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Free website hosting for students, Flask apps included

Free web hosting for students. Run a Flask app online, or publish an HTML, PHP or Node site at a public HTTPS address, from a free coding classroom.

CS Room includes free website hosting for students. A student builds a site or a Flask app in their workspace and it gets a public HTTPS address that anyone can open. Nobody has to set up a hosting account.

CS Room is a free online coding classroom. Each student has a workspace in the browser with an editor, a Linux terminal and saved files, and teachers get classes, autograding and a gradebook.

Where the site runs

The site runs in the workspace where the student wrote it, so there's no deploy step. When the student starts the server, a notice with its public address appears within a second.

Run a Flask app online, or any web server

Flask, Node and PHP 8 servers all work. So does a plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript site served with python -m http.server.

  • Each site gets an HTTPS address such as https://quiet-sunny-harbor.app.csroom.org. Students can rename it, and each student can have up to twenty.
  • HTML and PHP pages also get a private Preview tab that reloads when files change.
  • Sites that store data can use SQLite. The database file is saved like any other file.
  • A site stays up after the student closes the tab, as long as the server is running.

The class tools are the same as for any assignment: starter code, autograding against your tests, a gradebook, and live editing in any student's workspace.

Publish your class's websites

  1. Request a teacher account. We set teachers up within a day or two.
  2. Create a class, share its class link, and publish a project. Or import the Personal Website lesson, a Flask portfolio built over 7–8 class periods.
  3. Students start their server the way their tutorial says, on localhost or any port, and the address appears.
  4. Students can share the address with anyone.

Ports, frameworks and troubleshooting are in Running a web app.

Before you start

A site is live only while its server runs. If the workspace restarts, for example when a student joins another class, the student has to start the server again. Addresses end in csroom.org. Custom domains aren't supported.

Request a free teacher account to start a class.