---
title: "Host a static website"
description: "Serve a static site's HTML, CSS, and client-side files straight from a public E2E Object Storage bucket."
content_type: "how-to"
product: "object-storage"
platform: "MyAccount"
url: "/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/host-a-static-website/"
topic: ["use-with-other-products"]
relationships: {"requires":["/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/create-a-bucket/","/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/make-a-bucket-public/"]}
---

# Host a static website

A static site (HTML, CSS, images, and client-side scripts, with no server-side code like PHP or
a Node backend) can be served straight out of a bucket, once its objects are reachable over the
internet. A static site on E2E Object Storage is a bucket with Public Access turned on and your
site's files uploaded to it, each reached by its object URL.

## Create the bucket and upload your site

[Create a bucket](/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/create-a-bucket/), then
[upload](/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/upload-and-download-objects/) your site's files to
it, keeping the same folder structure your site expects.

## Make the website reachable

Turning on **Download** opens every file in the bucket to anyone who has its address, so keep
only the site's own files in this bucket.

Open the bucket's **Permissions** tab, click **Public Access Config**, check **Download**, and
click **Save Permission**. Anyone can now retrieve a file by its object URL. Each file is
reachable at
`https://objectstore.e2enetworks.net/<bucket-name>/<file-path>`, or the equivalent Chennai
address from [S3 compatibility](/myaccount/object-storage/concepts/s3-compatibility/) if
that is where your bucket is.

## Check the site in a browser

Open your home page's address in a private browser window: the address from
[Make it reachable](#make-the-website-reachable), with your home page's file name as the file path.
The page loads with its styles and images. A file that fails to load usually has a different
path in the bucket from the one the page asks for; check the folder structure you uploaded.

## (Optional) Add a CDN

A CDN serves your site's files from edge locations around the world, so visitors far from your
bucket's region get them from a location near them. Your account must have CDN turned on first; see
[Request CDN](/myaccount/cdn/how-to/request-cdn/).

1. In the bucket's **Permissions** tab, click **Public Access Config**, check **Listing** as well as
   **Download**, and click **Save Permission**. **Add to CDN** needs both; with **Download** alone,
   you get **Public Access Required**.
2. In the bucket's **Actions** menu, choose **Add to CDN**.
3. **Origin Domain Name** is filled in with your bucket's address and cannot be changed.
4. Leave **Origin path** empty to serve the whole bucket. The bucket's name is already part of
   **Origin Domain Name**, so entering `/<bucket-name>` makes the CDN look for a folder of that name
   inside the bucket, and your files get an HTTP 404 error.
5. **Origin ID** fills in for you; keep it as it is.
6. Click **Create CDN**.

**Create CDN** creates a distribution for your bucket, which serves your files at its own address, its
Distribution URL. A new distribution can take up to 30 minutes to deploy. It shows **InProgress**
while it deploys, then **Deployed**. It also shows **Enabled** or **Disabled**: **Enabled** means
it serves requests. Once the CDN is attached, the bucket gets a **Bucket CDN** tab of its own in its
detail panel. For each step and how to find a file's CDN address, see
[Serve a bucket through the CDN](/myaccount/cdn/how-to/serve-a-bucket-through-the-cdn/).

Once the distribution is created, set **Default Root object** to your home page's file name, such
as index.html, so that your home page loads at the Distribution URL's root address. A new
distribution has none. See
[Change the basic settings](/myaccount/cdn/how-to/change-distribution-settings/#change-the-basic-settings).

**Add to CDN** needs **Listing**, which lets anyone see the names of all the files in the bucket.
To keep the names private once the distribution is created, open the bucket's **Permissions** tab,
click **Public Access Config**, clear **Listing**, keep **Download** checked, and click
**Save Permission**. Your site keeps loading through the CDN. If the CDN served the list before you
closed it, clear the cache for the path `/` with **Flush Cache** on the distribution's **Invalidations** tab; see
[Serve a bucket through the CDN](/myaccount/cdn/how-to/serve-a-bucket-through-the-cdn/#close-the-buckets-file-list).

A bucket's distribution always uses the E2E certificate, so it serves your site at its Distribution
URL, not at a domain name of your own.

## Update your site once the CDN is live

The CDN caches your files, so a new version of a file you upload to the bucket reaches visitors once
the cached copy expires. To serve the new version sooner, clear the cache for the paths you changed:
in MyAccount, under **Network**, click **CDN**, click the distribution on **Manage CDN Services**,
open its **Invalidations** tab, and click **Flush Cache**. See [Clear the
cache](/myaccount/cdn/how-to/clear-the-cache/).

To update the site, upload the changed files over the old ones. For what public access opens up
and how to close it again, see
[Make a bucket public](/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/make-a-bucket-public/).