Where the two differ on getting a link at all, on what each free plan holds, and on what it costs to reach an API.
Figures last verified 5 September 2026
Static.app is the cheaper product and this page does not argue otherwise. What it will not do is give you a link before you have an account. NudgeHost takes 25MB and 3 links from a signed-out browser, and its API and MCP server answer on the free plan rather than on a paid one.
needed first, up to 25MB and 3 links
on a signed-out link, and signing up later keeps the address
live at once on the free plan, at 25MB a file
is required before anything is published
on the free plan, with 50MB of storage behind it
of the paid features, and then the free plan
Their entry plan costs less than ours and holds a larger file. Both figures are theirs, published.
for Pro at 250MB a file, and $29/mo for 1GB
for Starter, or $5/mo billed annually at $60 a year, and it takes a 1GB file on any paid plan
| Theme | NudgeHost | Static.app | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publishing without an account | Yes, up to 25MB and 3 links | No, an account is required | NudgeHost |
| What the free plan holds | 10 links at 25MB a file | 1 website on 50MB of storage | NudgeHost |
| Per-file ceiling on free | 25MB | 50MB | Static.app |
| Entry paid price | $12/mo, or $10/mo billed annually | $6/mo, or $60 a year | Static.app |
| Reaching a 1GB file | Studio, at $29/mo | Starter, at $6/mo | Static.app |
| API access | Free plan, 2 API keys at 20 requests a minute | Starter and above, from $6/mo | NudgeHost |
| MCP server | Every plan, including free | Starter and above | NudgeHost |
| Link expiry | Every plan, the free one included | On their short links, paid plans only | NudgeHost |
| Team seats | One person per account | 1 seat on Medium, 3 on Large | Static.app |
| If you want | Choose |
|---|---|
| A link before you make an account | NudgeHost |
| The cheapest way to start paying | Static.app |
| An API you can call on the free plan | NudgeHost |
| A 1GB file without reaching the top plan | Static.app |
| Link expiry at no cost | NudgeHost |
| More than one person on the account | Static.app |
| Ten separate links rather than one website | NudgeHost |
| To publish an AI-generated page in one call | NudgeHost |
| Feature | NudgeHost | Static.app |
|---|---|---|
| What you need before you start | A file and a browser. Nothing asks who you are before the link exists | An account, which is required before anything is published |
| Upload without an account | Yes, up to 25MB and 3 links, each running for 7 days and claimable later | No, an account comes first |
| What you publish | A file at its own slug, or a ZIP that unpacks and serves as a site on its own subdomain | A website, on their free subdomain or a custom one |
| Free subdomain and SSL | Yes, on every plan including free | Yes, on every plan including free |
| A desktop app | None. Everything runs in the browser or over the API | A Mac desktop app, included from the free plan |
WinnerNudgeHost
The account is the whole of this section. A NudgeHost link exists before anyone has typed an email address, up to 25MB and 3 of them at once, and signing up afterwards keeps every address exactly as it was. Static.app asks first.
That matters most in the case the whole category exists for, which is somebody needing a file in front of somebody else in the next two minutes. The Mac app on their side is a genuine convenience and it sits on the other end of that trade.
| Feature | NudgeHost | Static.app |
|---|---|---|
| What the free plan carries | 10 active links, each with its own address | 1 website, with 50MB of storage behind it |
| Per-file ceiling | 25MB a file, which covers an ordinary slide deck or a scanned contract | 50MB a file |
| Publishing before signing up | Yes, up to 25MB and 3 links | No, an account is required |
| API access on the free plan | Yes, 2 API keys at 20 requests a minute | Starter and above |
| A trial of the paid features | None. The free plan is the plan rather than a trial of another one | 7 days of the paid features on a new free account |
WinnerNudgeHost
Their file is larger and this table says so. What decides the section is how much of the product a free account reaches. 10 active links against one website, an API against no API, and a link before an account against an account first.
A 50MB ceiling on one website is the better shape for a single large site. 10 separate addresses is the better shape for a week of documents going to different people, and on the free plan that is what you get.
What each plan carries, before the comparison starts on price.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | A file | Live links | API access | Domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 25MB | 10 active links | 2 API keys at 20 requests a minute | 0 custom domains | |
| Pro | $12/mo | $120/yr | 250MB | 10 API keys at 60 requests a minute | 1 custom domain | |
| Studio | $29/mo | $290/yr | 1GB | 30 API keys at 150 requests a minute | 5 custom domains |
Static.app ladders on storage and website count. Free is 1 website on 50MB, with a free subdomain, SSL, QR codes, a Mac app and a seven-day trial of the paid features. Starter at $6 a month, or $5 a month billed annually at $60 a year, is 2 websites on 500MB and the tier everything else arrives on, including custom domains, unlimited traffic, analytics, workspaces, forms, integrations, short links, and the API and MCP server. Medium at $10 a month or $120 a year is 7 websites on 3GB with 1 team seat. Large at $15 a month or $180 a year is 30 websites on 10GB with 3 team seats and 3 backup slots. Above that the ladder is add-ons, at $4 a website, $5 a gigabyte and $5 a teammate.
| Feature | NudgeHost | Static.app |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | Pro at $12/mo, or $10/mo billed annually | Starter at $6/mo, or $5/mo billed annually at $60 a year |
| A year up front | $120 for Pro, $290 for Studio | $60 for Starter, $120 for Medium, $180 for Large, with two months free on any of them |
| File size on the entry paid plan | 250MB on Pro | 1GB on Starter, and on every paid plan above it |
| Custom domains | 1 custom domain on Pro, 5 custom domains on Studio | Included from Starter, their first paid plan |
| What the API costs | Nothing. It is on the free plan at 2 API keys at 20 requests a minute | Starter, at $6/mo or $60 a year |
WinnerStatic.app
On price they are ahead and it is not close. $12 a month against $6, $120 a year against $60, and a 1GB file on their cheapest paid plan where the same file needs Studio here at $29 a month.
The one row on our side is the one that never appears on an invoice. API access costs nothing here and starts at $6 a month there, so a script written against NudgeHost runs before any money changes hands. That is worth weighing against four rows of price, and it does not win the section.
| Feature | NudgeHost | Static.app |
|---|---|---|
| Link expiry | Every plan, the free one included | On their stc.ac short links, which are on paid plans only |
| Short links | Every link is already short, at nudgehost.com and a slug, and an API or MCP call can ask for a particular one | On paid plans, at stc.ac, counting clicks and taking an expiry date, pointing only at content hosted with them |
| Counting who opened it | View counts on every plan, including free | Analytics on the paid plans, and short-link click counts on the paid plans |
| QR codes | Every link carries one from the free plan upward | Included from the free plan |
WinnerNudgeHost
Expiry is the row that decides this. A link that stops working on a date is what makes a document safe to send outside your organisation, and it works here on the free plan. On Static.app it arrives with the short links, which are a paid feature and point only at content hosted with them.
View counts follow the same line. Both products count, and only one of them counts before you pay. You can also replace the file in your dashboard on any plan, which keeps a corrected file behind the address people already have.
| Feature | NudgeHost | Static.app |
|---|---|---|
| API access | Free plan and up, at 2 API keys at 20 requests a minute | Starter and above, from $6/mo |
| MCP server | Every plan including free, at https://www.nudgehost.com/api/mcp with four tools | Listed on Starter and above |
| Keys and rate limits by plan | 2 API keys at 20 requests a minute on free, 10 API keys at 60 requests a minute on Pro, 30 API keys at 150 requests a minute on Studio | Included with the plans that carry the API |
| More than one person on the account | One person per account. There is nobody to invite and no seat to buy | Workspaces, with 1 team seat on Medium and 3 on Large, and extra seats at $5 each |
WinnerNudgeHost
The difference is the plan each one starts on. A NudgeHost key is issued on the free plan at 2 API keys at 20 requests a minute, so a script or an AI client can publish before anybody has paid for anything. Static.app puts both its API and its MCP server on Starter.
Seats go the other way and the row says so. A NudgeHost account is one person, with the files, the keys and the billing hanging off a single user, where Static.app sells workspaces and team seats from its middle plan up.
The v1 REST API is open on the free plan, at 2 keys and 20 requests a minute, so this runs before any money changes hands.
curl -X POST https://www.nudgehost.com/api/v1/uploads \
-H "Authorization: Bearer nh_sk_REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_OWN_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"filename": "report.pdf",
"contentType": "application/pdf",
"fileSize": 182734
}'That answers with the slug, the address the file will have, and a URL to PUT the bytes to. A second call to /api/v1/uploads/{id}/complete finishes it and returns the address the file is actually reachable at. The MCP server answers at https://www.nudgehost.com/api/mcp with four tools, share_text, create_upload_url, complete_upload and list_links, so an AI client can do the same job inside one conversation. Both request and response shapes are set out in the API documentation.
The sequence a reader can run before deciding anything. Nothing in it asks for an email address, and the ceiling is 25MB, the same size the free plan takes.
Drop the file in
Signed out, on the home page. A browser check runs before the upload starts and asks you for nothing. Anything over 25MB is refused at that point rather than part way through.
Take the address
The link comes back as nudgehost.com and the slug, live as soon as the bytes land. A ZIP that unpacks into a site gets its own subdomain instead, and that is the only case where the address takes a different shape.
Send it
You can hold 3 of these at once without an account, and each one runs for 7 days. A PDF, an image, a CSV or a JSON file carries nothing extra on the page. A converted Word file, a single HTML page and a page served out of an unpacked ZIP each carry a small attribution line at the foot.
Sign up when you want to keep it
A free account takes over the files behind your browser, clears the deadline and leaves every address alone. The free plan holds 10 active links, filled newest first, and anything past that stays anonymous and keeps its expiry until a slot opens.
The attribution line is the one thing an account removes from a page that already carries one. Everything else about the link, the address included, is the same before and after you sign up.
Moving across is a file operation. Get the site onto your own machine, whether that is a folder of HTML, a build directory or a single page, and nothing about the destination needs configuring first.
Then drop it in. A single page goes up as it is, and a folder goes up as an archive that unpacks and serves at its own subdomain, with client-side routing working the way it did locally. The free plan takes 25MB a file and holds 10 active links, so a small site can move before you decide anything.
The part that needs planning is the address. A NudgeHost link gets its own slug, and a subdomain you have already circulated will not follow you. Put the new page on your own domain and point the old one at it. Custom domains sit on the Pro plan.
Static.app is the cheaper product and the better fit for a growing set of websites. $6 a month against $12, and a 1GB file on that plan against 250MB on ours, are their figures and this page prints them in full.
NudgeHost is the pick when the link matters more than the hosting. It exists before you have an account, up to 25MB and 3 links, the free plan holds 10 active links rather than one website, and the API and MCP server answer on it rather than on a $6 tier.
For the rest of the category, see the NudgeHost and Tiiny.host comparison, how NudgeHost compares to Linkyhost and NudgeHost vs GitHub Pages.
Static.app. Starter is $6 a month, or $60 a year billed annually, against $12 a month or $120 a year for NudgeHost Pro. Their annual billing gives two months free. The pricing section on this page goes to them for that reason.
On NudgeHost, yes, up to 25MB and 3 links, each running for 7 days and claimable later by signing up. Static.app requires an account before anything is published.
NudgeHost gives you 10 active links at 25MB a file, with expiry, QR codes, view counts and API keys. Static.app gives you 1 website with 50MB of storage, a free subdomain, SSL, QR codes, a Mac app and a seven-day trial of the paid features.
Static.app, on the plans that cost money. They take 50MB free and 1GB on every paid tier. NudgeHost takes 25MB free, 250MB on Pro and 1GB on Studio, so matching their 1GB means the top plan here.
On NudgeHost, yes. Every plan reaches the v1 REST API and the MCP server, with 2 API keys at 20 requests a minute on free, rising to 30 API keys at 150 requests a minute on Studio. Static.app lists its API and MCP server on Starter, its first paid tier.
NudgeHost does, on every plan including free, and it counts views on every plan too. Static.app puts expiry on its stc.ac short links, which are a paid feature and point only at content hosted with them.
On Static.app, yes, with workspaces and team seats from Medium upward and extra seats at $5 each. A NudgeHost account is one person, with the files, the API keys and the billing all hanging off a single user, so there is nobody to invite.
Static.app, on price alone. A 1GB file on a $6 plan and storage sold by the gigabyte is the right shape for one site that keeps growing. NudgeHost is built around handing separate files to separate people, which is a different job.
NudgeHost. There is an MCP server on every plan including free, so a model can create the upload, complete it and hand back a working address inside one conversation, and a paste-HTML flow for markup that never touches disk. Static.app publishes an MCP server on Starter and above.
The free plan is genuinely free. Try it before you decide.
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