 1d ago

check out https://universalinterfaces.com, you can custom code or use their builder and they have a free plan. the premium plan is 8 bucks a month or something

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/rica214 1d ago

It's Porkbun (same difference really 😅). But I only use them as a domain registrar. We host all our sure through Siteground.

-1

u/Sainticus 1d ago

Why would you pick that name! Maybe it's supposed to be funny 🤷‍♀️