Platform Limitations
ClassHost is designed to teach and deploy static websites. While static hosting is incredibly powerful, secure, and fast, it has specific constraints that you must understand before building your project.
Unsupported Backend Languages
You cannot host server-side applications on ClassHost. This means the following file types will not run on our servers:
- ❌ PHP (
.php) - e.g., WordPress sites, custom PHP mail scripts. - ❌ Node.js (
server.js) - e.g., Express servers, API routing backends. - ❌ Python (
app.py) - e.g., Flask or Django backends. - ❌ ASP.NET / Java - e.g., Java servlets, C# backend frameworks.
Your project should consist exclusively of client-side assets: HTML files, CSS stylesheets, Javascript scripts, JSON databases, images, and front-end assets.
Solutions for Dynamic Features
If your project requires dynamic features (like user sign-ins, contact forms, or database storage), you can integrate serverless client-side services:
| Feature | Standard Solution | Client-side Integration |
|---|---|---|
| Database | MySQL / PostgreSQL | Supabase Client / Firebase Firestore |
| Authentication | Node.js Sessions | Supabase Auth / Google Sign-In |
| Contact Forms | PHP mail() | Formspree / Web3Forms / Netlify Forms |
| File Storage | AWS S3 / Local Disk | Cloudinary / Supabase Storage |
API & File Size Restrictions
- 10 MB Upload Limit: The browser zip parser and base64 transmission will error if you upload files larger than 10MB.
- GitHub Rate Limits: GitHub REST API limits authentication requests. If you deploy updates multiple times a minute, you may experience temporary rate-limit lockouts.
- Cache Propagation: When updating website files, browsers and CDNs cached old versions. If your updates are not showing up immediately, open an incognito window or clear your browser cache.
Never store secrets in your code. Since all files deployed to GitHub Pages are public, do not include API keys, database passwords, or private encryption credentials in your HTML, CSS, or JS files. Anyone can inspect your source code via their browser's Developer Tools.