How to Build and Deploy Your First Website for Free

Two paths: build it yourself or use a template

Before we get into the steps, know that you have two options:

Option A: Use a free template Easiest

Download a pre-built HTML template, swap in your business name, services, and contact info, and deploy it. You don't write any code from scratch. Sites like HTML5 UP (html5up.net) have free professional templates.

Option B: Write it from scratch

Takes longer but gives you full control. If you want to understand how websites work — which is valuable if you're planning to build more in the future — this is the path. Claude (the AI) can write most of your HTML and CSS for you if you describe what you want.

This guide assumes Option A — using a template and customizing it. It's the fastest path to a live website that actually looks good.

Step 1: Create a GitHub account

GitHub is where your website files will live. Think of it as a folder in the cloud that also tracks every change you've ever made. It's free, and Cloudflare Pages connects directly to it to host your site.

Go to github.com
Click "Sign up"
Create a username, enter your email, set a password
Verify your email
On the dashboard, click New repository (a repository is just a folder for a project)
Name it something like my-business-website
Set it to Public (required for free Cloudflare Pages hosting)
Check "Add a README file" and click Create

What is GitHub really? It's a place to store and manage code. Professionals use it because it tracks changes, lets you roll back mistakes, and makes collaboration easy. For our purposes, it's just a reliable place to keep your website files that connects cleanly to free hosting.

Step 2: Create your website files

A basic website is just a few files. The most important one is index.html — that's the file that loads when someone visits your homepage.

If you're using a template

Go to html5up.net and browse the free templates
Download one you like — it comes as a .zip file
Unzip it on your computer
Open the folder — you'll see an index.html file and folders for assets, CSS, etc.
Open index.html in a text editor (Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac, or download VS Code for a better experience)
Find the placeholder text (things like "Your Name", "This is your homepage", etc.) and replace them with your actual business name, services, and contact info
Save the file

If you want to use AI to help you write it

Open Claude (claude.ai) and describe what you want. For example:

"Write a simple one-page HTML website for my cleaning business called Sunshine Cleaning. Include a header with my business name and nav links, a hero section with a headline and call-to-action button, a services section listing house cleaning, office cleaning, and move-out cleaning, and a contact section with a phone number and email. Make it look clean and modern with a light color scheme."

Claude will write the full HTML file for you. Copy it, save it as index.html on your computer, and open it in a browser to see how it looks. Keep refining until you're happy with it.

You don't have to know how to code to have a real website. Templates and AI get you 90% of the way there. The remaining 10% is editing text and images, which anyone can do.

Step 3: Upload to GitHub

Now you need to get your website files into your GitHub repository.

The easy way (no command line needed)

Go to your repository on github.com
Click Add file → Upload files
Drag and drop all your website files and folders into the upload area
Scroll down, write a brief commit message like "Add website files"
Click Commit changes

Your files are now in GitHub. When you make changes later, you'll re-upload the updated files the same way.

Make sure index.html is in the root of the repository — not inside a folder. Cloudflare Pages looks for index.html at the top level to serve as your homepage.

Step 4: Deploy on Cloudflare Pages

Cloudflare Pages connects to your GitHub repository and automatically serves your website to the world. For free.

Go to dash.cloudflare.com and create a free account
In the left menu, click Workers & Pages
Click Create application → Pages → Connect to Git
Connect your GitHub account and select your repository
Leave the build settings blank (your site is plain HTML, no build step needed)
Click Save and Deploy

Cloudflare will deploy your site in about 30 seconds. You'll get a free URL that looks like my-business-website.pages.dev — your site is live.

Step 5: Connect your custom domain

The .pages.dev URL works but it doesn't look professional. To use your real domain (yourbusiness.com), follow the steps in our domain and hosting guide — specifically the Cloudflare Pages section.

Short version: In your Cloudflare Pages project, go to Custom Domains → Add custom domain. If your domain is also registered through Cloudflare, it's two clicks. If it's at another registrar, you'll update the nameservers to point to Cloudflare.

How to update your site

Once everything is connected, updating your website is simple:

Edit the file on your computer
Go to GitHub, navigate to the file
Click the pencil icon to edit, or re-upload the file
Commit the change
Cloudflare Pages automatically detects the update and redeploys within 60 seconds

That's it. No FTP clients, no confusing dashboards, no waiting. Edit → commit → it's live.

Want to get faster? Download VS Code (free code editor) and the GitHub Desktop app. Once you connect them, you can edit files locally and push updates with two clicks. The Growth Hub walkthrough covers this setup.

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Want to go further?

The Growth Hub includes a complete starter website template you can use for your business, a full walkthrough with screenshots, tips for making your site show up on Google, how to add a contact form, and more.

Join the Growth Hub — $19/month