Free Hosting on GitHub

Github Web Hosting.md

Free Hosting on GitHub

This guide will take you from zero webserver knowledge, to having your own free site hosted on GitHub. The only non-free bit is registering a domain name, which can be as cheap as $5/year.

This guide uses CrazyDomains as the Registrar, FreeDNS as the DNS, and GitHub as the Webserver.

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1) Domain Registration and Setup

The Domain Name Registrar is where you register your domain name, This is the only not free step. Your registrar needs to know which DNS Server will associate the Domain Name with a WebServer. I've got mine with CrazyDomains, as they offer the cheapest .com.au domains.

1. Create an account, chuck in your payment details, etc.
2. Register your domain(s)
3. Set your domains Name Servers to ns1.afraid.org, ns2, ns3, and ns4.

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2) Setup your DNS

Edit: Ignore this section and use CloudFlare instead. It's free, it's a DNS, It's also a CDN, and it's also easier.

I use FreeDNS, cause it's free, and doesn't look too dodgy.

1. Set up an account, login
2. Go to Domains -> Add a Domain to FreeDNS Domain: yourdomain.com Shared State: Shared: Public
3. Go to Domains -> yourdomain.com -> Manage
4. Click the Add button at the top-right Type: A Subdomain: blank Domain: yourdomain.com (public)(broken!) Destination: 192.30.252.153 Wildcard: ticked
5. Click the Add button next to yourdomain.com again, same settings as last time, but this time use the ip: 192.30.252.154

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3) Set Up your Website on GitHub

1. go to GitHub.com, create an account, and login
2. Create a new Repository, mame it yourdomain.com, leave it as Public, and tick `Initialize this repository with a README``
3. Click Settings (in the right-middle -- for the repo, not for your account)
4. Under Github Pages click Automatic page generator
5. Make any changes you like, put in a Google Analytics ID if you want awesome free stats, click Continue to layouts
6. Choose a theme, or just go with the default and change it later. Click Publish Page
7. Your page can now be viewed at http://<your github username>.github.io/<your repo name>/
8. Back on your repo's page, click Branch: master and change to the gh-pages branch
9. Next to the Branch selector, it will show yourdomain.com, followed by a / and a +. Click the + to create a new file.
10. Name the file CNAME and put yourdomain.com inside as the contents, click Commit new file to save it.

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That's it! Everything's set up!

It can take up to 24 hours for the Domain Name to propogate, sometimes it only takes a few minutes thoughu. Until then browsing to yourdomain.com will just return an error. If you're really impatient you can add it to your computer's hosts file, otherwise just wait it out.

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Tips

• Settings -> Default branch: gh-pages

My Websiite

This method no-longer works. It doesn't display your page anymore but rather advertisers the theme you selected eventhough you have published your page. Is there an updated method that anyone knows, it will be very much appreciated.

Looking to use github as host already have a domain will google domains thoughts?

any thoughts on hosting ecommerce website?

Will be an actual website for the public to gain access too? I'm trying to create a shopping website like Amazon and other companies

Wow, didn't realise there were actual comments on here, haha!
I might update this today, but yeah: the exact instructions for the gh-pages stuff has changed, the nameservers are wrong 'cause they're pointing to freedns instad of cloudflare, and I haven't documented cloudflare. so it's a bit... almost all wrong :)

possibility for any mySQL? just curious

@cactusadmin nope

It says step 3. Set your domains Name Servers to ns1.afraid.org, ns2, ns3, and ns4.

Now its asking for ip address?

I have a site up and running on github pages, its 2018 man better option are out in there for gh-pages deployment.

In my opinion your best bet in to use godaddy for domain(They are the best), cloudflare for nameserver, use any IP of pages.github.io for A name record and the casual uploading of your site on your repo, private repo would be better if you plan to be a lil bit pro.
And boom, you are good to go.

Reasons for using cloudflare:

Free DDoS protection,
Free Nameservers,
Free static caching

Site that I hosted,
alnisaarifwala.com

my websit

Getting a domain from Google Domains is cheaper than CrazyDomains.

Can you also host subdomains?

Yes you can @josenavento

You might want to take this page down since none of it is accurate anymore

how duz you make my web sit? it's been standing all day meny thanks

it's easy with cPanel.. try alchosting https://www.alchosting.net/free-hosting/
here the guides https://blogs.alchosting.net/free-hosting/how-to-get-free-hosting-with-cpanel/

Hey this is so good and worked well but i have a query is that can we place our own web pages in it rather than theme?
Thanks!

@lit-devs yea you can, just make sure to have an index.html for the root, and a 404.html for 404 pages.

You didn't mention that you're assuming the user wants to version control the source code for a website.
I was halfway into doing all the steps before I realized this.
Because of it, I put my company's IT department through some hoop jumping to get me a test domain that I won't end up needing.

Bottom line, you need to warn the reader early on:
There is NO NEED for a domain name if you are trying out GitHub but are not maintaining a website!

("Set up your website on GitHub" doesn't mean setting up some views of your project in GitHub. The O.P. means literally "you have a website, now put the source for it in GitHub.")

Hey this is so good and worked well but i have a query is that can we place our own web pages in it rather than theme?
Thanks!

Yeah same question here plz someone Answer as soon as possible....

Hey this is so good and worked well but i have a query is that can we place our own web pages in it rather than theme?
Thanks!

Yeah same question here plz someone Answer as soon as possible....

Hey! Yeah, you can. Just put an index.html in the root as the main page.

For 404 pages, you can create a 404.html for all 404 pages.

For anything else like other html, css, js, img, and other files, just create those and link them relatively and you’ll be all set!

Thanks,
If you have anymore questions, just ask, you can also mention me or other people!

Thanks. This was all super helpful. I got CrazyDomains + Cloudflare + Github Pages up and running, just with index.html (I'll add on a Jekyll theme later). The big thing to note is that "It can take up to 24 hours for the Domain Name to propagate". I had to wait overnight before all the pieces clicked into place for mine.

I was confused for a while about the "Enforce HTTPS" check box on the Github's Pages Settings. In the end, I read that that I could safely keep that unchecked because Cloudflare takes care of that.

Awesome! I use Cloudflare for all my domains and the checkbox is disabled on all of them

Todo: use CloudFlare instead of FreeDNS

bro please do you know where i can get a free domain like example.com or example.net for free without any verification , 🙏

Lots of interesting ideas here, and thanks Dean for getting this convo started. But what i am thinking is...Is there any way to get something like this up and running on github? https://www.esgthereport.com

freenom and 000webhost is good and $0 dollars unlimited

My Domain:
inventionmaster.tk
Im not done with my website

dont click css buttons or it will show red screen!!

@Sputnik771100 https://www.esgthereport.com is already registered did u go to that page yourself yet??

CrazyDomains have crazy prices, I would use any other providers, google is one of the best, run away from CrazyDomains.