Building a Static Site with Zero Server Cost: My Indie Hacker Stack

服务器续费贵。太贵了。

I used to pay $50/month for a VPS to host my side projects. Then I discovered static site generation. Now I host a 500-page website for exactly $0/month. Zero. Nada.

Here's my stack, why it works, and how you can replicate it for your own projects.

The Stack

• Framework: Next.js with output: 'export'
• Hosting: Cloudflare Pages (free tier: unlimited bandwidth)
• Build: GitHub → Cloudflare auto-deploy
• Database: None. Everything is JSON/Markdown at build time.
• Total monthly cost: $0

Why Static Export?

Most websites don't need a server. Think about it:

• Blog? Static.
• Documentation? Static.
• Portfolio? Static.
• Landing pages? Static.
• Tool websites? Static (if computation happens in the browser).

Next.js static export generates plain HTML/CSS/JS files. No Node.js server needed. No database connections. No runtime costs.

// next.config.js
module.exports = {
  output: 'export',
};

That's it. Run next build, get a folder of static files. Deploy anywhere.

Why Cloudflare Pages?

Feature	Vercel (Free)	Netlify (Free)	Cloudflare Pages (Free)
Bandwidth	100GB	100GB	Unlimited
Build minutes	6,000	300	500
Functions	✅	✅	✅
Custom domain	✅	✅	✅
Edge network	Global	Global	300+ cities

For a growing site, unlimited bandwidth is the killer feature. Vercel and Netlify will charge you $20+ once you exceed limits. Cloudflare won't.

The Workflow

1. Push code to GitHub
2. Cloudflare detects the push
3. Runs npm run build
4. Deploys out/ directory
5. Live in ~60 seconds

No SSH. No Docker. No server management. Just push and go.

What About Dynamic Features?

"But what about user authentication? Database queries? API calls?"

Ask yourself: do you actually need them?

• Search → Client-side with a JSON index
• Forms → Third-party service (Formspree, Getform)
• Comments → Giscus (GitHub Discussions)
• Analytics → Google Analytics (client-side script)
• Tools → All computation in the browser

I run 100+ web tools — JSON formatter, image compressor, tax calculator — all running 100% client-side. No server required.

Performance Benefits

Static sites are fast. Ridiculously fast.

• No database queries (0ms latency)
• No server-side rendering (instant HTML)
• CDN-cached globally (TTFP < 50ms)
• No cold starts

My Lighthouse scores: Performance 98, Accessibility 100, SEO 100.

When You Need a Server

Fair enough — some apps need a backend:

• Real-time chat
• Payment processing
• Complex database queries
• File uploads > 100MB

For those, use Cloudflare Workers (100k requests/day free) or a separate API service. But 90% of websites don't need any of this.

The Sitemap Problem

Static sites need a sitemap for SEO. But since there's no server, you need to generate it at build time. I wrote a postbuild script that crawls all generated HTML and creates a proper XML sitemap.

My Advice

If you're an indie hacker building a content site, tool site, or documentation site — go static. You'll save hundreds per year, get better performance, and never worry about server maintenance again.

Generate your sitemap automatically with our free Sitemap Generator — perfect for static sites deployed on Cloudflare Pages.