# GitHub Pages 86 Hacker News commenters recommended GitHub Pages and 26 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Free static site hosting on your own domain, with files easy to move elsewhere. Critics warn of domain abuse and phishing-like setups, and stale deploys. ## Why people recommend it - Free hosting, including custom domains (8 comments): "GitHub Pages is free and allows you to use whatever domain you have already own. Almost all of the websites I run are hosted on GitHub Pages." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49733220)) "it was free, it was accessible to people that couldn't spend money for a hosting provider" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47533852)) "I use GitHub Pages for free hosting and let them build things for me when I push updates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46489435)) - Easy to move away from (4 comments): "If you have a static site, you don't need to worry about lock-in, since your files are easily portable to a different provider." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49212884)) "Connect it with your personal domain name in case later you want to run it somewhere else." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46012916)) "Its agent independent and if github changes anything to this, i still have the code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49943339)) - Simple setup and low maintenance (5 comments): "It's not complicated, it's tied to a git repo, it won't struggle if I ever get a popular post." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49302694)) "GitHub Pages serving directly from a /docs folder makes it even simpler, no separate deploy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47380758)) "That felt pretty simple when I was looking for a solution to this exact situation." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46107592)) - Reliable uptime and longevity (3 comments): "I can trust that Github Pages will have reasonable uptime, and I won't have to monitor it at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47535105)) "A huge advantage of GH / CF is that your site has a strong chance of outliving you" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48969131)) "Github Pages is a git-backed “CMS” used by millions of people. It works fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46261533)) ## What people warn about - Deploys sometimes stale or delayed (2 comments): "the problem is that GitHub frequently doesn't deploy updates to the pages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49212196)) "I spent 30mins debugging why my Github Pages were serving old versions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48764880)) - Custom domain abuse and phishing (5 comments): "GitHub could solve this by making users verify they own a domain name by adding a value to a txt record" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48190646)) "I did not expect that Github facilitates other accounts creating scam pages under the domain I own" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48191111)) "It's phishy because it's breaks the rules people are generally told for avoiding phishing links" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46936409)) - Dependence on a corporate host (3 comments): "Isn't publishing on Github Pages still posting to a corporate centrally owned entity" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47125655)) "The dependency on MS should be evaluated for you as user and for your visitors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46014223)) "I don't think either using GitHub or hosting it on Github Pages respects" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46511795)) - Missing headers and features (2 comments): "GitHub Pages still doesn't let you do this, although it's the third-most-upvoted feature request." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46553019)) "they still haven't implemented custom headers in GitHub pages or custom mime types" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47725037)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Vercel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vercel.md): 139 recommend - [Cloudflare Pages](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-pages.md): 83 recommend - [Netlify](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netlify.md): 36 recommend - [Cloudflare Drop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-drop.md): 19 recommend - [Statichost.eu](https://hackerapproved.com/p/statichost-eu.md): 17 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://pages.github.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "GitHub Pages", https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-pages/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).