How I spend 0$ on Website Hosting

So, you’re thinking about setting up a webpage for your music, recording studio, or blog, huh?

You’re probably wondering: What’s the best bang for my buck? Well, after trying out a bunch of different options, I can share what’s been working for me with my studio and music.

First things first, let’s cover the basics. You’ll need a few essentials: a domain name, a program to design your webpage, (unless you’ve got plans to hire someone), and you’re going to need hosting as well. I’ve been running my own website for years now, so I’ve faced all the challenges and learned a few tricks along the way.

Right now, I’m in the middle of giving my music website a facelift. I started out using Wix, but the biggest downside was their branding on my site unless I paid up. Plus, there’s no way around using a custom domain name without shelling out. I did find a workaround for the domain name issue using a little trick with domain forwarding through GoDaddy, though. It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done without breaking the bank.

So, you copy the domain that Wix gives you, then go into the settings page of your domain hosting, mine being GoDaddy, but you’re looking for a setting called domain forwarding with masking, and you forward the domain you purchased to the Wix domain. That way, it lets you use your.com rather than the Wix domain without paying for it.

As for web design tools, Wix was great when I was just starting out, but I’ve outgrown it over the years. Now, I’m diving into more advanced stuff like Webflow and Figma. But let me tell you, it’s not for the faint of heart, especially if you’re not already familiar with web design.

For my music and studio webpages, I’ve been using this domain redirect trick with Wix for the past five years. It’s a bit of a hack, but it keeps costs down. And with Wix handling the hosting, it’s a pretty cheap setup overall. You’ll just need to budget for the domain name, which usually runs between 10 to 20 bucks a year, depending on where you buy it from.

Switching gears to my recording studio website, I used to use Wix, but now I’m all about Canva. It’s got a ton of options for setting up a website, and you can use the same domain redirect trick with it too.

Now, you could technically host your site yourself, but unless you’ve got loads of time and tech skills to spare, I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s just easier to go with one of these other options.

So, to sum it up: you’ll need three main things to get your website up and running: a domain name, web design software, and hosting. But with a bit of creativity and know-how, you can keep costs down and still get a great-looking website off the ground.

The only really free way (assuming you’ve got a domain) is to use netlify.app — literally no costs at all, and it’s user friendly. The only down-side is that you’ve gotta know how to use github very intricately and more importantly, you’vegotta know how to code.