If you want to host a website without having to purchase a hosting plan, then considering to turn your android device into a web server should be a suitable solution for you. However, this should be in the case where you carry out coding and web development on your android device. PC users will be exposed to a wide variety of options.
Android smartphones have gained more users over the past years and developers keep on bringing most PC tools available for android users.
Everyone will want to have a website and considering to host directly from your android device can be a great start to get your website live and online.
Domain names make sense to websites and make it more easier for your web visitors to locate your website from a web browser. You can get a totally free domain name without hosting to accompany your website.
How to turn an Android device into a Web Server? You can use to methods to make this possible. You install an android web server application on your Android device to host your local website or you can use Termux to host your website from your Android device.
If you are interested to know how each method works, continue reading. In this guide, I will show you two effective methods to turn an android device into a web server without having to purchase a hosting plan.
What is a Web Server?
A web server is software and hardware that responds to client requests via the World Wide Web using HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and other protocols. A web server's primary responsibility is to show website content by storing, processing, and delivering webpages to users.
Can I Install a Web Server on Android?
Yes. There are many apps such as Tiny Web Server which is the best web server for Android. You can use the app to host your local website without purchasing a hosting plan.
How to Turn an Android Device Into a Web Server
We will proceed with two methods. The first method will involve the use of Tiny Web Server and the second method will involve the use of Termux and some basic commands to turn an android device into a web server.
How to Turn an Android Device Into a Web Server Using Tiny Web Server
Tiny Web Server is a well-known android local web server and is the best web server application for android.
We will use the app to host a local website. However, we assume you got some HTLM and CSS skills since you want host a website you might have coded from scratch.
Here is step by step guide to turn an android device into a web server using Tiny Web Server.
Step 1: Download and Install Tiny Web Server for Android
Download Tiny Web Server from here and install the app.
For Android, there are a variety of server software apps. Many of these, however, are out of date and only work with previous versions of Android (such as PAW Server).
For the purpose of this tutorial, we'll use Tiny Web Server which is the best web server application for android and support basically all android versions as from v4.0. To demonstrate how to use Android as a web server, we'll upload a simple index.html file and navigate to it from a PC on the same network.
The same concepts are used in similar apps. To serve a web page to a viewing browser, the same principles and processes are necessary.
Step 2: Configure Tiny Web Server
This app allows you to serve content from your smartphone in a very simple way. It does, however, allow you to access files from afar. If both devices are connected to the same network, you can explore the phone's storage from your PC's web browser.
Tiny Web Server has no configuration options and because of that, it is very simple to use. This implies you can't force it to open an index.html file by default. This is, however, a minor annoyance.
Start by creating an index.html file on your Android device. You can use ES File Explorer to create the file. However, if you have your website files, you can skip this step.
Launch Tiny Web Server after it has been installed. You'll have the option to change the server path on the main screen. Change the server path by navigating to the location of your index.html file. If you have a folder that contains your website files, just navigate to the folder and select it. See the images below for directions.
This can be very important and useful if you want to choose a directory to keep your web files in.
Step 3: Add your Index.html to Tiny Web Server
To make Tiny Web Server serve web pages, you must first create an index.html file and save it in the desired location as shown in the step above. This can be done on a desktop with a text editor like Notepad++ or on an Android device using an app such as ES File Explorer.
Copy the file to your Android device's selected directory (through USB or an Android file manager). Move the file to /storage/emulated/0 on Android.
If you're copying the file to your phone through USB, open the file manager and navigate to your phone's storage. The emulated subdirectory should be the default location. Connect your device carefully after copying the HTML file to this location.
Open Tiny Web Server and click Start server after copying the file to Android. Go to the default URL in your browser and add /index.html to the end.
You've successfully turned your Android device into a basic web server! Of course, the example provided is rather basic and lacking in style. Fortunately, CSS can be easily added using the HTML file's standard supplied instructions. Best of all, while hosting the site, you can continue to use your phone or tablet normally.