# Firebase Hosting alternative with no CLI to install Firebase Hosting is generous: 10 GB of storage free, a custom domain and SSL at no cost. Getting a file onto it means a Google Cloud project, the Firebase CLI and two commands, and the free transfer allowance is a daily figure rather than a monthly one. ## Who should not switch Firebase Hosting is free and its free tier is bigger than ours on the number most people check first. Be clear about that before reading the rest. - You already use Firebase for auth, Firestore or functions. Hosting is the front end of that stack and separating it buys you nothing. - You want a custom domain with SSL at no cost. Firebase includes both on the free Spark plan; here custom domains start on Pro at $15 a month. - You are comfortable in a terminal and deploy from CI. Two commands from a script is a perfectly good workflow and this page is not going to improve on it. ## Why people look for a Firebase Hosting alternative ### You need a Google Cloud project and a CLI before anything is live Firebase's own quickstart is explicit: create a Firebase project first, install the Firebase CLI, then run firebase init hosting and firebase deploy --only hosting. For a designer with a finished folder, that is a Node install and a project console standing between them and a URL. Source: Firebase documentation, Hosting quickstart, read 8 September 2026. Droply: Drag the folder onto the page. Nothing is installed, no project is created, and the first publish takes about as long as the upload does. If what you have is a single file rather than a folder, a lone .html file is a whole site here. ### The free transfer allowance is per day, not per month Spark includes 360 MB of data transfer a day. That is roughly 12 GB spread evenly across a month, and nothing about traffic is spread evenly: one post that does well uses a week of it in an afternoon and the site stops serving for the rest of the day. Source: Firebase pricing page, read 8 September 2026. Droply: The allowance is monthly: 5 GB a month on the free plan, and larger on every tier above it. A busy day borrows from a quiet one instead of hitting a wall at lunchtime. The per-tier figures are on the pricing page. ### Going over means pay-as-you-go with no ceiling Past the free allowances you are on Blaze: $0.026 per GB stored and $0.15 per GB transferred, billed as usage. There is no plan price to cap it at, which is the right model for an application and a nervous one for a static page you forgot about. Source: Firebase pricing page, read 8 September 2026. Droply: A plan has a fixed price and its limits behave as caps. Traffic beyond the allowance is refused rather than billed, so the worst case is a page that stops serving, not a bill you did not expect. ### No password protection and no expiring links Hosting serves your files publicly. There is no built-in password gate and no way to set a link to stop working on a date, so a client preview or a time-limited offer needs application code or a different service. Source: Firebase Hosting documentation, read 8 September 2026: no password gate or link-expiry feature is documented for Hosting. Droply: Password protection starts on Starter and is enforced at the edge before any file is served. Auto-expiring links start on Starter: six hours, a week, or a date you choose. Both work on a document as well as a site, which is what makes a PDF on a link usable for anything confidential. ## Droply and Firebase Hosting, row by row Firebase wins the free-tier rows on storage and on the custom domain. Both are here. - **How you publish.** Droply: Upload a folder, a ZIP or a file in the browser. Firebase Hosting: A Firebase project, the CLI, firebase init hosting, firebase deploy. - **Free storage.** Droply: 25 MB. Firebase Hosting: 10 GB. - **Free data transfer.** Droply: 5 GB a month. Firebase Hosting: 360 MB per day. - **Custom domain on the free tier.** Droply: No. From Pro, $15 a month. Firebase Hosting: Yes, with SSL, at no cost. - **What happens over the limit.** Droply: A cap: the plan stops serving beyond its allowance. Firebase Hosting: Blaze billing: $0.026 per GB stored, $0.15 per GB transferred. - **Single HTML file.** Droply: Yes, drop the .html on its own. Firebase Hosting: Yes, inside the public directory the CLI deploys. - **Single .jsx or .tsx, no build.** Droply: Yes, transformed in the visitor browser. Firebase Hosting: Not offered. - **PDFs and documents.** Droply: First-class files with an in-browser viewer. Firebase Hosting: Servable as static assets, not a product feature. - **Password protection.** Droply: From Starter, checked at the edge. Firebase Hosting: Not documented for Hosting. - **Expiring links.** Droply: From Starter: six hours, a week, or a date. Firebase Hosting: Not documented for Hosting. - **Rollback.** Droply: From Pro, one click. Firebase Hosting: Release history in the console; a previous release can be rolled back. - **Security check on every publish.** Droply: Every plan, including free. Firebase Hosting: Not offered. Firebase figures come from Google's own documentation, read on 8 September 2026: the Firebase pricing page and the Hosting quickstart. Rows marked "not documented" mean the feature does not appear in Firebase Hosting's documentation on that date. Product plans can change. ## How to move a site from Firebase Hosting The folder Firebase deploys is a plain folder on your machine, so this is one of the shortest migrations here. Do not delete the Firebase project until the DNS has moved. 1. **Take the public directory.** Open firebase.json and read the hosting public value, which defaults to public. That directory is exactly what Firebase serves, so it is exactly what to upload here. Nothing needs rebuilding. 2. **Rewrite any rewrite rules.** Firebase rewrites, redirects and headers live in firebase.json and do not travel with the folder. Single-page apps in particular rely on a rewrite to index.html, which is a setting on the site here rather than a file in the folder. 3. **Drop the folder on Droply.** Sign up, then drag the folder, the ZIP or the single HTML file onto the upload area. Nothing is repackaged and no build runs: the files you upload are the files served. 4. **Check what the security pass found.** Every publish is read for things that should not be public: a committed .env, a .git directory, a private key, an API key in a bundle. Old exports carry these more often than fresh builds do, so read it before you send the link anywhere. 5. **Point your domain at it, if you had one.** From Pro at $15 a month you move the DNS record to Droply and the certificate is issued for you. Change the record last, once the Droply URL already renders what you expect, so there is no window where the domain resolves to nothing. ## Pricing compared Firebase is free until it is usage-billed, with no plan in between. That is the real difference, and it cuts both ways: below the free allowance Firebase costs nothing and Droply does not, and above it Firebase has no ceiling while Starter is $5 a month whatever happens. - **Free.** Droply: 1 site, 25 MB, 5,000 visits and 5 GB a month. Firebase Hosting: Spark: 10 GB storage, 360 MB per day of transfer, custom domain and SSL included. - **Beyond the free allowance.** Droply: $5 a month for Starter, a fixed price with fixed limits. Firebase Hosting: Blaze: pay as you go, $0.026 per GB stored and $0.15 per GB transferred. - **Custom domain.** Droply: From Pro, $15 a month. Firebase Hosting: Free, with SSL, on both plans. - **Predictability.** Droply: The bill cannot move. The site stops serving instead. Firebase Hosting: The bill moves with traffic. Budget alerts exist; a hard cap does not. Firebase prices from Google's own Firebase pricing page, read 8 September 2026. Droply prices are read live from the plans table on this page. Product plans can change. ## What you get without paying anything No CLI, no cloud project, and a monthly allowance rather than a daily one. - 1 live site on a 25 MB account, with no card and no trial clock. - Up to 25 MB per upload, and up to 25 publishes a day. - 5,000 visits and 5 GB of traffic a month. - HTTPS with a real certificate, issued and renewed for you. - The same URL on every re-upload, so a link you already sent keeps working. - The deploy-time security check, which reads what you published and warns about a stray .env file, a .git folder, a private key or an API key left in your JavaScript. - A small Droply badge in the corner of the page. Removing it starts on Starter. - Free sites are served noindex, so search engines do not list them. Search visibility starts on Starter. - A monthly bandwidth allowance, so one busy afternoon does not take the site off the internet. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Droply free? Yes. 1 live site, 25 MB of storage, 5,000 visits and 5 GB a month, HTTPS included, no card and no usage billing behind it. ### Is Droply a good Firebase Hosting alternative? It is if you want to publish from a browser, need a password or an expiring link, or want a bill that cannot move. It is not if you want a free custom domain or 10 GB of free storage, both of which Firebase gives you and we do not. ### Do I need the Firebase CLI to deploy? On Firebase, yes: the quickstart says to create a project, install the CLI, then run firebase init hosting and firebase deploy --only hosting. Here you drag a folder onto a page. ### What is the Firebase free transfer limit? Its pricing page lists 360 MB of data transfer per day on the Spark plan, which is a daily cap rather than a monthly pool. Droply's free plan gives 5 GB a month, so a busy day can borrow from a quiet one. ### How do I move my Firebase site? Read the hosting public value in firebase.json, which defaults to public, and upload that directory. Copy any rewrite, redirect or header rules out of firebase.json first, because they do not travel with the folder. ### Can I get a free custom domain? Not here. Custom domains start on Pro at $15 a month. Firebase includes a custom domain and SSL on its free Spark plan, and that is a genuine advantage. ### Can I password-protect a site? Yes, from Starter, checked at the edge before any file is served. Firebase Hosting documents no password gate; protecting a page there means writing application code. ### Can I get an unexpected bill? Not here. Plan limits behave as caps: past the allowance the site stops serving rather than generating charges. Firebase Blaze is pay as you go, with budget alerts but no hard ceiling. ### Does a single-page app work? Yes. The rewrite-everything-to-index.html behaviour that Firebase configures in firebase.json is a setting on the site here, so it survives the move without a config file. ## Other comparisons - [Render alternative](https://droply.host/render-alternative) - [GitHub Pages alternative](https://droply.host/github-pages-alternative) - [Cloudflare Drop alternative](https://droply.host/cloudflare-drop-alternative)