Netlify Drop is the quickest way to put a folder of HTML online: drag it to app.netlify.com/drop and get a URL. The catch is what comes after. A drop made without signing in has to be claimed, and the free plan now runs on credits. Netlify facts below come from Netlify's docs, pricing page and official blog, read on 2 November 2026.
What happens to a Netlify Drop site?
- Without signing in, a drop has to be claimed. Netlify's blog says the claim window went from 24 hours to 1 hour in January 2022, and that since 2025 unclaimed drag-and-drop sites are suspended and deleted a week later. The quickstart says an unclaimed drop is protected with a temporary password until you claim it.
- After you claim it, you can drag a new folder onto the project's deploy area and keep the same URL.
- The free plan is 300 credits a month as a hard limit: a production deploy costs 15 credits and bandwidth 20 credits per GB. When an account runs out, its projects are paused.
- Password protection is not available on the credit-based Free and Personal plans; it starts on Pro.
- Forms work with Netlify Forms, free and unlimited on the credit plans, with form detection on and an attribute on the form.
Netlify Drop alternatives, ranked
Hostus is first because it is the option we recommend when the page is something you send, and the link has to keep working. The rest follow with the case where each is the right pick.
1. Hostus. A host for pages your AI made, built around the people who open them. Drop the HTML file on hostus.io (a page with images, video and fonts goes up as a folder or a zip from the dashboard), type your email and click the magic link within 30 minutes; after that the page lives at https://your-page.hostus.page for as long as you keep it, private until you switch it to Public or Email-gated. Upload a new version and the link stays the same, with the last 20 versions kept. Any form with named fields stores its responses with no setup and emails you each one. Keep the page Private, Email-gated (the reader types an email before it opens) or Public, and see how many people opened it and which sections they read, with the reader's email when it is gated. Free: 20 pages, 2 MB in total (HTML and media together), 100 form responses a month. Paid: $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year.
2. Stay on Netlify. Pick it if the page is turning into a site with a build, a Git repository and your own domain: claim the drop and keep going.
3. GitHub Pages. Pick it for a public site with your own domain, for free, if you are comfortable with Git.
4. Tiiny Host. Pick it for a quick public link from a dashboard; its free plan is 1 site up to 3 MB. See Tiiny Host alternatives.
How do the options compare?
| Option | Account needed | Same link after an update | Private or gated on free | Forms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostus | An email, magic link | Yes, with version history | Yes: Private or Email-gated | Yes, any form with named fields |
| Netlify Drop | To keep it: claim within the window | Yes, after claiming | Private (owner only); no password on Free | Netlify Forms, with detection |
| GitHub Pages | GitHub account | Yes, push again | No | No |
| Tiiny Host | Account | Re-upload | Paid tiers | Check their plans |
Good to know before you switch
Hostus hosts single HTML pages, optionally with a folder of images, video and fonts, not framework builds or multi-page sites. There is no custom domain (pages live at a hostus.page subdomain), every page carries a small Hostus badge, and pages are noindex, so people reach them from your links, not from Google. A single file is capped at 1 MB on the homepage drop and 4.5 MB in the app. Free is 20 pages and 2 MB in total.