Want a sleek, professional online presence—a digital business card, portfolio, or simple blog—without paying for hosting? GitHub Pages is your answer! This often-overlooked feature of GitHub lets you host a static website directly from your repository for free. It’s perfect for developers, designers, or anyone who wants a simple, customizable one-page site.
Why Choose GitHub Pages for Your Personal Site?
GitHub Pages is much more than just a free hosting service. It’s built on a developer-friendly platform and offers several key advantages:
- Free Hosting: The most obvious benefit. You pay nothing for the hosting service itself.
- Custom Domain Support: While your site will default to
<username>.github.io, you can easily point a custom domain (likeyourname.com) to it for a more professional look. - Version Control: Since your site files live in a GitHub repository, you get all the benefits of Git, including version history, easy rollbacks, and seamless collaboration.
- Simplicity and Speed: It hosts static sites (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) that are inherently fast and secure, as there are no databases or server-side scripts to manage.
- Built-in Jekyll Support: If you want a blog or a more dynamic site structure, GitHub Pages integrates with Jekyll, a popular static site generator, allowing you to use Markdown for your content.
🛠️ The Quick-Start Guide to Your One-Page Site
The fastest way to get your personal, one-page site live is by creating a special User Page repository.
Step 1: Create Your Repository
- Log in to GitHub and create a new public repository.
- Crucially, name it exactly as
<your-username>.github.io(e.g.,ray-idempiere.github.io). Note that your username must be all lowercase. - Toggle “Add a README file” to On and click “Create repository”.
Step 2: Add Your Content
Since you’re building a simple one-page site, you only need one core file: index.html.
- In your new repository, click “Add file” > “Create new file”.
- Name the file
index.html. - Paste in your HTML code. For a super minimal test, you can use the sample code below:
- Scroll down, add an optional commit message (like “Initial one-page site”), and click “Commit new file”.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>My Awesome Personal Page</title>
<style>body { font-family: sans-serif; text-align: center; padding-top: 50px; }</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello, I'm Ray!</h1>
<p>This is my personal one-page website, hosted for free on GitHub Pages.</p>
<p>Check out my code on <a href="https://github.com/ray-idempiere">GitHub</a>.</p>
</body>
</html>Step 3: Wait and View!
That’s it! GitHub will automatically detect the special repository name and deploy your site.
- Wait a few minutes (it can take up to 10 minutes for the first build).
- Visit your site at
https://.<your-username>.github.io
Customization and Next Steps
Once your site is live, the fun begins!
- Styling: Add a
style.cssfile to your repository and link it in yourindex.htmlto fully customize the look. - Jekyll Templates: If you want a richer portfolio or blog without building from scratch, consider forking a Jekyll theme for GitHub Pages. These templates provide structure, navigation, and pre-built styles.
- Advanced Tools: For more complex needs, explore static site generators like Jekyll, Hugo, or Astro. You can generate your static files locally and simply push the output to your GitHub Pages repository.
GitHub Pages democratizes web hosting, giving you a powerful, free, and developer-centric foundation for your personal online hub.