diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/preview.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/preview.ts
index 3a5cbc0c8e566c..6d56c04961cf11 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/preview.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/preview.ts
@@ -17,8 +17,11 @@ import compression from './server/middlewares/compression'
 import { proxyMiddleware } from './server/middlewares/proxy'
 import { resolveHostname, resolveServerUrls, shouldServe } from './utils'
 import { printServerUrls } from './logger'
-import { resolveConfig } from '.'
+import { htmlFallbackMiddleware } from './server/middlewares/htmlFallback'
+import { indexHtmlPreviewMiddleware } from './server/middlewares/indexHtml'
+import { notFoundMiddleware } from './server/middlewares/notFound'
 import type { InlineConfig, ResolvedConfig } from '.'
+import { resolveConfig } from '.'
 
 export interface PreviewOptions extends CommonServerOptions {}
 
@@ -120,7 +123,7 @@ export async function preview(
   const assetServer = sirv(distDir, {
     etag: true,
     dev: true,
-    single: config.appType === 'spa',
+    extensions: [],
     setHeaders(res) {
       if (headers) {
         for (const name in headers) {
@@ -129,16 +132,59 @@ export async function preview(
       }
     },
   })
-  app.use(previewBase, async (req, res, next) => {
-    if (shouldServe(req.url!, distDir)) {
-      return assetServer(req, res, next)
+  app.use(
+    previewBase,
+    // Keep the named function. The name is visible in debug logs via `DEBUG=connect:dispatcher ...`
+    async function vitePreviewStaticMiddleware(req, res, next) {
+      if (shouldServe(req.url!, distDir)) {
+        return assetServer(req, res, next)
+      }
+      next()
+    },
+  )
+
+  // html fallback
+  if (config.appType === 'spa' || config.appType === 'mpa') {
+    // append trailing slash when base didn't have it
+    if (config.rawBase !== config.base) {
+      // Keep the named function. The name is visible in debug logs via `DEBUG=connect:dispatcher ...`
+      app.use(function viteRewriteBaseAccessWithoutTrailingSlashMiddleware(
+        req,
+        res,
+        next,
+      ) {
+        try {
+          const pathname = decodeURIComponent(
+            new URL(req.url!, 'http://example.com').pathname,
+          )
+          if (pathname === config.rawBase) {
+            req.url = config.base + req.url!.slice(config.rawBase.length)
+          }
+        } catch {}
+        next()
+      })
     }
-    next()
-  })
+
+    app.use(
+      previewBase,
+      htmlFallbackMiddleware(distDir, config.appType === 'spa'),
+    )
+  }
 
   // apply post server hooks from plugins
   postHooks.forEach((fn) => fn && fn())
 
+  if (config.appType === 'spa' || config.appType === 'mpa') {
+    // serve index.html
+    app.use(
+      previewBase,
+      indexHtmlPreviewMiddleware(distDir, config.preview.headers),
+    )
+
+    // handle 404s
+    app.use(previewBase, notFoundMiddleware())
+  }
+
   const options = config.preview
   const hostname = await resolveHostname(options.host)
   const port = options.port ?? 4173
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/server/index.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/server/index.ts
index d25ab50aa749e5..a84c207889afd4 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/server/index.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/server/index.ts
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ import { openBrowser } from './openBrowser'
 import type { TransformOptions, TransformResult } from './transformRequest'
 import { transformRequest } from './transformRequest'
 import { searchForWorkspaceRoot } from './searchRoot'
+import { notFoundMiddleware } from './middlewares/notFound'
 
 export { searchForWorkspaceRoot } from './searchRoot'
 
@@ -600,11 +601,7 @@ export async function createServer(
     middlewares.use(indexHtmlMiddleware(server))
 
     // handle 404s
-    // Keep the named function. The name is visible in debug logs via `DEBUG=connect:dispatcher ...`
-    middlewares.use(function vite404Middleware(_, res) {
-      res.statusCode = 404
-      res.end()
-    })
+    middlewares.use(notFoundMiddleware())
   }
 
   // error handler
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/indexHtml.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/indexHtml.ts
index 9701637c0b544a..aed4b6a9667e67 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/indexHtml.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/indexHtml.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import fs from 'node:fs'
 import path from 'node:path'
+import type { OutgoingHttpHeaders } from 'node:http'
 import MagicString from 'magic-string'
 import type { SourceMapInput } from 'rollup'
 import type { Connect } from 'dep-types/connect'
@@ -303,3 +304,32 @@ export function indexHtmlMiddleware(
     next()
   }
 }
+
+export function indexHtmlPreviewMiddleware(
+  root: string,
+  headers: OutgoingHttpHeaders | undefined,
+): Connect.NextHandleFunction {
+  // Keep the named function. The name is visible in debug logs via `DEBUG=connect:dispatcher ...`
+  return async function viteIndexHtmlPreviewMiddleware(req, res, next) {
+    if (res.writableEnded) {
+      return next()
+    }
+
+    const url = req.url && cleanUrl(req.url)
+    // htmlFallbackMiddleware appends '.html' to URLs
+    if (url?.endsWith('.html')) {
+      const filepath = path.join(root, url.slice(1))
+      if (fs.existsSync(filepath)) {
+        try {
+          const html = fs.readFileSync(filepath, 'utf-8')
+          return send(req, res, html, 'html', {
+            headers,
+          })
+        } catch (e) {
+          return next(e)
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    next()
+  }
+}
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/notFound.ts b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/notFound.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..b8e7e2949b2a53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/vite/src/node/server/middlewares/notFound.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+import type { Connect } from 'dep-types/connect'
+
+// handle 404s
+export function notFoundMiddleware(): Connect.NextHandleFunction {
+  // Keep the named function. The name is visible in debug logs via `DEBUG=connect:dispatcher ...`
+  return function vite404Middleware(_, res) {
+    res.statusCode = 404
+    res.end()
+  }
+}
diff --git a/playground/assets/__tests__/assets.spec.ts b/playground/assets/__tests__/assets.spec.ts
index 482cf5a3b8a599..c9b8db938ed924 100644
--- a/playground/assets/__tests__/assets.spec.ts
+++ b/playground/assets/__tests__/assets.spec.ts
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ const assetMatch = isBuild
 
 const iconMatch = `/foo/icon.png`
 
+const fetchPath = (p: string) => {
+  return fetch(path.posix.join(viteTestUrl, p), {
+    headers: { Accept: 'text/html,*/*' },
+  })
+}
+
 test('should have no 404s', () => {
   browserLogs.forEach((msg) => {
     expect(msg).not.toMatch('404')
@@ -31,12 +37,49 @@ test('should have no 404s', () => {
 })
 
 test('should get a 404 when using incorrect case', async () => {
-  expect((await fetch(path.posix.join(viteTestUrl, 'icon.png'))).status).toBe(
-    200,
-  )
-  expect((await fetch(path.posix.join(viteTestUrl, 'ICON.png'))).status).toBe(
-    404,
-  )
+  expect((await fetchPath('icon.png')).status).toBe(200)
+  // won't be wrote to index.html because the url includes `.`
+  expect((await fetchPath('ICON.png')).status).toBe(404)
+
+  expect((await fetchPath('bar')).status).toBe(200)
+  // fallback to index.html
+  const incorrectBarFetch = await fetchPath('BAR')
+  expect(incorrectBarFetch.status).toBe(200)
+  expect(incorrectBarFetch.headers.get('Content-Type')).toBe('text/html')
+})
+
+test('html resolve behavior', async () => {
+  const [
+    nestedIndexHtml,
+    nested,
+    nestedSlash,
+
+    nonNestedHtml,
+    nonNested,
+    nonNestedSlash,
+  ] = await Promise.all([
+    fetchPath('nested/index.html'), // -> nested/index.html
+    fetchPath('nested'), // -> index.html
+    fetchPath('nested/'), // -> nested/index.html
+
+    fetchPath('non-nested.html'), // -> non-nested.html
+    fetchPath('non-nested'), // -> index.html
+    fetchPath('non-nested/'), // -> index.html
+  ])
+
+  expect(nestedIndexHtml.status).toBe(200)
+  expect(await nestedIndexHtml.text()).toContain('nested html')
+  expect(nested.status).toBe(200)
+  expect(await nested.text()).toContain('Assets')
+  expect(nestedSlash.status).toBe(200)
+  expect(await nestedSlash.text()).toContain('nested html')
+
+  expect(nonNestedHtml.status).toBe(200)
+  expect(await nonNestedHtml.text()).toContain('non-nested html')
+  expect(nonNested.status).toBe(200)
+  expect(await nonNested.text()).toContain('Assets')
+  expect(nonNestedSlash.status).toBe(200)
+  expect(await nonNestedSlash.text()).toContain('Assets')
 })
 
 describe('injected scripts', () => {
diff --git a/playground/assets/nested/index.html b/playground/assets/nested/index.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..838b89558c229c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playground/assets/nested/index.html
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+<div>nested html</div>
diff --git a/playground/assets/non-nested.html b/playground/assets/non-nested.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..b71ce26b010139
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playground/assets/non-nested.html
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+<div>non-nested html</div>
diff --git a/playground/assets/static/bar b/playground/assets/static/bar
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..5716ca5987cbf9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playground/assets/static/bar
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+bar
diff --git a/playground/assets/vite.config.js b/playground/assets/vite.config.js
index e6d2ba3fb460d2..685e073ddf99ad 100644
--- a/playground/assets/vite.config.js
+++ b/playground/assets/vite.config.js
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 const path = require('node:path')
 
+const resolve = (p) => path.resolve(__dirname, p)
+
 /**
  * @type {import('vite').UserConfig}
  */
@@ -8,7 +10,7 @@ module.exports = {
   publicDir: 'static',
   resolve: {
     alias: {
-      '@': path.resolve(__dirname, 'nested'),
+      '@': resolve('nested'),
     },
   },
   assetsInclude: ['**/*.unknown'],
@@ -17,5 +19,12 @@ module.exports = {
     assetsInlineLimit: 8192, // 8kb
     manifest: true,
     watch: {},
+    rollupOptions: {
+      input: [
+        resolve('./index.html'),
+        resolve('./nested/index.html'),
+        resolve('./non-nested.html'),
+      ],
+    },
   },
 }