Static Sites on GCS

🚀 Static Sites on GCS: A Simple Hosting Solution

Need a fast, scalable, and budget-friendly way to host your website? Google Cloud Storage (GCS) offers a powerful yet straightforward platform to deploy static websites. Whether you're building a personal portfolio, a product landing page, or documentation, hosting static sites on GCS is an efficient and professional solution.

🔍 What Is a Static Website?

Static websites are made up of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and media files—without any server-side code or database. They’re lightweight, fast to load, and ideal for content that doesn’t need real-time updates. Think of blogs, resumes, documentation, or marketing pages.

🎯 Why Host Static Sites on GCS?

• Global availability: Serve your website from Google’s edge locations around the world.
• Low cost: Pay only for what you store and serve—no hidden fees.
• Scalable: Whether you have 10 or 10 million users, GCS handles the traffic.
• Secure: Supports HTTPS, object versioning, and IAM policies.
• No server management: Just upload your files and go live.

🧰 Prerequisites Before You Start

• A Google Cloud Platform account
• Billing enabled on your project
• gcloud CLI or gsutil installed and authenticated

📦 Step 1: Create a Bucket

Your GCS bucket name should exactly match your custom domain if you're planning to map one. Use the command below to create it:

gsutil mb -p [PROJECT_ID] -c standard -l us gs://your-domain.com/

📤 Step 2: Upload Website Files

Once your site is ready (e.g., HTML, CSS, JS, images), push them to your bucket like this:

gsutil cp -r ./site-folder/* gs://your-domain.com

📄 Step 3: Set Website Configuration

You need to define which file will load first (usually index.html) and what should appear if someone hits a wrong URL (like 404.html):

gsutil web set -m index.html -e 404.html gs://your-domain.com

🔓 Step 4: Make Your Site Public

By default, objects in GCS are private. Run this command to make them publicly readable:

gsutil iam ch allUsers:objectViewer gs://your-domain.com

Now, your site is publicly accessible at:

https://storage.googleapis.com/your-domain.com/index.html

🌐 Optional: Custom Domain Setup

If you own a custom domain, point it to GCS and set up HTTPS:

• Verify your domain in Google Search Console
• Add a CNAME record pointing to c.storage.googleapis.com
• Use Cloud Load Balancing or Firebase Hosting for SSL

🛠️ Example: Simple Deployment in One Go

Here’s how to upload and configure everything in just a few commands:

gsutil mb -p my-project -c standard -l us gs://mywebsite.com
gsutil cp -r ./build/* gs://mywebsite.com
gsutil web set -m index.html -e 404.html gs://mywebsite.com
gsutil iam ch allUsers:objectViewer gs://mywebsite.com

🔐 Security Tips

• Use signed URLs for restricted content
• Enable object versioning to protect against overwrites
• Set bucket-level IAM policies carefully

📈 Use Cases of Static Hosting on GCS

• Product landing pages
• Developer portfolios
• Startup websites
• Technical documentation (with tools like Docusaurus or Hugo)
• Single-page applications built with React or Vue

📌 Final Thoughts

Static sites on GCS offer a powerful blend of speed, simplicity, and scalability. It’s ideal for developers, businesses, and creators looking for low-maintenance hosting without sacrificing performance. With just a few commands, you can go from local development to a globally available website—no server, no DevOps, just results.