A lot of "free" instant-publish tools have a catch that only shows up after you've already shared the link. The free tier doesn't keep the site up indefinitely. It keeps it up for a few days.
Birta's free tier doesn't work that way. A published site stays at its address for as long as you want it there, with no countdown attached. You get it there the same way you'd get anything onto Birta: by asking your agent to publish, not by uploading files through a dashboard.
That's not true of every free host, though. Older shared-hosting providers often advertise "no expiration" as a selling point. The pattern shows up in a newer category instead: instant, no-signup publish tools, the kind you'd reach for to share a quick static site or a prototype. Several products in that category expire the free tier on purpose.
How a site gets onto the free tier in the first place
There's no separate signup-then-upload step. You ask the agent you already use, a coding tool like Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex, or a plain chat like ChatGPT, to publish the site, and Birta is where it lands. The free tier is simply where that first publish goes, with the limits below already applied.
Changes work the same way afterward. Tell the agent what to change, it edits the site and publishes again, and there's no dashboard step in between to remember. If you're piecing a page together by hand rather than through an agent end to end, the file-level mechanics are the same ones any static host needs.
One case worth checking before you move anything: a site built in Lovable already has free hosting where it is, so the question is whether the project can leave at all. The Lovable hosting guide answers that one first. The same goes for anything written in Notion, whose free plan publishes an unlimited number of indexable sites already, so the honest comparison there starts by telling most readers to stay put.
What actually happens when you stop paying (or never do)
Birta's free tier has real limits. Up to 50 projects, 25 MB per project, no custom domain, a "made in Birta" badge that stays on, and 10 readable form submissions per project each month. That last number is the one to watch if the site is a coming-soon page collecting a waitlist, because signups pile up while nobody is checking the panel. None of that is hidden. It's the boundary that keeps the free tier sustainable.
Some free tools do better on one of those lines. A free Google Sites page connects a domain you already own at no cost, which Birta's free tier can't, and the comparison concedes that before it claims anything.
Others have no free tier at all. InstaPods starts at $3 a month, though an assistant deploying for someone with no card on file still gets a real pod for 90 minutes before it disappears.
What it doesn't limit is time.
A site you publish on the free tier stays published. If you're on a paid plan and it lapses, the same rule applies: whatever you already published keeps working at its standard address. The plan change blocks new publishing beyond the free tier's limits, but it doesn't take down the site that's already live.
Some competitors expire the free-tier link on purpose
Three tools in the instant-publish category say this outright on their own pricing pages. We checked each one directly, confirmed the wording twice, and checked again live as of 2026-09-03:
| Tool | Free tier | Paid tier |
|---|---|---|
| dplooy | "3-day link expiration" | Plus/Pro: "Links never expire" |
| OneClickLive | "7-day project retention" | Pro: "Projects never expire" |
| static.run | Site stays online only if you log in at least once every 90 days | No stated retention limit |
dplooy and OneClickLive both run the same model. The free tier comes with a fixed countdown, and paying removes it.
static.run works differently. There's no fixed expiry date, but the free site still depends on the owner remembering to log back into the account periodically. That's its own version of a hidden condition, just a quieter one.
Check each tool's own pricing page before deciding anything. These terms are set by the vendor and can change without notice.
A countdown isn't the only way a free link comes with a condition attached. Netlify Drop doesn't expire anything on a schedule it publishes, but a drop made without signing in arrives password-protected until you claim it, so the free link is gated rather than timed. Worth checking which of the two you're agreeing to.
This worry isn't specific to the tools above, either. It's the general case for any quick-share link, whatever built the page. If you want the fuller side-by-side against a tool in the same category as the three above, see how Birta compares to Tiiny Host, HTML Pub or Static.app.
Comments and guest review work on the free tier too
Birta's free tier isn't just "the site stays up." Two collaboration features that would often be a paid add-on elsewhere are included at every tier:
- Comments attach to a specific spot on the page, on a specific version of the site. Feedback like "move this button" points at the actual button instead of a paragraph of description your agent has to decode.
- Reviewers don't need an account. You choose, per project, whether a link is restricted to people you've granted access to or open to "anyone with the link." A guest who opens a link-mode version gets the site plus a comment thread immediately, no sign-up required, just an auto-assigned nickname tied to their browser. They can open threads, reply, and edit or delete their own messages, but they can't resolve a thread, and they can't see the panel, other versions, leads, or stats. That stays with the owner.
Your agent can read and act on what a guest leaves, nickname and all. It just can't write into the thread or mark it resolved, the same as it can't for your own comments.
None of this is gated by plan. Guest access and commenting exist on every tier and don't count against any plan's limits.
Publish something for free and see the address stay live
Connect your agent, publish a first project on the free tier, and share the link. There's no countdown attached to it.