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Websites That Ring

Free hosting guide: Firebase

Put your one-page website online for free with Firebase

Google runs a free hosting service called Firebase Hosting. This guide walks you through putting the website I send you on it, one step at a time. You don’t need to know anything about websites to follow it.

Before you start

I’ll be straight with you: part of this means typing a few commands into a window on your computer. It looks scary the first time, but you only copy and paste what’s on this page. Set aside about an hour for your first go.

Rather not use commands at all? Cloudflare Pages is free too, and you just drag your folder into a web page.

  • A Google account. The one you use for Gmail is fine.
  • Your website folder. The folder I send you. If it arrives as a zip file, unzip it first and put the folder somewhere easy to find, like your Desktop.
  • A Windows PC or a Mac with an internet connection. A phone or tablet won’t do this part.
  • Your domain login, if you have one. Only needed for the last step, if you want the site on your own address like yourbusiness.com.au.

Step by step

Getting your site online

  1. Step 1: Create a free Firebase project

    Go to the Firebase console and sign in with your Google account. Click the button to create a new project and type a name, like your business name.

    Firebase makes a project ID from that name, which becomes part of your free web address. You can click the edit icon to change it now, but not later. If it asks you to accept the Firebase terms, accept them and click Continue. It may also offer AI assistance and Google Analytics: you don’t need either for this, so you can turn them off. Then click Create project.

    New projects start on the free Spark plan, and it doesn’t ask for a card.

  2. Step 2: Install the Firebase tools

    This is the program that sends your website to Google. Firebase offers a few ways to install it. These are the ones it recommends for people who don’t write code, and they don’t need anything else installed first.

    On Windows

    Download the Firebase tools for Windows and double-click the file once it has downloaded. A black window opens. This is where you type the commands in the next steps, so leave it open.

    On a Mac

    Open Terminal: press Command and Space together, type Terminal and press Return. Paste this command in and press Return:

    curl -sL https://firebase.tools | bash

    If it says something about permissions, run this one instead. It asks for your Mac password. Nothing shows on screen while you type it, which is normal; just type it and press Return.

    sudo curl -sL https://firebase.tools | bash

    Not keen on typing commands? Or let me host it for $5/month.

  3. Step 3: Log in to Firebase

    In the same window, type this and press Enter (Return on a Mac):

    firebase login

    First it asks two yes or no questions, about Gemini and about sending usage information. You don’t need either, so type n and press Enter for each. Then your web browser opens. Choose the same Google account you used in step 1 and allow access. When it says you’re logged in, go back to the black window.

    To check it worked, run this. You should see the project you made in step 1.

    firebase projects:list

  4. Step 4: Open your website folder

    The window needs to be looking at your website folder. Type cd followed by a space, then drag your website folder from your Desktop into the window. Its location fills in by itself. Press Enter.

    cd

    The folder you drag in should be the one with a file called index.html directly inside it.

  5. Step 5: Set up hosting in that folder

    Run this command. It asks you a few questions, one at a time.

    firebase init hosting

    Answer them like this. For yes or no questions, type y or n and press Enter. For “Please select an option”, use the arrow keys and press Enter.

    • Are you ready to proceed?Type y (Windows only asks this.)
    • Please select an option:Use an existing project then pick the project from step 1.
    • A Firebase Hosting site is required to deploy. Would you like to create one now?Type y (Only if it asks.) Keep the name it suggests.
    • What do you want to use as your public directory?Type a full stop ( . ) and press Enter This means “this folder”.
    • Configure as a single-page app (rewrite all urls to /index.html)?n (or just press Enter)
    • Set up automatic builds and deploys with GitHub?n (or just press Enter)
    • File index.html already exists. Overwrite?n (or just press Enter) This one matters. Typing y would replace your website with a Firebase sample page. Answer n to 404.html too if it asks.

    When it finishes, it adds a couple of small settings files to your folder. Leave them there; you’ll need them each time you update the site.

    If this step is where you’d rather stop, that’s fine. Or let me host it for $5/month.

  6. Step 6: Put it online

    Run this and wait for it to finish:

    firebase deploy --only hosting

    When it’s done, it shows a Hosting URL. That’s your website, live on the internet.

  7. Step 7: Check your free web address

    Your site now works at two free addresses, using the project ID from step 1:

    • your-project-id.web.app
    • your-project-id.firebaseapp.com

    Open one on your phone and have a look. If you got this far, the hard part is over.

  8. Step 8: Use your own domain (optional)

    In the Firebase console, open your project, go to Hosting and click Add custom domain. Type your domain and click Continue.

    Firebase then shows you some records to add where you bought your domain (the DNS settings at your domain company):

    • First a TXT record to prove the domain is yours. It can take up to 24 hours to be picked up, then click Verify.
    • Then the A records it lists. Remove any old A, AAAA or CNAME records for the same address that point somewhere else, but don’t touch your email (MX) records.

    Firebase sets up the padlock (SSL) certificate for you, for free. It usually takes a few hours and can take up to 24. When the domain shows as Connected, you’re done.

    DNS settings trip a lot of people up. Or let me host it for $5/month.

When I send you changes

Copy the new files into your website folder, replacing the old ones. Then open the window again, go to the folder (step 4) and run the deploy command (step 6). You don’t need to repeat the other steps.

What’s free and what isn’t

Checked against Google’s Firebase pages on 19 October 2026.

Free on the Spark plan

  • No payment method needed.
  • Up to 10 GB of storage for your site’s files.
  • Up to 360 MB a day of data sent to visitors (Google’s quota page puts it at 10 GB a month), which is thousands of visits to a one-page site.
  • Your own domain and the padlock (SSL) certificate.

A one-page site is small, so a local business should sit well inside those limits. If a site ever goes over the data limit on the free plan, Google gives a short grace period, then switches it off until the start of next month.

Not included

  • Your domain name. You still pay for it with whoever you bought it from.
  • Enquiry forms. See below.

A note about your enquiry form

Your page’s quote form works on free hosting too. On its own, it opens your customer’s email app with their enquiry filled in, and they tap Send to email it to you.

If you’d rather customers just tap Send once, add the Enquiry inbox for $5/month. It works with free hosting: every enquiry is emailed to you and kept in your own inbox. See the difference.

Where this comes from

Every step and limit on this page comes from Google’s own Firebase pages, checked on 19 October 2026. Google can change them, so if something looks different, these are the pages to check.

Rather I just handle it?

I’ll host your page on your own domain for $5/month, and set up the DNS with you.

See hosting options