How to publish a multi-page site without a build step
Two or three HTML pages that need to live together under one link. The options range from a full static-site pipeline to dragging files in — here is where each one earns its cost.
Single-file hosting is a solved problem — drop the file, take the link. The moment you have three pages that link to each other, the advice you find suddenly assumes a repository, a static-site generator and a deploy pipeline.
Sometimes that is the right answer. Often it is a lot of machinery for a project brief, a small portfolio, or an internal FAQ that will be read by nine people.
What the full pipeline buys you
Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages and GitHub Pages all serve multi-page static sites well, and if you are already in a Git workflow the cost is close to zero. You get build steps, branch previews, rollbacks and a real deployment history.
The cost is everything you must learn and maintain to get there. For a genuinely small site with no build tooling, you are creating a repository and a deploy configuration whose only job is to move files that were already finished.
The middle option: publish the pages directly
FileShare Pro mini-sites cover the gap. You edit a set of pages as a draft and publish them together; they go live under one link, each page at its own path — yourslug/index.html, yourslug/about.html, and so on. Links between pages work the way they do on your machine because the paths are the ones you chose.
The draft is separate from what is published, so editing is not the same as shipping. You change pages, and nothing visitors see moves until you publish — the same guarantee a deploy gives you, without the pipeline around it.
The limits, plainly
This is a deliberately small feature and it is better to know the edges before you start rather than halfway through:
- ✓Up to 20 pages per site, and 250 KB per page. Comfortable for a brief or a portfolio; not a documentation site.
- ✓Each page is standalone HTML. There are no shared headers, footers or templates — change your nav and you change it on every page.
- ✓Static only. No build step is the point, but it also means no build step is available — though you can publish and update pages from a script via the REST API.
- ✓Not on the free plan. Mini-sites are a Basic capability, which is free for everyone during the beta — see pricing. Pointing your own domain at one is still on the roadmap.
Choosing
- ✓A framework, a build, or more than twenty pages → Netlify, Vercel or Cloudflare Pages. Not a close call.
- ✓Already in a Git repo and happy there → GitHub Pages, covered in our comparison.
- ✓A handful of finished pages that need one link today → a mini-site.
- ✓Genuinely one page → skip all of this and share the single file.
Frequently asked
Twenty, with each page up to 250 KB. That suits a brief, a small portfolio or an internal FAQ. Past that you want a real static-site host with a build step.
No. Each page is standalone HTML, so a change to your navigation has to be made on every page. If you need templating, you need a static-site generator.
Yes. Each page keeps the path you gave it under your site slug, so relative links behave the same as they do locally. A request with no page falls back to index.html.
Yes — that is the point of the draft. Your edits are held separately and visitors keep seeing the last published version until you publish again.
No, mini-sites are a Basic capability. Basic is free for everyone during the beta, so signing up today gets you them at no cost.
Drop the file, copy the link — live in seconds, free plan included.
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