Can you use GitHub Pages for a commercial or business site?

GitHub Pages is free with every GitHub account, and it's meant for showing projects, not for running a business. GitHub's Additional Product Terms, effective August 27, 2026, describe Pages with “intended to host static web pages, but primarily as a showcase for personal and organizational projects.” The next paragraph draws the line with “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).”

GitHub itself, apart from Pages, is free for commercial use. Its Terms of Service, effective April 27, 2026, apply to “the individual person, company, or organization” using GitHub, allow each “person or legal entity” one free account, and set no personal-use limit, so the business rule above covers Pages only.

This page covers what GitHub allows, the cases it has not ruled on, and where to host a page that sells something: Convika, or another free host without a business rule. GitHub's terms and docs, and the other hosts' docs, were read on October 23, 2026: the Additional Product Terms are still the version effective August 27, 2026, and the quotes below read the same as when this page first quoted them on October 11. GitHub's Pages docs and Acceptable Use Policies carry no date. Terms change, so check them before launching.

What GitHub's terms and docs say

3 GitHub documents cover commercial use of Pages.

• Additional Product Terms, Pages section: “Each Account comes with access to the GitHub Pages static hosting service.” After the business rule comes the one exception they name: “Some monetization efforts are permitted on Pages, such as donation buttons and crowdfunding links.” Pages “may not be appropriate for some high-bandwidth uses,” and if you are unsure if a use is allowed, the terms say to contact GitHub Support.
• GitHub Pages limits: This doc repeats the business rule and adds that Pages sites “shouldn't be used for sensitive transactions like sending passwords or credit card numbers.” A published page can be up to 1 GB, with a soft limit of 100 GB of bandwidth a month and 10 builds an hour. Past those, GitHub “may not be able to serve your site.” The page GitHub Pages limits covers what happens when a site passes them.
• Acceptable Use Policies: On advertising, “We do not generally prohibit use of GitHub for advertising.” But “the primary focus of the Content posted in or through your Account to the Service should not be advertising or promotional marketing,” and that “includes Content posted in or through Pages.”

On GitHub Free, the code behind the page is public too. The doc Creating a GitHub Pages site says “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 itself is still public: “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).” Only an organization on GitHub Enterprise Cloud can publish a site privately, for people with read access to the repository (Changing the visibility of your GitHub Pages site). None of the 3 documents says a paid plan lifts the business rule. The terms give Pages to “Each Account” and name no exception.

Case by case

The table applies the rules to the sites people ask about. Where GitHub doesn't name a kind of site, the table says so instead of guessing. GitHub Support has the final say.

Host where commercial use is allowed: Convika

Convika hosts landing pages, one HTML page each, with a form that keeps entries and stats on who visited. Section 7 of its terms allows commercial use on every plan, Free included: a page that sells or advertises a product or service, a startup or waitlist page, a portfolio that offers your services for hire, or a client's page you build, host, and bill the client for. On commercial use, the one thing it bars is reselling Convika itself without permission, for example selling access to Convika accounts, its API, or its MCP server as your own hosting product.

For a landing page, often one HTML file from ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, what changes from GitHub Pages:

• No repository or Git. Upload the page's HTML file, up to 2 MB, or paste its code in the dashboard. Claude, Claude Code, or Codex can also save it through Convika's MCP server.
• A form that keeps entries. Free shows 50 entries a month, emails you each one, and exports them as CSV; entries past that are kept for Pro. GitHub Pages has no form.
• Visit stats with sources. See visits, referrers, UTM campaigns, devices, countries, and button clicks, for 90 days. GitHub Pages has no stats.
• Your own domain on Free. You get 1 custom subdomain, such as www.yourbrand.com.
• A look before you sign up. The free HTML publishing tool puts the page on a preview link in seconds, with no account. The link works for 3 minutes.

Free includes 1 published page and 10,000 pageviews a month, with a small Convika bar at the bottom. Pro removes the bar and shows every form entry. Pro costs $12 a month. Convika hosts one HTML page per site, so a site with several routes or a Jekyll build fits Netlify or Cloudflare Pages better.

Other free hosts and their commercial-use rules

• Netlify. Its terms put no personal-use limit on Free. Its 2024 Free plan announcement said “you can deploy commercial projects.” Free runs on 300 credits a month. A production deploy costs 15 and bandwidth costs 20 per GB. Once they are used up, “all of your web projects (sites/apps) are paused”, per Netlify's credit docs. Its form stores entries free, after you turn on form detection and redeploy. Web Analytics keeps 1 day of data on Free. The page Is Netlify free? works through what the credits cover.
• Cloudflare Pages. Cloudflare's terms don't limit free services to personal use, but you may not “process or collect personal or business credit card information on any web property that is receiving Free Services.” Requests to static files are free and unlimited, and Web Analytics is free. There is no form that stores entries. The Static Forms plugin hands each one to code you write.
• Vercel. Its Hobby plan is for “non-commercial personal use only,” so a business site needs Pro. The page Can you use Vercel's Hobby plan for a commercial site? goes through it case by case.
• GitLab Pages. GitLab doesn't say. Its Pages docs and Acceptable Use Policy (last modified July 2, 2026) have no business rule like GitHub's. Pages runs on the Free tier, and the project behind the site “can be either public, internal, or private.” The site is built with GitLab CI/CD, and Free includes 400 compute minutes a month. On GitLab.com, a site can be up to 1 GB, with up to 150 custom domains (GitLab.com settings). There is no form and no visitor stats.
• Firebase Hosting. Firebase's terms, last modified September 24, 2026, have you agree that your use “is for purposes related to my trade, business, craft, or profession,” so business use is what they expect. The no-cost Spark plan includes 10 GB of storage and 10 GB of data transfer a month. Past 10 GB of transfer in a month, Firebase's Hosting quota docs say your sites are disabled until the next month unless you move to the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan; past 10 GB stored, you “won't be able to deploy new content to your sites.” Custom domains with SSL are included. There is no form that stores entries without code.

Free hosts compared

Netlify Drop, Cloudflare's drag-and-drop upload, and Vercel Drop all take files without a repository.

How to move a GitHub Pages landing page to Convika

1. Take the index.html. Download it from the repository, or use the copy on your computer.
2. Update every image link. Give every image a full https:// link. A path such as images/hero.png points to a file in the repository, and Convika hosts the HTML page only.
3. Mark where the form goes. Replace the page's <form> with <div data-convika-form></div>, and Convika puts a working form in that spot. The guide How to make the form on your AI-made page work explains the method.
4. Upload the file and publish. Sign up free, click Upload an HTML file, drop the file, and click Create my preview. On the page's dashboard screen, click Add a form to my page, and pick the fields. Send a test entry from the preview, then click Publish page. Choose Public, click Next, and, the first time, click Publish free.
5. Point www at Convika. On the page's dashboard screen, click Manage domains, then Add domain, and enter www.yourbrand.com. At your DNS provider, replace the www record that points to GitHub with the CNAME and TXT records Convika shows, then remove the custom domain in the repository's Settings → Pages. If the site used the bare yourbrand.com, forward it to www.

Which one to pick

• A landing page that sells, takes signups, or advertises your business or your services: Pick Convika's Free plan, with the form and stats included. Pro, at $12 a month, removes the bar and shows every form entry.
• An open-source project's site, a personal blog, or documentation: Stay on GitHub Pages.
• A business site with several pages or a build step: Pick Netlify's Free plan, counting deploys against the 300 monthly credits, or Cloudflare Pages with a form service.
• A Next.js app that already runs on Vercel: Pick Vercel Pro at $20 a month.

More free hosts, including Tiiny Host, Carrd, and Google Sites, are compared in free landing page hosting with a form. For a waitlist page, see how to make a waitlist landing page.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use GitHub Pages for commercial use?

You cannot use GitHub Pages to run a business on. GitHub's terms 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, or any other website that is primarily directed at either facilitating commercial transactions or providing commercial software as a service (SaaS).” Donation buttons and crowdfunding links are allowed. Convika's terms allow commercial use on every plan, Free included.

Can I use GitHub Pages for my business website?

Not if the site is how you run the business online. A store, a checkout, or a SaaS product is ruled out. A page that only describes a local business is not named either way, and a 2023 question about exactly that in GitHub's community forum has no ruling from GitHub. To skip the gray area, host the page where the terms allow it: Convika's terms allow commercial use on every plan, Free included, and its Free plan adds a form that keeps entries and 90 days of visit stats.

Is GitHub Pages free for commercial use?

GitHub Pages is not free for the commercial use its terms rule out: an online business, an e-commerce site, a site mainly for commercial transactions, or a SaaS product. GitHub Pages is free with every GitHub account. On GitHub Free, the repository also has to be public. Convika's Free plan allows commercial use and includes 1 published page, 50 form entries a month, and 1 custom subdomain, with a small Convika bar.

Is GitHub free for commercial use?

Yes, GitHub itself is free for commercial use. GitHub's Terms of Service, effective April 27, 2026, apply to “the individual person, company, or organization” using GitHub, let each “person or legal entity” keep one free account, and set no personal-use limit; GitHub Free for organizations is a plan of its own. Pages is the exception: its own terms rule out running an online business, a store, or a SaaS product on it.

Can you put ads (AdSense) on GitHub Pages?

GitHub does not name ad networks such as AdSense, though its Acceptable Use Policies say “We do not generally prohibit use of GitHub for advertising,” but “the primary focus of the Content posted in or through your Account to the Service should not be advertising or promotional marketing,” which includes Pages. This page's reading: ads on a project's site fit that, and a site built mainly to show ads does not. GitHub Support has the final say.

Can I host a startup landing page or waitlist on GitHub Pages?

GitHub does not say if you can host a startup landing page or waitlist. Its terms rule out running an online business, a store, or a SaaS product, and they describe Pages as “primarily” a showcase for projects; a waitlist page for a product you will charge for is not named. GitHub's Acceptable Use Policies add that the primary focus of what you post, Pages included, “should not be advertising or promotional marketing.” You can ask GitHub Support, or host it where commercial use is allowed: Convika's terms name a startup or waitlist page as allowed on every plan, Free included, and its form keeps the signups. The guide How to make a waitlist landing page has the steps.

Does a paid GitHub plan allow commercial Pages sites?

GitHub does not say it allows commercial Pages sites on a paid plan. With GitHub Pro, Team, or Enterprise Cloud, you can publish Pages from a private repository. The business rule covers Pages for “Each Account” and names no plan as an exception. Contact GitHub Support before counting on a paid plan for a business site.

Can I use GitHub Pages with a private repository?

No, not on GitHub Free. GitHub's docs say “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, but the site is still public: “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).” Only an organization on GitHub Enterprise Cloud can publish a site privately, for people with read access to the repository. Convika takes the page's HTML file itself, so there is no repository to make public.

Which free hosting allows commercial use?

Convika's terms say so directly. Section 7 allows commercial use on every plan, Free included, client pages you build, host, and bill for included; it bars reselling Convika itself without permission. Netlify's terms put no personal-use limit on Free, and its 2024 announcement said “you can deploy commercial projects” on the Free plan, which runs on 300 credits a month and pauses every project when they run out. Cloudflare's terms do not limit free services to personal use. They forbid collecting card details on them. Firebase's terms have you agree that your use is for your “trade, business, craft, or profession,” and GitLab's say nothing either way about Pages. GitHub Pages is not allowed for running an online business, and Vercel's Hobby plan is for non-commercial personal use only.

Can I put my own domain on a free host that allows commercial use?

Yes. Convika's Free plan connects 1 custom subdomain, such as www.yourbrand.com, with a CNAME and a TXT record Convika shows, and the SSL certificate is issued for you. Netlify's Free plan and Cloudflare Pages connect custom domains too. You still buy the domain from a registrar.