ZEIT Now recently introduced easy deployment to HTTPS-enabled subdomains, and to celebrate this announcement, created the open-source static.fun service. As explained by the ZEIT team:
Wildcard domains unlock the ability to build platforms that scale. With zero-configuration, you're able to provide your customers with a personalized space on your host domain. This project is a fun and simple demonstration of wildcard domains where you are able to claim a page under any subdomain if its available and retain edit rights via a unique session identifier.
The static.fun service combines a collection of services to provide a streamlined experience including FaunaDB, Twilio Sendgrid, Pusher Channels, Simple Analytics, and Sentry, and leverages TypeScript, React and Next.js for its client-side JavaScript.
Visitors to static.fun can claim a subdomain, and then use an in-browser editor to edit a simple website immediately.
As the web platform encourages better security by moving all websites to use HTTPS, services like ZEIT Now make it easy for sites to deploy secure websites quickly. With Wildcard Domains, ZEIT makes it easier for developers to capture all subdomains on the fly and manage them through a single deployment, similar to how services like Slack make it possible to set up workspaces on subdomains.
ZEIT Now is one of many in a growing wave of services providing simple, rapid deployment for websites. Other service providers in this space include Netlify, Firebase, Surge, Heroku, Amazon AWS, GitHub pages, Digital Ocean and many others.