# GitHub Pages GitHub Pages is a free static site hosting service provided by [[GitHub]] that publishes websites directly from a repository. Launched in 2008, it integrates natively with [[Jekyll]] (created by GitHub co-founder [[Tom Preston-Werner]]) but can serve any static content. Sites are published at `username.github.io` or custom domains. GitHub Pages democratized web publishing for developers—pushing to a repository automatically deploys the site. It's commonly used for project documentation, personal portfolios, blogs, and open source project sites. While limited to static content (no server-side code), this simplicity provides security and reliability. ## Key Features - **Free hosting**: No cost for public repositories - **Custom domains**: Use your own domain with HTTPS - **Jekyll integration**: Built-in Jekyll processing - **GitHub Actions**: Build with any static site generator - **Branch deployment**: Deploy from main, gh-pages, or /docs - **HTTPS**: Free SSL certificates via Let's Encrypt ## Types of Sites | Type | URL Pattern | Source | |------|-------------|--------| | User/Org | `username.github.io` | Repository named `username.github.io` | | Project | `username.github.io/repo` | Any repository's gh-pages branch or /docs | ## Setup Options 1. **Jekyll (native)**: Push Markdown, GitHub builds automatically 2. **Static HTML**: Push pre-built HTML/CSS/JS 3. **GitHub Actions**: Build with Hugo, Quartz, Next.js, etc. ## Limitations - Static content only (no server-side code) - 1GB repository size limit - 100GB/month bandwidth (soft limit) - 10 builds per hour - No private repository hosting (free tier) ## Common Use Cases - Project documentation - Personal portfolios and blogs - Open source project sites - Digital gardens (with [[Quartz (App)|Quartz]]) - API documentation ## References - https://pages.github.com - https://docs.github.com/en/pages - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub_Pages ## Related - [[GitHub]] - [[Jekyll]] - [[Tom Preston-Werner]] - [[Quartz (App)]] - [[Git]] - [[Cloudflare Pages]]