ZIP-hosting pricing should be compared as a contract for publishing files, not as a row of attractive starting prices. Two plans can both say “host a static site,” while one counts visitors, another meters bandwidth and requests, and another sells credits shared with builds and server functions.
Compare the unit that can grow
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| How many sites are included? | A low-cost plan for one portfolio may not fit client work. |
| What does traffic mean? | It can mean page views, requests, bandwidth, or an internal credit calculation. |
| What happens at a limit? | The service may pause, bill an overage, require an upgrade, or consume credits. |
| Are domains, HTTPS, history, and collaborators included? | These often change the real total. |
| Can you export and cancel? | You should retain your deployed source and understand when service ends. |
Common models
Fixed feature tiers
You pay a stated fee for a defined allowance. This is easiest to forecast when limits and enforcement are explicit. Check whether annual billing changes only price or also features.
Free plan plus paid upgrade
Useful for learning and small experiments, but read limits on commercial use, sites, builds, custom domains, analytics retention, and team access.
Subscription plus usage
A base plan includes an allowance and bills extra for transfer, requests, compute, storage, or image processing. It is workable only when usage and spending can be monitored.
Credits
A provider may convert production deploys, bandwidth, requests, and other services into a shared credit balance. This makes one invoice but requires modelling every activity.
Make a fair comparison today
- Write your exact needs: sites, upload size, traffic, domains, teammates, and runtime.
- Read official pricing and usage pages on the same day; do not trust an undated comparison.
- Model both a normal month and a campaign month.
- Record overage units, automatic recharge rules, and the action at each limit.
- Test a non-sensitive project before moving a production site.
As examples of primary sources, Vercel publishes plan and usage details, Netlify publishes its credit model and feature table, and Cloudflare documents Pages Functions billing. Check the current source directly before purchase.
Choose the option that makes your normal month predictable, makes an unusually successful month survivable, and supports how you deploy. The headline price is only one variable.