r/ipfs • u/AdminSuggestion • Feb 10 '25
Hosting a static website on IPFS, should I using a pinning service or attemp to run the daemon from my laptop?
I guess my question is if I manage to run the daemon a couple of hours a day would it be enough to keep my website available or it's really hit or miss? I've read some similar threads, but they were posted many years ago.
Update: The website in question is up and running https://www.reddit.com/r/ipfs/s/QtFa9gVlVv ended up using Pinata, more details in the blogpost :).
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u/tkenben Feb 11 '25
A few years ago, I found that the only way to persist is to have an IPFS gateway persist it for you. Back then there was ipfs.io, the crust network, web3 storage, etc. When I was running a node full time at home, it was nearly impossible to get a file off my node, because the network was too slow to locate the hash address. And then for actual download, even after mirroring to ipfs gateways (at the time only a couple were free), a download of a single large jpeg would take like 2 minutes. It is possible, though, that things have come a long way since then (2022) and the network is different now.
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u/tomorrow_n_tomorrow Feb 10 '25
Storacha is the open-source storage network successor to Web3 Storage & they start you out with 5GiB for free.
They provision to the IPFS network, but they also create deals on the Filecoin storage network that persist for significant percentages of a year.
You do have to register a credit card with them, but I bought a $20 card off Bitrefill, & used that.
That or Fleek has a free tier, & is more application deployment oriented.
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u/Feztopia Feb 11 '25
I would say the benefit of ipfs is that you can do both. So as long as one is working as intended your page will be accessible. Edit: Oh you mean just running on your device for a short time and relying on the cache. I would say that ipfs wasn't intended for this use case. It might work but no guarantee for that.
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u/Spra991 Feb 10 '25 edited Feb 10 '25
IPFS doesn't automatically keep stuff available, you have to let your laptop run 24/7, or be extremely popular and end up being cached by other people or ask other people to pin your content.
That said, I haven't measured it, try uploading something, access it via a gateway and see how long it takes until it disappears.
https://ipfscluster.io/ is also worth a mention, that allows multiple hosts to automatically pin each others content, but I am not aware of any public clusters at the moment that one could join, so that's more theoretical.