Vercel vs GitHub pages comparison for project maker
What is better Vercel or GitHub pages in terms of customization and settings
If you're at a point where you want to build a site that goes beyond just a portfolio or a blog—something you might monetize, track analytics on, add dynamic features to, or even scale up into something bigger—it’s important to choose your hosting platform wisely. GitHub Pages and Vercel are both wildly popular options, but they offer fundamentally different experiences once you want to do more than just put HTML online.
Let’s begin with GitHub Pages. It's brilliant for what it is: a free, dead-simple way to get a static website online. If you're using Jekyll or even manually maintaining HTML/CSS, GitHub Pages feels frictionless. You push to your GitHub repo, and your site gets updated. For personal blogs or documentation sites, it’s probably the easiest route. But when you want to expand—start injecting interactivity, connect to APIs, track users, or embed ads—GitHub Pages starts to feel limited.
For example, GitHub Pages doesn’t give you much in terms of backend capability. If you need serverless functions, authentication, dynamic content, or persistent storage, you're going to need to reach for third-party services. It becomes a bit of a "glue code" experience: add Firebase here, Netlify functions there, inject Google Analytics manually, paste your AdSense script into the <head>. It’s all possible—but it’s a patchwork.
Now take Vercel. Right out of the gate, it’s built for modern JavaScript-heavy frameworks like Next.js (which they also maintain). You can deploy static or dynamic content, integrate serverless functions by just dropping a function.js file in the right folder, and scale automatically. You don’t have to stitch third-party services as haphazardly because Vercel is designed for full-stack web development—especially for people writing React or TypeScript.
Want to add analytics? Vercel has first-party integrations and support for things like Plausible or Google Analytics, and you can even bring your own middleware or build API routes directly into the app. Want to monetize? You’re not constrained by a static model. You can plug in Stripe, handle payment callbacks with Vercel’s serverless functions, and secure user sessions. Want SEO? Next.js gives you server-side rendering and dynamic routes that GitHub Pages will never support natively.
And then there’s the development ergonomics. GitHub Pages is minimal. That’s good, but minimal also means limited. Vercel, especially with Git integration, gives you preview environments per branch, automatic deployments, environment variables, and even rollbacks—features that usually only show up in mature CI/CD pipelines.
Of course, there are trade-offs. GitHub Pages is free with no real ceiling. Vercel’s free tier is generous, but once you go over the limit of build minutes, serverless invocations, or collaborators, you’ll start paying. And if you don’t need all the power, GitHub Pages is going to feel less noisy.
But if you’re planning to do anything that resembles a product or service—especially something where you'll want to add features over time, observe traffic patterns, or earn revenue—then I’d strongly lean toward Vercel. It lets you focus on building your site like a modern application, not managing deployment or duct-taping infrastructure together. And it plays well with both frontend and backend development.
So to sum it up, here’s a simplified breakdown of how I think about it:
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GitHub Pages is great for:
- Static sites
- Personal blogs/documentation
- Zero-maintenance hobby projects
- Markdown-focused workflows like Jekyll
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Vercel shines when:
- You want dynamic routes, server-side logic
- You use JavaScript frameworks like Next.js or Nuxt
- You care about scaling, A/B testing, user sessions, or monetization
- You want CI/CD-level deployment features out-of-the-box
In 2025, where most serious sites are some flavor of full-stack app, Vercel gives you more space to grow.
So if you're choosing a platform for something real—a product, a service, a serious blog with plans to scale—go with Vercel. If you're just putting your résumé online or publishing Markdown from a repo, GitHub Pages is totally fine.
But if I had to bet on one platform maturing with my ambitions, it's Vercel.
| Feature / Criterion | GitHub Pages | Vercel |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting Type | Static Site Hosting (via GitHub repos) | Full-stack (Static + Serverless Functions) |
| Monetization Support | Indirect only (e.g., AdSense/3rd party scripts) | Full flexibility, supports dynamic backends |
| Custom Domain Support | Yes | Yes |
| HTTPS Support | Automatic via Let's Encrypt | Automatic via Let's Encrypt |
| CI/CD Integration | Built-in via GitHub Actions | Built-in via GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket integrations |
| Ease of Use | Beginner-friendly for static content | Slightly more complex but powerful |
| Markdown Support | Native via Jekyll/Static Generators | Yes (via frameworks like Next.js or static markdown loaders) |
| Analytics Integration | Manual setup via scripts (e.g., Google Analytics) | Native integrations + script-based analytics |
| SEO Features | Basic, manual configuration | Rich SEO options with frameworks like Next.js |
| Dynamic Features | No (requires external services or JS workarounds) | Yes (serverless functions, APIs, dynamic routes) |
| Plugin Ecosystem | Jekyll plugins (limited) | Full NPM ecosystem, custom logic |
| Form Handling | Requires third-party tools (e.g., Formspree) | Custom endpoints possible with serverless functions |
| Authentication | Not native | Possible via serverless + third-party auth |
| Performance Optimization | Good, via CDN | Excellent (Vercel Edge Network, Image Optimization) |
| Image Hosting/Opt. | Manual | Built-in image optimization |
| Pricing | Free for public repos | Free tier, then pay-as-you-go for pro features |
| Feature Scalability | Limited (mainly static use case) | Highly scalable (static + dynamic) |
| Best For | Personal blogs, documentation, simple sites | SaaS, blogs, dynamic apps, API-backed content |
| Feature / Criterion | GitHub Pages | Vercel |
| ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| Hosting Type | Static Site Hosting (via GitHub repos) | Full-stack (Static + Serverless Functions) |
| Monetization Support | Indirect only (e.g., AdSense/3rd party scripts) | Full flexibility, supports dynamic backends |
| Custom Domain Support | Yes | Yes |
| HTTPS Support | Automatic via Let's Encrypt | Automatic via Let's Encrypt |
| CI/CD Integration | Built-in via GitHub Actions | Built-in via GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket integrations |
| Ease of Use | Beginner-friendly for static content | Slightly more complex but powerful |
| Markdown Support | Native via Jekyll/Static Generators | Yes (via frameworks like Next.js or static markdown loaders) |
| Analytics Integration | Manual setup via scripts (e.g., Google Analytics) | Native integrations + script-based analytics |
| SEO Features | Basic, manual configuration | Rich SEO options with frameworks like Next.js |
| Dynamic Features | No (requires external services or JS workarounds) | Yes (serverless functions, APIs, dynamic routes) |
| Plugin Ecosystem | Jekyll plugins (limited) | Full NPM ecosystem, custom logic |
| Form Handling | Requires third-party tools (e.g., Formspree) | Custom endpoints possible with serverless functions |
| Authentication | Not native | Possible via serverless + third-party auth |
| Performance Optimization | Good, via CDN | Excellent (Vercel Edge Network, Image Optimization) |
| Image Hosting/Opt. | Manual | Built-in image optimization |
| Pricing | Free for public repos | Free tier, then pay-as-you-go for pro features |
| Feature Scalability | Limited (mainly static use case) | Highly scalable (static + dynamic) |
| Best For | Personal blogs, documentation, simple sites | SaaS, blogs, dynamic apps, API-backed content |
Summary Notes
GitHub Pages is great if your blog is 100% static and you're happy with minimal functionality (markdown articles, basic themes, and maybe some JavaScript). It's ideal if you're not looking to add dynamic features like real-time search, user auth, comments without external services, or payments. Vercel, on the other hand, is tailored for modern web apps, especially when using Next.js. If you’re aiming to monetize, track analytics in a scalable way, build SEO-friendly content, and later add dynamic features like search, recommendations, newsletters, and user accounts — Vercel is the more flexible choice. For editing and templating, Vercel gives more flexibility via Node.js backend code or CMS integration, whereas GitHub Pages would need more manual work or a static site generator workflow.