# Host a Free Website with Cloudflare Pages and GitHub

**Cloudflare Pages** hosts a static site for free, straight from a GitHub repo.
Connect the repo and every push triggers a build — `jekyll build`, `hugo`,
whatever your generator runs — served from Cloudflare's global edge in about a
minute. The repo is your source of truth, and **push *is* deploy**: edit, commit,
push, and the live site updates itself. No server, no monthly bill.

> This is the same setup this very site runs on. Building it *is* the guide.

What you'll need: a **GitHub account** with your site in a repo, and a free
**Cloudflare account**. Setup takes about 15 minutes, once.

## 1. Put your site in a GitHub repo

Get your site into a GitHub repo. For a plain site, that's the folder with your
`index.html`; for a static-site generator, it's the whole project — the
**source**, not the built output. Cloudflare runs the build.

*(New to Git? GitHub's "Create a repo" guide covers the first push.)*

## 2. Create a Pages project

In the Cloudflare dashboard, pick your account, then open **Workers & Pages**
(under **Compute**) and hit **Create application**. Cloudflare now leads with its
Workers flow — click **"Looking to deploy Pages? Get started,"** then **Import an
existing Git repository**. Authorize the GitHub app, and when it offers, **scope
it to just the repo you're deploying**, not every repo you own. Pick your repo.

## 3. Tell Cloudflare how to build it

Cloudflare needs two things: the build command, and where the output lands.

- **Plain HTML?** Preset **None**, no build command, output directory = the
  folder holding your files (often the repo root).
- **Static-site generator?** Pick its **preset** (Jekyll, Hugo, Astro, …) to fill
  in both — Jekyll builds with `jekyll build` into `_site`.

Two things that trip people up:

- **Runtime version.** Set it with an environment variable so the builder matches
  your local one: `RUBY_VERSION = 3.2.2` for Jekyll, `NODE_VERSION` for JS tools.
- **Output directory must match reality.** If your build writes to `dist` or
  `public`, set that here — or you'll deploy an empty site.

## 4. Deploy

Hit **Save and Deploy**. Cloudflare clones the repo, runs the build, and
publishes — in about a minute you get a live URL at `your-project.pages.dev`, on
HTTPS and the global edge.

If the build fails, open the **build log** — it's almost always a wrong output
directory or a missing version variable from the last step. Fix it and push;
Cloudflare retries on its own.

## 5. Put it on your own domain

`pages.dev` works, but you'll want your own address. In the project's **Custom
domains** tab, add your domain. If its DNS is already on Cloudflare, Cloudflare
wires up the record and issues the HTTPS certificate for you — usually live within
minutes.

## 6. From now on, it deploys itself

That's the payoff: **edit → commit → push**, and Cloudflare rebuilds and
redeploys. Every push to `main` is a new deployment; other branches get their own
preview URLs, so you can look before you ship.

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## Next: keep it private if it's not for everyone

A Pages site is public by default. To limit it to specific people — a staging
site, an internal dashboard — put a free login wall in front and allow only the
email addresses you choose. See the companion guide, [Restrict a Website to Specific
People with Cloudflare Access](/cloudflare-access-wall/).