Hosting a ZIP as a website means extracting its web files and serving them from a public directory. It does not mean linking visitors to a raw downloadable ZIP. Make sure the archive contains browser-ready HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and fonts.
1. Export the correct folder
Use your framework’s production output—often dist, build, or public—or create a clean folder containing finished website files. Do not upload source files if visitors need compiled output to view the site.
2. Check the ZIP root
When you open the archive, index.html should be immediately visible or inside one obvious top-level website folder. A deeply nested path such as my-project/dist/index.html often causes the homepage to fail. Extract it, select the files inside the real publish folder, and compress them again.
3. Inspect paths and file names
Use lowercase names and reference assets with relative URLs such as assets/site.css and images/logo.svg. Do not use file:// or a desktop path. Production servers commonly treat uppercase and lowercase filenames as different files.
4. Upload and verify
- Upload the archive through the deployment flow.
- Open the assigned URL in a private window.
- Visit a second page directly and test the important action.
- Open DevTools → Network and fix each 404 before sharing the site.
- Keep both the deployed archive and the previous working version.
5. Match the host to the site
Static uploads support browser-delivered files. PHP, Node, Python, databases, and server-side authentication require a host that explicitly supports that runtime. Uploading a ZIP does not turn static hosting into an application server.
Before publishing, remove credentials, private backups, source-control folders, and unpublished client files. Treat every file inside a public site archive as potentially downloadable.