SelfHosting your Static Websites

Let’s not only create a website, lets serve it so that others can see it!

Because you already have a SSG Generated Web, dont you?

Ready to say goodbye to that costly monthly hosting subscription?

Use SSG themes, because they are: crazy fast, SEO Optimized AND MIT LICENSED ❤️

Pss, and you can also do PPTs with them!

Let’s get started with this chapter of our SelfHosting Journey:

0. Pre-Requisites - Have a Static Site to Host
1. DIY Hosting for Static Sites - We will focus on lightTPD, but there are more options
2. (Optional) - Monitor your site with F/OSS Analytics

Why Static Websites

Like most of the people, I am not a web developer, but we might want to have a WebPage.

Paying $$$ for a domain+wordpress/wix is not an option for most of us, which is the most common process to get started. Blogger is also out of the equation.

But we are lucky, as there are Free and Open Source ways to have our own place in the internet.

We can use Wordpress or Ghost as they are open source projects, those projects need a hackable database

You are not sure how those Themes can look like? Well…have a look to:

• Chirpy Starter
• Blowfish
• Astro Bento Portfolio
• Hugo Theme Gallery
• Lynx
• Astro Starlight

Static WebSites Generators

Today, we are interested in static sites, like the good old internet, just plain files: html, js, css, no database at all - that cover most of our use case.

And if you are wondering - They also look cool (and are crazy efficient) 😉

And we are not going to write every single line of code - for that, we use the SSGs:

• NextJS
• AstroJS
• HUGO
• Jekyll

Think of them as templates, where you can just focus in your content.

You are done already and have the build done? Oh, no you need some server to host it and serve the files whenever someone wants to visit you.

And this time, you want to use a DIY solution to host your static site.

SelfHosting your (Static) Website

Lighttpd (lighty)

Lighttpd is known for its speed and efficiency, making it an excellent choice for serving static content.

It’s easy to configure and suitable for small to medium-sized websites.

• Lighttpd
  • Lighttpd is Licensed MIT
  • And we can use Lighttpd with its Docker Image

Nginx

Nginx is another popular open-source web server known for its performance and scalability. It’s often used for both static and dynamic content and can be highly optimized for various use cases.

Apache HTTP Server (with mod_rewrite):

Apache is one of the most widely used web servers and can be configured to serve static content efficiently.

When serving static content, it can be configured for excellent performance, especially with the mod_rewrite module.

Caddy

Caddy is a modern, open-source web server known for its ease of use and automatic HTTPS support.

It’s particularly suitable for serving static sites and can automatically obtain SSL/TLS certificates for secure connections.

Conclusions

We have seen some SelfHosted and Free Open Source Software alternatives to the 3rd Party Managed solutions that offer free tiers plans (even free domains if you dont have one).

Now, you can use your domain, together with your website and be in total control not only of the content, but on how it is served to your visitors.

Certainly! Here’s a markdown table comparing Subatic with two other open-source services for hosting images:

https://medevel.com/os-photo-collection-self-hosted/

FAQ

Surprise! Your Static Site does not need a database backup – because it simply does not have one ✅.

Make sure to know where to store your SSG code, and host it wherever you want.

How is my Website Performing?

You can have a look how much people like your content with F/OSS Web Analytics:

• Umami – a simple, fast, privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics.
  • Setup Umami Web Analytics ❤️
• Plausible - aGPL v3

Simple, open source, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly web analytics alternative to Google Analytics.

• Matomo

Google Analytics alternative that protects your data and your customers’ privacy

Do I Got Any Broken Links?

If you are having a site for sometime already, it might be good to look that all referenced links are working from time to time.

But, manually…is not an option - Fortunately we can use LinkChecker Project with Python.

You will get a report with what’s link working and what not when it comes to Links in your Site.

#podman run --rm -it ghcr.io/linkchecker/linkchecker:latest --verbose https://fossengineer.com > linkchecker_output.txt

docker run --rm -it -u $(id -u):$(id -g) ghcr.io/linkchecker/linkchecker:latest --verbose https://www.example.com

How to Monitor My Website Status

If you are worried if your website is accesible at any point of time, you can use:

• With UptimeKuma ❤️

A fancy self-hosted monitoring tool

• Or with UpTimeJS
  • MIT Licensed ❤️

Upptime is the open-source uptime monitor and status page, powered entirely by GitHub.

I need email with my domain

If you have a domain already – Next, you need to choose an email hosting provider. There are several options available:

a. Managed email hosting services: These are third-party providers that offer email hosting services, such as Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), Microsoft 365, or Zoho Mail. They provide a user-friendly interface to manage your email accounts and often include additional features like calendar and collaboration tools.

Interesting SMTP example - https://mariushosting.com/synology-set-up-email-notifications-on-solidinvoice/

b. Self-hosted email server: You can set up your own email server using software like Microsoft Exchange, Sendmail, Postfix, or Dovecot. This option requires more technical knowledge and server management skills.

docker run -it -p 2500:2500 -p 8080:8080 -p 8085:8085 --rm marcopas/docker-mailslurper

version: '3.8'  # You can choose a version according to your Docker Compose installation compatibility.

services:
  mailslurper:
    image: marcopas/docker-mailslurper
    ports:
      - "2500:2500"  # Port for SMTP
      - "8080:8080"  # Port for the web interface
      - "8085:8085"  # Port for the API
    stdin_open: true       # Equivalent to -i in Docker CLI (attaches stdin)
    tty: true              # Equivalent to -t in Docker CLI (allocates a pseudo-TTY)
    restart: "no"          # Corresponds to --rm in Docker CLI (don't restart the container automatically)

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sedkodes/mailslurper/main/send-mail-test.py | python

services: #https://github.com/jmlcas/mailserver/blob/main/docker-compose.yaml

  mailserver:
    image: analogic/poste.io
    container_name: mailserver2
    restart: unless-stopped
    #network_mode: "host"
    expose:
      - "25"
      - "7080"
      - "7443"
      - "110"
      - "143"
      - "465"
      - "587"
      - "993"
      - "995"
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/Madrid
      - h=mail.youwawsomedomain.com # Dirección del servidor de mail hosting
      - HTTP_PORT=7080
      - HTTPS_PORT=7443
      - DISABLE_CLAMAV=FALSE  # TRUE 
      - DISABLE_RSPAMD=FALSE  # TRUE 
      - DISABLE_ROUNDCUBE=FALSE  # TRUE
    volumes:
      - ./mail:/data
    networks:
      - nginx_default #this will allow communication between chevereto service and the existing nginx service  
  
networks:
  nginx_default:
    external: true

Let’s break this down: