GitHub Pages vs Netlify for a free site in 2026

GitHub Pages is free with every GitHub account, for a site “no larger than 1 GB” with a “soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB per month,” but GitHub's Additional Product Terms, effective August 27, 2026, say it “is not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web hosting service to run your online business, e-commerce site,” or a SaaS. Netlify's Free plan is “$0 forever” with 300 credits a month on accounts created since September 4, 2025, and Netlify's Free plan announcement of November 12, 2024 says “you can deploy commercial projects” on it.

What the site is for decides most choices. A store, a SaaS, or a site that runs a business can't stay on GitHub Pages. A business site can run on Netlify Free, but it goes offline when the month's credits run out, because then “all of your web projects (sites/apps) are paused,” per Netlify's How credits work, last updated August 12, 2026. On GitHub Free, a Pages site also needs a public repository.

GitHub's and Netlify's docs, pricing pages, and terms were read on November 4, 2026, from 02:35 to 02:38 JST (17:35 to 17:38 UTC on November 3). GitHub's Pages docs carry no date: in GitHub's public docs repository, the GitHub Pages limits file last changed on July 24, 2026. Netlify's credit-based plan docs were last updated October 30, 2026. Prices are in US dollars, and Netlify's are the ones its pricing page shows a signed-out visitor: Personal at $9 and Pro at $20 a month. Plans change, so check them before you launch.

This page puts the two side by side. Each has pages of its own with every number: GitHub Pages limits, Can you use GitHub Pages for a commercial or business site?, Is Netlify free?, and What happens when Netlify credits run out.

The short answer

• A business site: Netlify Free allows it. GitHub Pages doesn't, and GitHub names no paid plan that lifts the rule.
• A project's site, docs, or a personal blog: GitHub Pages, from a public repository, with a soft limit of 100 GB of bandwidth a month.
• How the free allowance is counted: GitHub gives soft limits on bandwidth and builds, and a 1 GB cap on the published site. Netlify, on accounts created since September 4, 2025, gives one pool of 300 credits that deploys, bandwidth, web requests, and functions all draw on.
• Past the limit: GitHub “may not be able to serve your site,” or emails you. Netlify pauses every project on the account until the next billing cycle.
• Forms and server code: Netlify Free has both; GitHub Pages has neither.

GitHub Pages and Netlify Free side by side

Each cell links the vendor page it comes from, read on November 4, 2026.

The two count differently. GitHub's bandwidth and build limits are soft and per site, and the docs name no charge past them. Netlify's 300 credits are one budget for the account: 20 production deploys use all of them (20 × 15 = 300) before anyone visits, and bandwidth alone buys at most 15 GB. Is Netlify free? works through how long 300 credits last.

Case by case: which free plan allows the site

A row reads Yes where the vendor allows the site or names no rule against it, No where a rule or a missing feature stops it, and “doesn't say” where a rule may reach the site and the vendor doesn't name it. Each ruling links its source; the vendor has the final say.

Commercial use: GitHub's terms and Netlify's

GitHub Pages. The Additional Product Terms describe Pages as “intended to host static web pages, but primarily as a showcase for personal and organizational projects.” The business rule in full: “GitHub Pages is not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web hosting service to run your online business, e-commerce site, or any other website that is primarily directed at either facilitating commercial transactions or providing commercial software as a service (SaaS).” After it, they name one exception: “Some monetization efforts are permitted on Pages, such as donation buttons and crowdfunding links.” The limits doc repeats the rule and adds that Pages sites “shouldn't be used for sensitive transactions like sending passwords or credit card numbers.” No paid GitHub plan is named as an exception. Can you use GitHub Pages for a commercial or business site? applies the rule to each kind of site.

Netlify. The Free plan announcement says “On the Free plan, you can deploy commercial projects, personal sites, or other creative explorations you want to share on the web.” The post predates Netlify's credit-based plans, and the credit-based plan docs and the pricing page add no limit on the kind of use. Netlify's Acceptable Use Policy, last updated March 8, 2023, says “Users must not modify, create derivative works based on or in any manner commercially exploit the Netlify Services or website,” and Netlify doesn't say whether paid client hosting counts. Which free hosting lets me run a business site? reads that case the same way.

Private repositories

On GitHub Free, a Pages site needs a public repository: “If the account that owns the repository uses GitHub Free or GitHub Free for organizations, the repository must be public.” GitHub Pro, Team, and Enterprise Cloud can publish from a private repository, and the site is public anyway: “GitHub Pages sites are publicly available on the internet, even if the repository for the site is private (if your plan or organization allows it).” GitHub's pricing page lists Team at $4 per user a month and doesn't list GitHub Pro's price. GitHub Pages with a private repo covers each plan, and the one that publishes a site privately.

Netlify's plan docs list “Organization-owned private repos” as N/A on Free and Personal and included on Pro, whose summary names “support for connected private repos.” Netlify doesn't say whether Free builds from a private repository on your personal GitHub account. Separately, a new Netlify project starts private: “On new credit-based pricing accounts, every new project starts private by default,” per the pricing page, and on Free a private project is visible to the owner only.

Builds and deploys

GitHub Pages publishes from a repository in one of 2 ways, per its publishing source doc:

• From a branch: “If you do not need any control over the build process for your site, we recommend that you publish your site when changes are pushed to a specific branch.” GitHub builds it with Jekyll, “a static site generator with built-in support for GitHub Pages,” and the soft limit of 10 builds an hour applies.
• From a GitHub Actions workflow: for “a build process other than Jekyll.” GitHub's Jekyll doc now says “GitHub Actions is now the recommended approach for deploying and automating GitHub Pages sites,” and the 10-an-hour limit “does not apply.” “Standard GitHub Actions runners are free for public repositories.”

Either way, a deployment that takes longer than 10 minutes times out.

Netlify builds on every push to a connected repository: “Netlify automatically builds your site every time you push a change to your connected Git repository,” per its create deploys doc, last updated October 27, 2026. Without Git, you can drag a folder to Netlify Drop: “As long as you're logged in, you can drop a web project that still needs a build step, and Netlify will detect your framework and run the build for you before publishing,” and “If you drop a project without being logged in, Netlify publishes the files as-is.” That link isn't open to visitors yet: per Netlify's Drop quickstart, last updated July 28, 2026, “If you drop without signing in, your project URL is protected with a temporary password until you claim it.” After you claim it by signing in or up, on a credit-based plan with private by default on, “your project stays private until you make it public.” Each production deploy costs 15 credits, and deploy previews, branch deploys, and failed deploys cost none. Free runs 1 build at a time. How to use Netlify Drop goes through the drag and drop.

Forms and server code

Netlify Free has both. Its Forms usage and billing doc, last updated September 16, 2026, says “For credit-based plans, Forms are free and unlimited.” Older accounts on Netlify's Legacy Free plan have “100 per site/month” of form submissions (Legacy plan docs, January 10, 2026). Serverless functions are on Free too, and their compute costs 10 credits per GB-hour from the same 300 credits.

GitHub Pages has neither. GitHub calls it “a static site hosting service that takes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files straight from a repository on GitHub,” and its Pages docs name no form or server feature. A form on a Pages site has to post to an outside service; a landing page form without a backend compares the ways.

Custom domains and HTTPS

Both free plans take your own domain with HTTPS.

• GitHub Pages: It “supports using custom domains, or changing the root of your site's URL from the default, like octocat.github.io, to any domain you own,” a www subdomain or an apex domain (custom domains). GitHub recommends verifying the domain first, “to improve security and avoid takeover attacks.” Its HTTPS doc: “All GitHub Pages sites, including sites that are correctly configured with a custom domain, support HTTPS and HTTPS enforcement.”
• Netlify Free: The pricing page lists “Add Custom domains with SSL” on Free. Can you use a custom domain on Netlify's free plan? covers what it costs.

Vercel and Cloudflare Pages

Vercel Hobby is free but “restricted to non-commercial personal use only,” per Vercel's fair use guidelines, last updated September 14, 2026, so it rules out a business site as GitHub Pages does. It includes the first 100 GB of data transfer a month (Hobby docs, September 14, 2026). Vercel vs Netlify free plans sets it against Netlify Free.

Cloudflare Pages allows a business site: Cloudflare's agreement, last updated September 12, 2025, sets no personal-use limit, but you may not “process or collect personal or business credit card information on any web property that is receiving Free Services.” “On both free and paid plans, requests to static assets are free and unlimited,” per its Pages Functions pricing doc (September 8, 2026), with 500 builds a month. Cloudflare's Pages overview (August 25, 2026) now says “Start new projects with Workers,” whose free plan is on Cloudflare Workers free plan. Cloudflare Pages limits lists the rest.

Convika's page-view limit counts from sign-up for workspaces created on or after October 23, 2026 (Japan time), and from November 1, 2026 (UTC) for earlier ones.

Which one to pick

• An open-source project's site, docs, or a personal blog: GitHub Pages, from a public repository. If traffic nears 100 GB a month, GitHub suggests a CDN in front.
• A Jekyll site: GitHub Pages builds it from a branch, with nothing to set up.
• A business site with several pages or a build step: Netlify Free, if 300 credits a month cover its deploys and traffic, or Cloudflare Pages, where static requests are free and unlimited.
• A site with a contact form: Netlify Free, where forms are free and unlimited on credit-based plans.
• A site from a private repository: On GitHub, a paid plan. On Netlify, an organization's private repository needs Pro; Netlify doesn't say whether Free builds from a private repository on your personal account.
• One HTML page, such as a landing page or a waitlist: Convika Free, below.

If your site is one HTML page: Convika

Convika hosts landing pages, one HTML page each, with a form that keeps entries and stats on who visited. There is no repository, build, or credit meter: you upload the page's HTML file, up to 2 MB, or paste its code, and Convika counts page views. Claude, Claude Code, or Codex can also save the page through Convika's MCP server. Free allows up to 30 publishes a day.

Section 7 of Convika's terms allows commercial use on every plan, Free included: a page that sells or advertises a product or service, a startup or waitlist page, or a client's page you build, host, and bill the client for. It bars reselling Convika itself without permission.

Free includes 1 published page, 10,000 page views a month, 50 form entries shown a month with CSV export and an email for each, 90 days of visit stats, and 1 custom subdomain such as www.yourbrand.com, with a small Convika bar. At 10,000 page views in a month, editing and analytics pause, and 7 days later the pages stop until the month ends or you upgrade. Pro monthly costs $12 a month and includes 100,000 page views; it doesn't stop for traffic unless you set a monthly overage limit, and each 10,000 views past the included ones cost $1.30. Pricing lists each plan.

Not a fit for: a Jekyll site, documentation, a site built from a folder of files, a build step, or server code. Convika hosts a single HTML document per page.

Drop the .html file right below or paste its code to see your page on Convika before signing up. You get a private preview link that works for 3 minutes, with the page's scripts and forms off until you keep it with a free account. The same box is on the free HTML publishing tool.

Frequently asked questions

Is GitHub Pages or Netlify better for a free site?

Netlify Free, for a business site or one with a form; GitHub Pages, for a project's site, docs, or a personal blog. GitHub's terms say Pages isn't for running “your online business, e-commerce site,” while Netlify's Free plan allows “commercial projects” and keeps form entries for free. GitHub Pages has the larger fixed allowance: a soft limit of 100 GB of bandwidth a month, against at most 15 GB from Netlify's 300 credits.

Can I use GitHub Pages for a commercial site?

No, not for a store, a SaaS, or a site that runs your business. GitHub's Additional Product Terms, effective August 27, 2026, say Pages “is not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web hosting service to run your online business, e-commerce site,” and allow only “donation buttons and crowdfunding links” by name. A landing page that only describes a business is a case GitHub doesn't rule on.

Can I use Netlify's free plan for a commercial site?

Yes. Netlify's Free plan announcement says “you can deploy commercial projects, personal sites, or other creative explorations” on it, and its credit-based plan docs add no limit on the kind of use. The limit is the budget: 300 credits a month on accounts created since September 4, 2025, with every project paused when they run out.

Is GitHub Pages free with a private repository?

No, not on GitHub Free: “If the account that owns the repository uses GitHub Free or GitHub Free for organizations, the repository must be public.” GitHub Pro, Team, and Enterprise Cloud publish from a private repository, and the site is still public. GitHub's pricing page lists Team at $4 per user a month.

Which has more free bandwidth, GitHub Pages or Netlify?

GitHub Pages, against any Netlify account created since September 4, 2025. GitHub Pages has a “soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB per month.” Netlify Free has no bandwidth allowance of its own: bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB from the 300 monthly credits, so it buys at most 15 GB, and less once deploys and web requests use some. Older accounts on Netlify's Legacy Free plan keep “100 GB/month” as a hard limit.

Does GitHub Pages support forms?

No. GitHub Pages is “a static site hosting service,” and its docs name no form, so a form on a Pages site has to send its entries to an outside service. Netlify Free keeps them: “For credit-based plans, Forms are free and unlimited.”

What happens if a site goes over the free limits on GitHub Pages or Netlify?

On both, the site can stop. GitHub's limits doc says “we may not be able to serve your site, or you may receive a polite email from GitHub Support,” and rate-limited requests get HTTP 429. On Netlify Free, every project on the account shows “Site not available” until the next billing cycle, and Free can't buy more credits. Neither free plan charges you.

GitHub Pages vs Netlify vs Vercel: which is free for a business site?

Netlify, of the three. GitHub Pages isn't for “your online business,” and Vercel's Hobby plan is “restricted to non-commercial personal use only.” Netlify's Free plan allows “commercial projects” within 300 credits a month. Vercel vs Netlify free plans compares those two.

GitHub Pages vs Cloudflare Pages vs Netlify for a static site?

Cloudflare Pages, for traffic: Cloudflare says “On both free and paid plans, requests to static assets are free and unlimited,” and its terms set no personal-use limit. Netlify charges bandwidth against 300 credits a month, and GitHub Pages has a soft limit of 100 GB a month and bars running a business. Cloudflare Pages allows 500 builds a month on its free plan.

Do GitHub Pages and Netlify support a custom domain with HTTPS for free?

Yes, both. GitHub's docs say “All GitHub Pages sites, including sites that are correctly configured with a custom domain, support HTTPS and HTTPS enforcement,” and Netlify's pricing page lists “Custom domains with SSL” on Free. You pay only your domain registrar.

Sources

Each source was read on November 4, 2026 (JST). Dates in parentheses are the document's own.

• GitHub Terms for Additional Products and Features (effective August 27, 2026)
• GitHub Pages limits (GitHub Docs) (no date on the page; file last changed July 24, 2026)
• What is GitHub Pages? (GitHub Docs) (no date on the page)
• Creating a GitHub Pages site (GitHub Docs) (no date on the page)
• Configuring a publishing source (GitHub Docs) and About GitHub Pages and Jekyll (no date on the pages)
• About custom domains and GitHub Pages and Securing your GitHub Pages site with HTTPS (no date on the pages)
• GitHub Acceptable Use Policies (no date on the page)
• GitHub pricing (no date on the page)
• Netlify pricing (no date on the page)
• Netlify credit-based pricing plans (last updated October 30, 2026)
• How credits work (Netlify) (last updated August 12, 2026)
• Billing FAQ for credit-based plans (Netlify) (last updated October 7, 2026)
• Netlify Legacy pricing plans (last updated January 10, 2026)
• Netlify Forms usage and billing (last updated September 16, 2026)
• Create deploys (Netlify) (last updated October 27, 2026)
• Netlify Drop quickstart (last updated July 28, 2026)
• Introducing Netlify's Free plan (November 12, 2024)
• Netlify Acceptable Use Policy (last updated March 8, 2023)
• Vercel fair use guidelines and Vercel Hobby plan (both last updated September 14, 2026)
• Cloudflare Self-Serve Subscription Agreement (last updated September 12, 2025), Pages Functions pricing (last updated September 8, 2026), and Pages overview (last updated August 25, 2026)