TL;DR: Everything is free. It’s a model, not a scam.
Silex is a professional site builder, with no subscriptions and no limitations.
From integration to hosting, a free and open SaaS is possible.
Developed by freelancers and web agencies.
You can use Silex online on our server or host it on your server, forever free.
100% Free, hosted by Silex Labs
Hosted in a carbon-neutral data center by the non-profit organization Silex Labs.
100% Open Source, self-hosting available
Install Silex on your own hardware, virtual machine, or cloud server.
Professional services around Silex
Since day one, Silex has been built for professional no-code developers and designers, completely free.
Silex is a public project hosted on v3.silex.me, licensed as GNU AGPL, owned by its contributors. For that reason Silex is Free and Open Source software, forever.
We are passionate project contributors and designers who use Silex for personal and professional projects. Also Silex Labs uses Silex to teach web design to beginners.
We work together as a community to develop our tool our way. Collaboration makes the web, not competition.
So yes! Silex is free, there are no hidden costs, we do not need to monetize Silex users or their websites or visitors.
Yes! That is what most of us do and our businesses justify our time spent contributing.
Silex is free/libre, no one will prevent you from using it to sell websites or doing business with it.
Silex is developed by its users. We are giving our time and energy for features that benefit us individually or our businesses, so yes, Silex has less "shiny" features but has all the key features that we use for clients and professional websites.
Never!
We don't have your data anyway, it is stored in your account (ftp, GitLab, owncloud...) and served by your hosting company or GitLab pages. The websites created with silex do not send or receive any data from us, it is easy to make sure it does not as you have all the files and you can host them anywhere.
So that is not all free after all? Well you might want to purchase things and use it with Silex for your next professional website
Purchasing a domain name enhances the credibility and visibility of your website, providing a professional and memorable web address. While you can use GitLab's free subdomains for hosting via GitLab Pages, owning a domain allows for a more branded and authoritative online presence. Additionally, you can still use your custom domain with GitLab Pages, offering flexibility in hosting. Domain names typically cost anywhere from $10 to $50 per year, depending on the registrar and the domain extension. Popular places to buy one include GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Google Domains.
GitLab Build Minutes are essentially the time that GitLab allows you to use its resources to update or make changes to your website hosted on their platform. If you’re using Silex to create a simple static website without a CMS or dynamic data, you might not need many Build Minutes. However, if you’re using dynamic data and updates your site very frequently during the development process for exemple, then purchasing additional Build Minutes may be necessary, especially if you update your site frequently or have complex build needs. This ensures your updates are processed quickly without waiting for available free minutes, helping maintain your site's performance and accessibility.
You might consider paying for traditional hosting (php, mysql, ftp) if your website requires specific features that GitLab Pages does not support. For example, if your site needs server-side scripting like PHP (for processing forms directly on the server) or complex redirection rules, traditional hosting services can provide these capabilities. Silex supports direct publication to such hosting via FTP, as long as there is not dynamic data in your site.
Opting for traditional hosting might also be a beneficial choice if you're looking for eco-friendly options. Many traditional hosting providers now offer "green hosting" services, which use renewable energy sources or carbon offsetting to minimize environmental impact. These providers focus on sustainable practices, such as energy-efficient servers and reduced data center cooling requirements. This is particularly appealing if you or your organization are committed to environmental responsibility and wish to ensure that your website's hosting aligns with your eco-friendly values. GitLab Pages and similar platforms may not specifically cater to this niche, making traditional hosting a compelling choice for those prioritizing sustainability in their web presence.
To host your own instance of Silex, several options are available. You can choose our partner Elestio, which donates a portion of their revenue to support the development of Silex. It is also possible to use a VPS (Virtual Private Server) with or without solutions like CapRover or YunoHost to simplify server management. See the documentation on self-hosting here. Providers like Heroku can also be a viable solution for self-hosting your Silex site, offering flexibility and control over your hosting environment.
For an agency, self-hosting a Silex instance has several advantages. Firstly, it allows complete control over the hosting environment, providing flexibility to customize configurations and meet clients' specific needs. By self-hosting, an agency can also ensure better security and data privacy by fully managing access, backups, and hosting on servers other than GitLab’s. Additionally, this approach can reduce long-term costs by avoiding recurring fees related to the intensive use of GitLab, which requires purchasing "build minutes."
For hosting providers, offering self-hosting services for Silex can attract new clients looking to leverage the benefits of no-code while enjoying the performance and flexibility of self-hosting solutions. By supporting Silex users, hosting providers can also strengthen their market position by offering a dedicated service to website creators. Of course, a hosting provider can offer their clients a Silex instance integrated into their infrastructure, with backups on their servers and the published site hosted on the client’s purchased vhost.
