Netlify is one of the best platforms for Git-based builds, serverless functions and team workflows. If you want a simpler Netlify or Netlify Drop alternative for finished HTML that stays online, is editable in the browser and has predictable pricing, htmlhost is built for that job. Here is how they really differ.
Last updated · Facts checked against Netlify's official pricing and documentation. Sources
On Netlify Free each production deploy costs 15 credits and each GB of bandwidth 20, so heavy months can use the allowance up.
Netlify: "if one project exceeds its limits, all projects on your account will be paused" until the next cycle.
Netlify has no in-browser page editor; every change is a new deploy.
Choose Netlify if you deploy from Git, need framework builds, functions or deploy previews, or want unlimited form submissions and a free custom domain. Choose htmlhost if you want to paste or drop HTML, fix it later by clicking on the page or asking AI, and never have a site paused because a monthly credit allowance ran out. Pro is a $12/month or $120/year pass with no auto-renewal: unlimited sites, 10 GB, unlimited custom domains, password protection, 5,000 form messages a month and 3,000 AI edits a month.
The steps a typical person follows on each platform, from a finished HTML file to a live page.
Highlighted cells mark the stronger option for publishing and editing HTML sites. Ties are left plain.
| Feature | htmlhost | Netlify |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Free: 3 sites, 500 MB of storage, 50 form messages a month, 10 AI edits a day, sites that never expire by default. | 300 credits a month with a hard limit: deploys, bandwidth, requests and compute all draw from it. |
| When free usage runs out | No credit meter or published bandwidth quota. Sites stay online. | Every project on the account pauses until the next billing cycle or an upgrade. |
| Paid plan | Pro is a $12/month or $120/year pass with no auto-renewal: unlimited sites, 10 GB, unlimited custom domains, password protection, 5,000 form messages a month and 3,000 AI edits a month. | Personal from $9/month (1,000 credits; Netlify is testing prices). Pro $20/month for unlimited members and 3,000 credits. |
| Publish without Git | Paste HTML, or drop files, a folder or ZIP; update the same site any time. | Netlify Drop takes a folder or ZIP. Unclaimed drops expire after an hour. |
| Edit after publishing | Visual editor, code editor and AI Edit in the browser. | No page editor. Change files locally, then deploy again. |
| Git, builds and previews | No Git integration or build step; deploy files from the browser, CLI or Claude. | Git-connected builds for most frameworks, deploy previews and branch deploys. |
| Serverless and edge functions | Not offered. htmlhost serves static files. | Functions, edge functions, blobs and more. |
| Forms | Forms deliver to a dashboard inbox and email with a built-in spam trap: 50 form messages a month on Free, 5,000 form messages a month on Pro with file attachments, Google Sheets and webhooks. | Free and unlimited on credit plans, with Akismet spam filtering. Needs form detection turned on and a redeploy. |
| Custom domain | $5/yr each on Free; unlimited and included on Pro. | Included on Free, with SSL. |
| Password protection | Included in Pro ($12/month). | Pro and above ($20/month). |
| Analytics | Views and visitors for 7 days on Free; pages, sources, countries and devices for up to 90 days on Pro. | About 1 day of web analytics on Free; 30 days on Pro. |
| Version history | Pro: last 100 versions, kept up to 1 year, one-click restore. | Every deploy is kept and can be republished. |
| Redirects | Up to 200 rules per site on every plan; a Netlify-style _redirects file deploys with the CLI. | _redirects file or netlify.toml. |
| AI assistants | Official Claude connector, MCP server and CLI. Claude can publish and edit your sites. | CLI and API; AI inference is billed in credits. |
Netlify details as published on its official pages, checked ; plans change, so check the linked sources before you buy. htmlhost figures are read from the plan limits and pricing the app enforces.
Since September 2025 new Netlify accounts are on credit-based plans. The Free plan includes 300 credits a month with a hard limit. A production deploy costs 15 credits, a GB of bandwidth 20 credits, 10,000 web requests 2 credits and compute 10 credits per GB-hour. Deploy previews and failed deploys aren't metered.
That arithmetic is fine for a quiet site, but it couples two unrelated things: how often you update and how many people visit. Twenty production deploys alone would use the month's credits; so would about 15 GB of traffic with no deploys at all. Netlify's documentation is explicit about the consequence: when one project exceeds its limits, all projects on the account are paused until the next billing cycle.
htmlhost doesn't meter publishes or traffic in credits. The free plan's limits are the number of sites (3), storage (500 MB), AI edits and form messages, none of which take a site offline when you update it often.
Netlify Drop is genuinely quick: drag a folder onto app.netlify.com/drop and it's online. Without an account the files are published as-is, and the site lasts an hour unless you sign up and claim it. Netlify recommends its CLI for folders over 50 MB.
The difference shows up afterwards. A Drop site is a deploy of files you hold on your computer, so the next change means editing locally and dropping the folder again. On htmlhost the published site is also the editable project: open it in the editor, click a heading to retype it, swap an image, or ask AI Edit for a new section, then press Publish.
htmlhost also accepts HTML pasted straight from ChatGPT, Claude or another AI tool, with no file to save first.
Netlify Forms is a good product. On credit plans submissions are free and unlimited, filtered by Akismet, with optional honeypot and reCAPTCHA. You enable form detection for the project, add a netlify attribute to the form and redeploy. Email notifications go to addresses connected to team members.
htmlhost forms are capped per plan (50 form messages a month on Free, 5,000 form messages a month on Pro) but need no detection step: drag in a form, ask AI to add one, or point your own form at htmlhost. Pro adds file attachments (3 files per message, 10 MB each), up to 10 email recipients, Google Sheets and signed webhooks.
Netlify's Personal plan is listed from $9 a month for 1,000 credits; at the time of checking Netlify was testing several prices on that plan. Pro is $20 a month with unlimited members and 3,000 credits, and higher credit tiers cost more. Password protection starts on Pro.
htmlhost Pro is $12/month or $120/year, bought as a pass rather than a subscription, so it never renews by surprise. It includes unlimited sites and custom domains, password protection, 5 collaborators per site and version history. If a Pro pass ends, sites stay online at their htmlhost.co addresses.
Yes, if you want the published site to stay editable. Both take a folder or ZIP in the browser. htmlhost also takes pasted HTML, keeps the site as an editable project with a visual, code and AI editor, and doesn't expire unclaimed uploads after an hour, because you sign in when you publish.
Netlify Free has a hard limit of 300 credits a month. According to Netlify's documentation, when a project exceeds its limits it is paused until the next billing cycle, and all projects on the account are paused. Upgrading re-enables them.
Not on credit-based plans: Netlify documents form submissions as free and unlimited, with spam filtering. Accounts on legacy plans still have per-site submission limits. You need to enable form detection and redeploy before submissions are accepted.
Yes. Download your deploy's files (or use your project's built output folder) and drop the folder or ZIP onto htmlhost. If you have a _redirects file, the htmlhost CLI sends it with a folder deploy and turns it into redirect rules. Point your domain at htmlhost from Settings, included on Pro or $5/yr each on Free.
No. htmlhost serves static files and browser-side JavaScript, plus its own built-in forms. If your site needs server code, Netlify (or another developer platform) is the better fit.
Every Netlify claim on this page comes from these official pages. Last updated . Spotted something that has changed? Email hey@htmlhost.co and we'll correct it.
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