TL;DR: I chose Cloudflare Pages to host my blog because of unlimited bandwidth and easy and error free deployment.
Candidates
There are lots of place can host a blog. Today I’m comparing the these three platforms because Github Pages is oldest way I used before, Vercel is hot on Twitter, and Cloudflare is trending on Twitter as well.
Requirement
- Compatible to Hugo
- Easy to use
- Free
- Custom Domain
Github Pages
Guide
https://gohugo.io/hosting-and-deployment/hosting-on-github/
Compatible to Hugo
Github Pages doesn’t native support Hugo but built files of Hugo can be deployed via Github Action
Easy to use
Due to no native support, Users have to manually create a Github Action configuration.
Free
Github Pages is free with limits below
- Must be public repository for free account
- 100 GB bandwidth
- Published GitHub Pages sites may be no larger than 1 GB
Vercel
Guide
I followed this official guide to deploy a Hugo site
Compatible to Hugo
Vercel build is general build process which mean can build anything with customization.
Easy to use
Note: registering Vercel need a phone number
You can’t finish the deployment by following the guide above, because the NodeJS in repository it used it out of date. After you fix the NodeJS version issue, there is another issue, No hugo command installd. Once you customize the build settings. The build process is stuck there.
Free
- Can deploy private repository
- 100 GB bandwidth
Cloudflare Pages
Guide
https://developers.cloudflare.com/pages/framework-guides/deploy-a-hugo-site/
Easy to Use
Beside initiate a hugo site and published to github repository, Cloudflare deployed my blog in a few minute with couples of click on their dashboard
Free
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Published files can’t exceed 25MB, which mean you may not able to host your images on pages.
Summary
I tried Vercel this time but it failed me. In the meanwhile, Cloudflare surprised me in terms of easy and generous Bandwidth.
| Platform | Easy to use | Free | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Github Pages | Fair | Fair | |
| Vercel | Worst | Fair | |
| Cloudflare Pages | Best | Best | Choose this if you don’t host images on Pages |