Running my website on $1 monthly
This website costs me almost nothing to run. I take advantage of a few free services. This site is fast and looks okay. Here’s what I use.
1. DNS : Cloudflare
DNS is what enables the translation of website names to IP addresses. I use
Cloudflare to manage the DNS of my domain at ianmuchina.com. I can have
unlimited subdomains.
2. CDN: Cloudflare
Cloudflare have over 200 datacenters worldwide meant for just this purpose.
When using Cloudflare’s Content Delivery Network, someone in Nairobi gets the site assets from a datacenter in Mombasa instead of somewhere further like France or USA.
A content delivery network greatly improves speed.
4. Framework : Jekyll
I use Jekyll to generate the static files of my website. Jekyll has some awesome free themes. However it can take a bit of time to configure for those not familiar with it.
5. Hosting: Netlify + GitHub
Netlify is what builds my site from the configuration files of my site. I use netlify with github. The static content is regenerated anytime I modify the config files
6. Domain Registrar - Cloudflare
One gets a domain from a domain registrar. You can get a free one from Freenom. I have a freenom domain that I dont use at muchina.gq, but I abandoned it in favor of ianmuchina.com. Most .com domains are not that expensive and cost around $12 per year.
7. SSL: Cloudflare
A site with SSL correctly configured has a padlock alongside the domain name. When using the cloudflare CDN, your site automatically gets free SSL
TLDR
Take advantage of Cloudflare & Github Pages and just pay for the domain._