How to host a website for free: GitHub Pages, Cloudflare, Netlify and Vercel compared

What is the easiest way to host a website for free?

Put your site in a Git repository and connect it to a free host. All four hosts on this page work that way, and each rebuilds the site when you push a change. The fastest choice depends on what the site is.

• A personal page, portfolio or documentation site: GitHub Pages, if your code is already on GitHub.
• A static site that might become a business: Cloudflare Pages or Netlify. Check the terms and limits below.
• A Next.js or other framework app, for a personal project: Vercel's Hobby plan.
• A site with users and data: the free host serves the front end, and a service such as Supabase holds the data. See the Supabase tutorial.

Free hosting is aimed at static files: HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images. Dynamic features need a function or a separate backend. If you are not sure how to produce the files in the first place, how to build a website with AI shows how to make one with a coding agent, and how to make an app for free covers the wider picture.

Which free host should you choose?

The table below is built from each provider's own documentation as of October 2026. Limits and plans change, so check the linked page before you depend on a number.

Sources: GitHub Pages limits, Cloudflare Pages limits, Netlify pricing and Netlify credit-based plans, and Vercel's Hobby plan.

How do you host a website on GitHub Pages?

GitHub describes Pages as a static site hosting service that takes HTML, CSS and JavaScript files straight from a repository, optionally runs them through a build process, and publishes a website. On GitHub Free, the repository must be public, and paid plans allow private repositories.

1. Create a repository on GitHub and add an index.html file at the top level. GitHub Pages looks for index.html, index.md or README.md as the entry file.
2. Open the repository's Settings, then Pages.
3. Choose a publishing source: a branch and folder, or a custom GitHub Actions workflow.
4. Save, wait for the build to finish, and open the address that the Pages settings show.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>My first site</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>It works</h1>
  <p>This page is served from a free host.</p>
</body>
</html>

The same page lists the usage limits: one user or organisation site per account, a recommended 1 GB for the source repository, published sites no larger than 1 GB, a 10-minute deployment timeout, a soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB a month and a soft limit of 10 builds an hour, which does not apply if you build with a custom Actions workflow.

How do you host a website on Cloudflare Pages?

Cloudflare Pages builds and deploys when you push to a connected Git repository, and also supports uploading a folder directly. Its limits page lists, for the Free plan, 500 builds a month with one build at a time, a 20 minute build timeout, 100 custom domains per project, up to 20,000 files per site and a maximum of 25 MiB for a single file.

The dashboard route for a static site, from Cloudflare's static HTML guide:

1. Push your site to a GitHub repository.
2. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to Workers & Pages, select Create application, then the Pages tab and Import an existing Git repository.
3. Select the repository and choose Begin setup.
4. Set the production branch (for example main). For plain HTML you can leave the build command empty. Save and deploy.

You then get a subdomain on *.pages.dev. If you get 404 errors there, Cloudflare says to make sure the site has a top-level index.html.

If you prefer the command line, the Direct Upload guide uses Wrangler:

npx wrangler login
npx wrangler pages project create
npx wrangler pages deploy ./my-site-folder

Cloudflare's Pages docs also link a Migrate to Workers guide. On Workers, requests to static assets are free and unlimited according to its billing page. For a new project, read both sets of docs before you choose.

How do you host a website on Netlify for free?

Netlify's pricing page lists the Free plan as USD 0 with a 300 credit limit, and says it includes deploys from AI tools, Git or API, deploy previews, custom domains with SSL, functions, a global CDN and basic rate limiting. Its deploy docs list the ways to deploy: Git, the Netlify CLI, drag and drop, and an API.

The thing to understand is that Netlify bills in credits. According to its pricing page, a production deploy costs 15 credits and bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB. Taken one at a time against the 300 credit allowance, that is 20 production deploys, or 15 GB of bandwidth, and in practice a mix of the two. Check the pricing page for current costs because they can change.

1. Sign up, then either connect a Git repository or use the drag-and-drop option for a folder.
2. Set the build command and publish directory if your site has a build step. For plain HTML, no build step is needed.
3. Deploy, then open the address Netlify gives you.

The paid Personal plan, listed at USD 9 a month with 1,000 credits as of October 2026, is the next step if you outgrow the free allowance.

How do you host a website on Vercel for free?

Vercel's Hobby plan is free and, in its own words, aimed at developers with personal projects and small-scale applications. Among the included monthly usage, the Hobby plan page lists 100 GB of Fast Data Transfer, 1,000,000 CDN requests and 1,000,000 function invocations.

If you pass a limit, Vercel says that in most cases you must wait until 30 days have passed before you can use the feature again, though some limits pause for shorter periods.

1. Push your project to a Git repository.
2. Sign in to Vercel and import the repository as a new project.
3. Accept the detected framework settings, or set the build command and output folder, and deploy.
4. Open the generated address. Later pushes to the connected branch deploy automatically.

Vercel suits framework apps, particularly Next.js, because it is built by the same company. For a plain HTML page, the other three are as simple.

What does free hosting not cover?

• A database or user accounts. Static hosting serves files. For data and sign-in, add a backend service. Supabase's free plan, per its pricing page as of October 2026, includes a 500 MB database, 50,000 monthly active users and 1 GB of file storage, with a limit of 2 active projects. It also says free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity. The Supabase tutorial builds a first app on it.
• Your own domain name. Hosts give you a free subdomain such as the pages.dev address above. A custom domain such as yourname.com is bought from a registrar, with a yearly fee that varies by name and extension.
• Email. Your domain's email is a separate service.
• Guaranteed uptime. Free plans come with usage limits and little or no support.
• Commercial use on some plans. See the rules above for GitHub Pages and Vercel Hobby.

[ ] The entry file is index.html at the top level of the published folder
[ ] Paths to images and CSS are relative or correct for the final address
[ ] No secret keys in the files. Anything in a front-end bundle is public
[ ] The repository is public if the host requires it (GitHub Free)
[ ] The plan's terms allow what the site does (commercial use, ads, e-commerce)
[ ] I know what happens at the plan's limits: pause, rate limit, or wait
[ ] Custom domain DNS records are noted, and HTTPS shows a padlock
[ ] A second person opened the live address on a phone

How do you use your own domain on a free host?

All four hosts support custom domains. The steps are the same in outline: add the domain in the host's settings, then create the DNS records the host shows you at the company where you registered the domain, then wait for the certificate. The host's page tells you exactly which records to add, and the records differ between hosts, so copy them from there, not from a tutorial.

Pick the domain after you know the site is worth keeping. A free address is fine for a first version and for testing an idea. If you are testing a product, the MVP guide explains why a landing page on a free address is often enough for a first test.

When should you move off free hosting?

• You take money, show ads or run a business from the site, and the plan's terms exclude it.
• You reach the bandwidth, build or credit limits regularly.
• You need a private team, access controls or support with a response time.
• Downtime would cost you customers.

Until then, free hosting is a sound choice for a first version. If you need ideas for what to put on it, browse the board: every idea has a generated build prompt you can paste into a coding agent, and a one-page site is a good first deploy.