If you're just building static website (HTML/CSS/JavaScript), I highly recommend just using S3:

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/website-hosti...

Quick guide:

- Create a bucket for each website, named after the domain (e.g. "myproject.mysite.com")

- Turn on static website hosting for the bucket (through the AWS Console)

- Go to your DNS provider and create a "CNAME" record pointing "myproject.mysite.com" to "myproject.mysite.com.s3-website-us-west-1.amazonaws.com" (The AWS Console will give you the exact domain to use here)

- For super-easy deployment, use s3cmd's sync utility (http://s3tools.org/s3cmd-sync) to upload all changed files in your project:

    $ s3cmd -v sync ./ s3://myproject.mysite.com/ --acl-public

s3? ... but couldn''t you just host a static site on github for free? whats the difference between the two?

S3 isn't free, but is slightly easier to start with IMO. Besides that, no difference.

You can, but then you need to stay within the limitations of GitHub pages:

- Needs to be versioned with git to be deployed

- Space limitation (I assume, not sure what it is)

- Deploying new content to S3 is a lot faster - github pages has some sort of build process with a substantial delay

Get a VPS and learn how to use either Nginx and some of its configurable options, or Apache's "mass virtual hosting" mode http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/mass.html .

TLDR is "create a separate directory for each site with the directory being called the URL of the site" e.g. /var/htdocs/www.domain1.com has the web pages for http://www.domain1.com/ .

If you're at all familiar with the command line / Linux, then VPS could be an easy way to go if you don't expect a lot of traffic. Nginx is easy to configure for this kind of thing: http://stackoverflow.com/a/11778085/1301376

The minor downside is that you'll be responsible for keeping your server up to date, but with a bit of upfront work you can mostly automate it.

No one can give you an honest answer because we do not know what type of resources all of your ideas will consume.

If you are really interested in learning, pick up a VPS. Running one is as easy as you WANT it to be. Configuring and managing your VPS optimally is dependent on your projects and your goals. It can get complex pretty fast, especially when you don't know what you are doing. After studying about them in my spare time I have learned how severely insecure most people allow themselves to be. Fair warning to you!

Leverage Apache with vhosts if you're dealing with dynamic websites, and if the sites are all static it might be even easier to host in a bunch of S3 buckets.

Gandi simplehosting is hard to beat if you're hosting a lot of static pages from different domains. $30/year if you've already got domains registered with them. I've used it for a couple of things, and for the cost/realiability/simplicity when using gandi domains (which are granted a bit expensive) Ive been very happy with it.

I would definitely recommend getting a VPS, learning how to manage one from the command line will be a fun learning experience in and of itself—and will make you a stronger developer in the process. I would recommend Linode. They have an excellent knowledgebase with guides and tutorials to help you get started.

You'd have to register each domain. For hosting, you could try to find a free plan, like Heroku, and point the domain there. Or you could buy a VPS or dedicated server. I had a Windows dedicated server once for projects like this, but it was just too expensive to keep.

Could they all reside on subdomains or are you saying you don't want to pay $5 a month for hosting for each?

You can buy a large number of domains but don't want to spend $5/month for them?

Some domains are free. Why limit yourself to second-level domains?