A $20/Year Website
Running a website doesn't require a hosting subscription. With a domain purchase and a handful of free services, a fully functional site with a custom domain and professional email address can run for $20 a year or less.
1. The Domain
The domain is almost always the only real expense. Two registrars worth considering:
Namecheap
A straightforward registrar with competitive pricing on common TLDs.
.com domains can be as little as $8 a year, and rarely
exceed $14 on renewal. Includes free WHOIS privacy protection, which
most registrars charge extra for.
Cloudflare Registrar
Sells domains at wholesale cost with no markup, making it one of the cheapest options available for most TLDs. Requires a free Cloudflare account. DNS is managed through Cloudflare's dashboard, which integrates cleanly if you're already using Cloudflare for hosting or Pages.
2. Hosting
GitHub Pages
GitHub hosts static sites for free and supports custom domains. You push your files to a repository and the site goes live. Connecting your own domain takes a few minutes and GitHub walks you through it. HTTPS is included.
Cloudflare Pages
A free alternative with the same basics: connect it to a GitHub or GitLab repo, and it publishes automatically whenever you push changes. Custom domains and HTTPS included. cloudflare.com/pages
Payhip
If selling is the main goal, Payhip can serve as the site itself rather than just a checkout layer. It hosts a storefront for you, supports a custom domain, and requires no separate hosting setup at all.
3. Web Design
Once the site is up, Bootstrap is worth knowing about. It's a free toolkit you add to your HTML that gives you ready-made layouts, buttons, navigation bars, and other components, so you're not writing all your styling from scratch. It handles a lot of the responsive design work too, meaning the site adjusts sensibly on phones without extra effort.
A free Udemy course covers it well and is easy to follow for beginners: Bootstrap 4 From Scratch.
4. Selling Products
Payhip handles sales of digital products: ebooks, PDFs, software, courses, and memberships. The free plan has no monthly fee. Instead, Payhip takes a 5% cut per transaction, which drops if you move to a paid plan. For most people starting out the free tier is fine.
Products can be embedded into an existing site or sold through the Payhip-hosted storefront. Either way, no monthly commitment.
5. Business Email
Zoho Mail offers a Forever Free plan for custom domains, covering up to 5 users with 5GB of storage per user. Setup involves adding a few DNS records to verify domain ownership and route email through Zoho's servers. The result is a professional address at your own domain with no monthly cost.
IMAP, POP, and Active Sync are not included on the free plan, so email is managed through Zoho's web interface or their mobile app.
One thing worth noting: the Forever Free plan is not prominently advertised. On Zoho Mail's pricing page, scroll past the paid plan comparison boxes to find it.
6. What it Costs
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Domain (.com via Namecheap or Cloudflare Registrar) | ~$20/yr |
| Hosting (GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, or Payhip) | Free |
| Digital product sales (Payhip free plan) | 5% per sale |
| Business email (Zoho Mail, 1 user) | Free |
| Total | ~$20/yr |