Surge does one thing beautifully: type a command and your folder is online, with a custom domain and HTTPS on the free plan. There's no dashboard, by design. If you want a Surge.sh alternative that still has a one-command CLI plus a browser editor, forms and analytics, here's the full comparison.
Last updated · Facts checked against Surge's official pricing and documentation. Sources
Surge Pro unlocks "exactly two features": password protection (AUTH) and redirects (ROUTER).
htmlhost: up to 200 rules per site, from the dashboard or a _redirects file.
Surge: "the terminal is the whole product."
Choose Surge if you live in the terminal and want free, fast static publishing with custom domains and revision rollback, and don't need forms or a dashboard. Choose htmlhost if anyone involved prefers a browser, you want forms and analytics built in, or you need password protection and redirects without a $30/month plan: htmlhost includes redirects on every plan and passwords in Pro at $12/month or $120/year.
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 | Surge |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Unlimited projects and domains, custom domains with free certificates, previews, last 100 revisions with rollback, collaborators. |
| 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. | Pro, $30/month: password protection and protected paths (AUTH file) and redirects (ROUTER file). No overages. |
| How you publish | Browser (paste or drop), the htmlhost CLI, or Claude. | Terminal only. The browser is used for login, billing and claim links. |
| Dashboard | Sites, forms inbox, analytics, domains, redirects and settings. | None, by design. |
| Editing | Visual editor, code editor and AI Edit in the browser. | Edit locally and publish again. |
| 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. | None; Surge is static only, so use a form service. |
| Redirects | Every plan, up to 200 rules per site. | Pro only ($30/month), via a ROUTER file. |
| Password protection | Included in Pro ($12/month). | Pro only ($30/month), via an AUTH file; supports passwords or Google sign-in. |
| Custom domains | $5/yr each on Free; unlimited and included on Pro. | Free on every plan, with certificates issued automatically. |
| Version history | Pro: last 100 versions, kept up to 1 year. | Last 100 revisions with instant rollback, on Free. |
| Project limits | 500 MB storage on Free, 10 GB on Pro; files up to 25 MB / 100 MB. | 450 MB and 10,100 files per project, on every plan. |
| Analytics | Built in: 7 days on Free, up to 90 on Pro. | Traffic analytics collected at the edge on every plan, viewed with surge stats commands in the terminal. |
Surge 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.
Surge's documentation is refreshingly clear: "There is no config file, no dashboard and no build step on Surge's side. Everything below is a command." The first run of surge creates your account from an email and password, and every later publish is the same command.
Its free plan is strong: unlimited projects and domains, custom domains with automatically issued certificates, previews, the last 100 revisions with instant rollback, collaborators and scoped tokens for CI.
htmlhost keeps that one-command workflow (npm i -g htmlhost-cli, then htmlhost deploy) but adds a browser path for everyone else: paste or drop to publish, then edit visually, in code or with AI.
Surge Pro costs $30 a month and, in Surge's words, "unlocks exactly two features": password protection and protected paths through an AUTH file (passwords or Google sign-in), and redirects through a ROUTER file. There are no bandwidth bills or overages on any plan.
htmlhost includes redirects on every plan, managed in the dashboard or synced from a _redirects file, and its Pro ($12/month or $120/year, no auto-renewal) includes password protection plus unlimited sites, unlimited custom domains, 5,000 form messages a month, 3,000 AI edits a month and version history.
Surge is static only: it doesn't run server code, functions or databases, and its docs say form handling needs "a home of their own". It does collect traffic analytics for every project, read with surge stats commands in the terminal.
htmlhost includes forms and shows analytics in the browser. Forms deliver to an inbox and email (50 form messages a month on Free), and the Analytics tab shows views and visitors on Free, with pages, sources, countries and devices on Pro.
Yes. Surge's free plan includes unlimited projects and domains, custom domains with free certificates, and the last 100 revisions with rollback. Projects are limited to 450 MB and 10,100 files. Password protection and redirects need Surge Pro at $30 a month.
No. Surge describes the terminal as the whole product; the browser is used only for login, two-factor authentication, billing and claim links. htmlhost offers both a CLI and a full browser dashboard and editor.
Only on Surge Pro ($30/month), through a ROUTER file. htmlhost supports up to 200 redirect rules per site on every plan, including the free one.
Yes. Install the CLI with npm i -g htmlhost-cli and run htmlhost deploy in your project folder. A root _redirects file is sent along and turned into redirect rules.
Every Surge 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.
A powerful Git-and-build platform with Netlify Drop for quick uploads. Free usage is metered in credits, and when they run out every project on the account pauses.
Updated
A popular upload-and-share host for HTML, PDFs and ZIPs, now with AI creation. Plans are counted in active projects, and custom domains and passwords start at Solo.
Updated
Cloudflare's developer platform with unlimited static bandwidth on its free plan. Built for developers in the Cloudflare dashboard, and Cloudflare now steers new projects to Workers.
Updated
Paste code, or drop a file, folder or ZIP. You get a preview first, and nothing is public until you publish.
