Render Static Sites

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Render Static Sites

A curated collection of the 3 best self hosted alternatives to Render Static Sites.

Managed static site hosting on Render that builds from Git and offers continuous deployment, global asset delivery with HTTPS and custom domains for JAMstack sites and documentation. Includes build configuration, automatic deploys, and static asset serving via CDN.

Alternatives List

#1
Static Web Server

Static Web Server

Static Web Server (SWS) is a lightweight, cross-platform Rust web server for serving static files with HTTP/2, TLS, compression, caching headers, and SPA fallbacks.

Static Web Server (SWS) is a small, production-ready web server designed for fast and efficient static file and asset hosting. Built in Rust on asynchronous networking foundations, it targets low resource usage while supporting modern HTTP features across many platforms.

Key Features

  • High-performance asynchronous static file serving
  • HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 support
  • TLS support with optional HTTP to HTTPS redirect
  • Optional on-demand and pre-compressed file serving (gzip, brotli, zstd, deflate)
  • Byte-range requests (partial content) for large files
  • SPA-friendly 404 fallback pages and custom error pages
  • Directory listing (with sorting) and optional JSON output
  • Configurable headers (including Cache-Control and security headers) and CORS support
  • Basic HTTP authentication, URL rewrites/redirects, and virtual hosting
  • Configuration via CLI, environment variables, or a TOML config file

Use Cases

  • Hosting static websites, documentation, and front-end assets
  • Serving single-page applications behind a lightweight web server
  • Running a minimal file server in containers or on resource-constrained hosts

Limitations and Considerations

  • Focused on static content; it is not intended to be a full dynamic application server

SWS is a strong fit when you need a simple, secure, and fast static server with modern protocol support and flexible runtime configuration. Its small footprint and broad platform support make it suitable for everything from local development to production deployments.

2.1kstars
111forks
View Details
#2
DOCAT

DOCAT

Open-source server for hosting multiple static documentation projects with versioning, CLI upload, tagging and built-in search.

DOCAT is a lightweight server for hosting static documentation projects (MkDocs, Sphinx, mdBook, etc.) and multiple versions of those projects. It provides a simple HTTP API and a companion CLI to push, tag and serve documented sites from a single instance.

Key Features

  • Host multiple documentation projects with multiple versions and per-version tagging (e.g., latest).
  • Push documentation archives via an HTTP API or the provided CLI tool (docatl) for CI/CD integration.
  • Built-in static file serving with a web frontend and full-text search for hosted docs.
  • Docker-first distribution (container image) and Dockerfile for easy deployment and updates.
  • Frontend is configurable via a simple JSON config (header/footer HTML) and supports serving static files from a mounted volume.
  • Simple project claiming and token-based control for modification actions; README recommends protecting write endpoints (e.g., HTTP basic auth).
  • Designed to be minimal and easy to operate: focuses on hosting and versioning only, not authoring.

Use Cases

  • Host internal or public product documentation with versioned releases for software teams.
  • Integrate documentation publishing into CI pipelines to automatically deploy new versions of docs.
  • Provide a single, self-hosted docs portal for multiple projects where users can switch between released versions.

Limitations and Considerations

  • By default the server allows unauthenticated uploads and modifications until a project is claimed; administrators should secure the API (README recommends HTTP basic auth for POST/PUT/DELETE).
  • DOCAT is a host for static documentation only — it does not provide authoring, rendering pipelines, or dynamic content generation.
  • There is limited built-in access control and no advanced role-based permissions; for public deployments additional reverse-proxy authentication or network controls are recommended.

DOCAT is a focused, pragmatic tool for teams that need a simple, versioned documentation host with easy CI integration. It emphasizes ease of deployment and minimal configuration while leaving authoring and build workflows to established static documentation tools.

879stars
51forks
View Details
#3
StencilBox

StencilBox

Generate fast static sites and link homepages from YAML using templates. Offers multiple build configs, an admin UI, and static output for ultra-fast pages.

StencilBox is a lightweight static site generator focused on turning structured data into simple, high-performance sites. It renders YAML data through sleek templates and produces static output optimized for fast browser load times.

Key Features

  • YAML-driven data model: content and pages are defined as structured YAML files rather than Markdown
  • Multiple build configs: build and manage multiple independent sites from a single installation
  • Web/admin UI and CLI-friendly workflow for managing builds and templates
  • Ships with reusable templates for homepages, sidebars, status pages and similar patterns
  • Static site generation with optimized assets for extremely fast client-side performance
  • Container and build tooling provided (Dockerfile, Makefile) for easy deployment and automation

Use Cases

  • Personal homepage or startpage of links and resources driven from a single YAML file
  • Team or service status pages and simple dashboards generated from structured data
  • Provide non-technical users a simple YAML-based workflow to create repeatable static pages without complex toolchains

Limitations and Considerations

  • Does not support Markdown content currently; it is designed for data-driven pages rather than long-form blogs
  • Not intended as a full CMS or for large, content-heavy publishing sites; feature set is optimized for simple, static outputs
  • Theming and template customization are available but more limited compared to heavyweight static site ecosystems

StencilBox is suited for users who need very fast, data-driven static pages and simple multi-site workflows. It prioritizes simplicity, predictable builds, and minimal runtime complexity for self-hosted startpages and small static sites.

66stars
0forks
View Details

Why choose an open source alternative?

  • •Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • •No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • •Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • •Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running