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Discussion on: How to host a static website for free using Google Cloud Platform

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rodiongork profile image
Rodion Gorkovenko • Edited

Hi Friend!

Google Appengine is not only for static websites. It allows creating dynamic sites in PHP/Python/Java. But for static it is probably not the best. And quite complicated. Also, if I remember correctly, nowadays deploys at Appengine require registering with credit card (even if no money are used).

For static content it is much better and easier to use Github (via Github Pages). This is completely free, easy and robust.

I even host static content of my dynamic websites here to decrease load on the server which creates dynamic content. I.e. use github as CDN.

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atooz profile image
Krishnakanth • Edited

Ha ha ..... Gud solution.
But could this be possible with Github pages if I want a contact form in the website forwarding details to mail. For that a backend is needed na ?

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rodiongork profile image
Rodion Gorkovenko

Yes, surely. As I mentioned, in this case optimal solution is to have static page with form in github, but form link should lead to google appengine backend (or heroku, or other free service).

The main idea is that AppEngine won't use caching by itself and if your site is under heavy load (not necessarily many users, but for example you put fat images here) your web site may have poor performance (especially due to vague AppEngine quotas).

For example one of web-sites I built CP-algorithms works this way - text content comes from AppEngine, but all javascript, css and images come from github pages. Both free.

I believe nowadays it is quite general approach to have static stuff separate from dynamic content...

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atooz profile image
Krishnakanth

Ok