Checklist: Migrating Your Download Site to Free Hosting (2026 Risks & Rewards)

Checklist: Migrating Your Download Site to Free Hosting (2026 Risks & Rewards)

Hook: Free hosting can dramatically cut costs, but it introduces new risks for paid downloads and token leakage. This checklist helps you decide and execute safely.

Weighing risks vs. rewards

Free hosting reduces storage and bandwidth bills but often lacks advanced CDN token features. For many small makers, a hybrid approach — free hosting for low-risk assets and signed origins for paid assets — is ideal. Read a practical playbook here: Migrate to Free Hosting (2026).

Checklist

1. Inventory assets and classify by risk and value.
2. Move non-sensitive previews to free hosting; keep paid assets behind signed manifests.
3. Ensure token and manifest verification remains on your origin for paid assets.
4. Test cache behavior and token propagation in staging.
5. Instrument downloads and set observability contracts to detect regressions.

Free hosting is powerful if you treat it as part of a hybrid delivery strategy.

Final action items

Run a small pilot migrating preview assets first, and measure cost and leak surface areas. Keep paid assets under controlled distribution until you validate the hybrid plan.