You can use Google Drive as like a hosting server with DriveToWeb. It only hosts the static files but it seems to create a small website and blog.

Prepare the Google Drive

Store the files to test

Create the directory at the root of your Google Drive. This directory name is the URL to access it (for example, www.example.com).

Then, create index.html on the local PC, and upload to the directory.

Publish settings

It is necessary to set the general access option of the share to "Anyone with the link".

Enable to host with Google Drive

Go to https://drv.tw and select "Host on Google Drive". The URL is created when you allow DriveToWeb to access your Google Drive. Then, the web page is displayed using index.html when access to this URL.

DriveToWeb provides an SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt and allows you to connect over HTTPS. However, you cannot use a custom domain because it is a domain-validated certificate.

Configuration for the custom domain

The domain of the web pages on DriveToWeb is randomly generated. You can enter the string, that you would like to use, as "Your site name" with at least 22 characters.

e.g. https://xxx.on.drv.tw/www.example.com/

If you want a different URL, it is necessary to register your own domain with the domain name registrer service and set the DNS record.

Record	value
CNAME	xxx.on.drv.tw

According to the official documentation, you don't need to set the TXT record. And it describes that it takes max 72 hours so as to access your site with your custom domain. In my case, I was able to access my test site after about an hour.

Reference：Using a custom domain name :: DriveToWeb Docs

Connect over HTTPS

The SSL certificate will not be used if you only set the DNS record with your domain. In order to enable HTTPS connection, you need to access via CDN (Content Delivery Network).

CDN caches your web content and speeds up its delivery, so the web page doesn't change immediately when you replace the content.

The documentation recommends Cloudflare, but I used Amazon CloudFront instead. CloudFront offers the free usage tier, so it's usually free for personal use.

Reference: Amazon CloudFront CDN - Plans & Pricing - Try For Free

Issue the SSL Certificate

Issue the SSL certificate of your custom domain using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM). ACM provides the certificate free of charge. In CloudFront, you can only use the certificate that is issued in us-east-1 region (N. Virginia).

When you issue the public certificate, you need to verify your domain ownership in the following ways:

• DNS Verification
• Email Verification

In my case, I verified through the DNS record. Please refer to the official documentation for details.

Reference: Issuing and managing certificates - AWS Certificate Manager

Configuration for Amazon CloudFront

Option	Value
Origin domain	xxx.on.drv.tw
Protocol	HTTPS
Origin path	/www.example.com/

In settings of Custom SSL certificate - optional, enter the certificate you issued and alternate domain names (your custom domain).

Configuration of DNS

When using CDN, it is necessary to set the TXT and CNAME records of www.example.com. TXT is the domain of DriveToWeb and CNAME is the distribution domain name of CloudFront.

Record	Value
TXT	DRVTW=xxx.on.drv.tw
CNAME	yyy.cloudfront.net

Then, you can use the hosting of Google Drive over HTTPS.

Lighthouse score

When I deployed the template of Next.js, it showed the following score by Lighthouse. However, I think it was actually slower than below.

P.S.

It appears that Microsoft Drive can be used as a hosting server. Google Drive ended web hosting around 2015 due to the expansion of functionality of GCP and Firebase.