Vercel vs. GitHub Pages

Introduction

Vercel is a cloud platform as a service for building and deploying websites. It allows developers to host websites that scale automatically on the platform without supervision and configuration –It helps to automate and speed up development processes. With just a line of code using the Vercel CLI you can deploy your project to a global network of servers, the Vercel cloud-based platform will handle other tasks like scaling your app, enabling security, and server provisioning.

GitHub Pages is a web hosting service that is part of GitHub. GitHub repositories containing files like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images are used automatically by GitHub pages to build a webpage. GitHub Pages offers a swift and uncomplicated method to build basic static websites, that are especially fine for hosting project pages, documentation, and similar websites that don't need a dynamic backend. It's versatile too, It supports static site generators like Jekyll and enables customization of your website's appearance through personalized themes.

This article will help you to understand what each tool stands for, and their respective features, you will learn about the benefits of using each tool for deployment especially when you’re considering the complexity of your project.

What is Vercel?

Vercel makes it easy to put your website online. It's cloud-based and designed for developers. It's fast, comes with ready-made templates to start your site quickly, and saves you from dealing with server setups or hosting. When you upload your project to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket and then bring it into Vercel, it automatically sets everything up for you

Vercel allows you to create and launch applications using different programming languages and frameworks. You can benefit from features such as automatic SSL, serverless functions, and continuous deployment.

Features

• Vercel enables developers to set up projects to their custom domain and free automatic SSL – “SSL is a standard technology for securing an internet connection by encrypting data sent between a website and a browser (or between two servers). It prevents hackers from seeing or stealing any information transferred, including personal or financial data” - digicert.

• It scales automatically – and requires no monitoring or sever configuration.

• Integrates directly with Git Hub, GitLab, or Bitbucket – developers can host and deploy their website and web apps on Vercel if they have the repository containing their project on either GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket.

What is GitHub pages?

“GitHub Pages is a static site hosting service that takes HTML, CSS and JavaScript files straight from a repository on GitHub optionally runs the file through a build process and publishes a website”. – GitHub Doc

GitHub Pages is a tool for creating basic web pages. It caters to organizations and private users with an easy-to-use system for making simple web pages. GitHub pages is known for its ease of use, seamless integration with git workflow, and support for custom domains. This makes it a popular choice for hosting different types of static websites, personal pages, project documentation, and more.

Features of Github pages

• GitHub Actions Integration – Users leverage this feature to automate workflows, such as running tests, deploying additional content, or performing specific actions before deploying changes to the GitHub pages site.

• Automatic Builds – Github pages automatically build pages and update the hosted site whenever changes are pushed to the connected repository, streamlining the deployment process.

• HTTPS Encryption – It automatically provides HTTPS encryption for sites hosted on its platform ensuring a secure browsing experience for visitors

Core differences between Vercel and GitHub pages

Deployment workflow

Vercel offers a streamlined deployment process with automatic deployment upon pushing changes to a linked repository. It integrates with git, enabling simplicity in CD (continuous development) and preview environments. While GitHub pages deployment is tied to git commits of a specific branch. When changes a made or pushed to that branch GitHub Pages automatically updates the hosted site.

Advanced features

Vercel provides additional features like serverless functions, edge network optimizations, environment variables, and more, enabling developers to create complex web applications with enhanced performance. While GitHub pages permanently focus on serving static content and don’t provide an extensive suite of advanced features.

Hosting Platform

Vercel is a cloud platform for static deployment supporting different frameworks and languages. It provides a comprehensive platform for hosting web projects with advanced functionalities. While GitHub pages is a static site hosting service tied particularly to a GitHub repository, directly deploying static content such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScrirpt from that repository branch.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this article explains that Vercel is a cloud-based infrastructure to deploy web apps built with different programming languages and frameworks, While GitHub Pages is a static site hosting service. Though features could seem similar but, their core differences will help you decide which tool to use for your deployment based on the size or complexity of your projects.