Why GitHub Pages Changes Everything
Zero-Cost, Infinite Scale
GitHub Pages is the most underrated hosting platform on the internet. Free hosting. Free HTTPS. Free CDN. Custom domains. Unlimited bandwidth for reasonable use. No server management. No DevOps. No AWS bills. For a solo founder building a web business, this changes the economics of everything.
Traditional hosting costs $5-20 per site per month. Run 100 sites and you are paying $500-2,000 monthly before earning a dollar. With GitHub Pages, the same 100 sites cost $0 per month to host. That is not a minor advantage -- it is a structural competitive advantage that makes your business profitable from the first sale.
The GitHub Pages Advantage Stack
- Free hosting with HTTPS, custom domains, and global CDN via Fastly
- Git-based deployment -- push to main and your site is live in 30 seconds
- GitHub Actions -- 2,000 free CI/CD minutes per month for automated workflows
- Version control -- every change is tracked, every deployment is reversible
- Organization accounts -- unlimited public repos, each can host a site
- Custom 404 pages -- even your error pages build your brand
A network of 120+ sites running on GitHub Pages with custom domains handles thousands of daily visitors with zero hosting cost. The only recurring expense is domain registration at $8-15 per year per domain. Annual cost for 16 sites: about $180. Monthly hosting cost: $0.
Your First Site in 10 Minutes
The Fastest Path from Zero to Live
You can go from nothing to a fully deployed, HTTPS-enabled website in under 10 minutes. No build tools. No frameworks. No terminal commands (unless you want them). Here is the exact workflow:
10-Minute Deployment
- Create a repository -- Name it
yourusername.github.iofor your main site, or any name for project sites. - Add an index.html file -- A single HTML file is all you need. No build step required.
- Enable Pages -- Go to Settings > Pages > Source: Deploy from branch > Main > / (root).
- Wait 30 seconds -- GitHub builds and deploys automatically.
- Visit your URL --
https://yourusername.github.iois live with HTTPS.
Single-File Architecture: The Key Insight
The most powerful insight for GitHub Pages development is that a single HTML file is a complete website. No CSS files. No JavaScript files. No images to host. Everything -- styles, scripts, markup -- lives in one file. This eliminates every external dependency, maximizes load speed, and makes deployment trivially simple.
Every site in a 100+ site network can be a single index.html file. This means deploying a new site is literally creating one file and pushing it to GitHub. Updates are editing one file. Backups are automatic via git. The simplicity is the architecture.
Use inline SVGs instead of image files, CSS gradients instead of background images, and system fonts instead of web fonts. A single-file site with no external dependencies loads in under 500ms on any connection. That speed advantage directly translates to better SEO rankings and higher conversion rates.
Custom Domains & HTTPS
Step-by-step guide to connecting custom domains, managing DNS, enforcing HTTPS, handling redirects, and running multiple domains from a single GitHub organization...