What’s the Best Hosting Strategy for Freelance Websites?

Consider using GitHub Pages or Cloudflare Pages, both of which have fantastic free options. Cloudflare even includes domain registration that's super affordable!

I usually guide my clients through the process of getting their own domain and hosting. I suggest reliable services to ensure they’re covered. Just a heads up, you might need to explain that hosting isn’t completely free, as clients can often assume it is.

I like to set up a custom email for each client and handle separate hosting and GitHub accounts, paid for through my business credit card. I calculate all these costs into my pricing. When it’s time for handoff, I just add clients as admins on those accounts, so they can switch payment info easily. If they want ongoing work, I can include that in their bill, keeping everything neat and easy for both sides.

From my experience, it's best to set everything up in your client's account from the get-go and then just add yourself as a collaborator. That way, you won't end up becoming their accidental sysadmin, which can make the handoff pretty messy. If you want to keep doing ongoing updates, consider charging them separately for maintenance.

You definitely want a strategy that keeps the hosting under your control and bill clients for it. Relying on a random host the client picked can lead to a lot of headaches. Trust me, avoid that scenario!

If the site only has static pages, Cloudflare Pages is excellent. Their CLI SDK makes deploying straightforward. However, if you need database capabilities, it's better to let the client handle it initially or charge extra for things like maintenance and security.