Still working on Orbiter[1] but with some big changes.
Orbiter started as static website and web app hosting, but we recently added what we call server functions (what you call serverless functions). So now you can build full stack apps. Our preferred development stack to support is the new bhvr[2] stack.
I’m working on Orbiter, simple static web hosting that allows anyone to upload a directory of files, use a CLI tool, or use a GitHub action to host their sites and apps in seconds.
My co-worker and I started this as a side project because we were building so many sample apps, proofs of concept, and engineering as marketing apps and we were feeling more and more locked into Vercel every day. So we wanted to go back to client and server separation and when we did that, we realized most hosting providers have moved toward server-side rendering as the default.
Client-side rendering isn’t for everyone, but plenty of people still make simple websites or even complex CSR web apps and don’t want to deal with fully integrated solutions like Vercel (and Netlify now to a lesser extent). Plus they want the flexibility of choosing different tools for their frontend and backend.
This remains a fully bootstrapped side project for us, but it’s gotten the most traction of any side project either of us has worked on.
Working on static website hosting. Thinking about how I can build backend functionality for customers as well while maintaining the openness that the static hosting has offered.
I’ve thought about this a lot before in my personal and professional life. If you combine JSON with a SQLite database, you can get the best of both worlds.
Every site is hosted on IPFS. This creates a built-in version system and prevents vendor lock-out. Because we want this to be as open as possible (like the web should be), anyone can see a mapping of the history of the sites. We wrote more about it here: https://orbiter.host/blog/how-we-use-blockchain-behind-the-s...
My co-founder and I launched Orbiter in January to solve an issue we were having with all the mini sites and apps we were launching for our day job. We had gotten frustrated with complicated deployment pipelines and wanted to return to launching simple static sites and launching them quickly.
So, we built Orbiter. We focused initially on making uploads of your static build folder simple and fast. We then layered in a CLI, an API, and a Github action. So Orbiter can fit into just about any workflow.
From the beginning, we wanted it to be open source, and after about 2 months of work, we have just open sourced the entire stack[1].
I hope you'll give it a try and please drop any feedback here.
I’m building an open source static website hosting platform. The idea was to get back to less complexity. There are so many static sites and apps out there that jump through crazy deployment hoops just for something that should just be a simple file upload.
We had to call our DNS provider who told us there was nothing they could do because it was blocked by the tld owner which was an Italian company. So we called anyone and everyone we could and tried to communicate in broken Italian until they finally agreed to lift the block. It was the worst day we ever had as a company.
Especially for phishing content, the requirement isn’t so much a legal one (though that’s important to watch for) as it is a practical one. People flagging phishing content on your domain can get your domain wiped from the internet. Trust me, we had a terrifying 8 hours at my day job a couple of years ago because of this.
One of the co-creators here! The file size limits are actually old and we need to update them.
Though on the 1GB total storage I have a question: with a maximum of 2 sites on the free plan, what scenarios do you see your sites being larger than 1GB? I’m genuinely curious if we’re overlooking something.
Hey HN, the other day I had the urge to build something retro. I almost built an old Windows file system in the browser, but decided to go with Macintosh because somehow it felt MORE nostalgic to me.
The app is built with only two dependencies: Clerk for authentication (but there's a guest mode specifically for the HN crowd to play around with) and Pinata for file storage and retrieval. I kind of thought I could speed run this in a day, and I was mostly right. I ended up getting the first version done in 2 days. I've polished it up a bit, and now it's ready to play with.
Would love to hear any feedback!
Edit - this is designed for desktop only because the old Macintosh operating systems were not mobile.
We recently added serverless functions for backend support, specifically for the bhvr[1] stack though they work with just about anything.
[0] https://orbiter.host [1] https://bhvr.dev