Head to head
Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.
Up to 4 tools, same rows for each: what it is, what it really costs, the trap, and how to wire it up. The URL carries your picks — send it to anyone.
NetlifyGitHub PagesAWS Amplify Hosting
Quick read
- Free with no card: GitHub Pages.
| Field | Netlifynetlify.com | GitHub Pagespages.github.com | AWS Amplify Hostingaws.amazon.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Git-driven host for static and SSR sites with build plugins, edge functions, forms, identity and split testing. It has moved to a unified credit model: bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB, compute 10 credits per GB-hour and each production deploy 15 credits. | Serves a static site directly from a repository branch or a GitHub Actions build, with free HTTPS on custom domains. Limits are soft rather than metered: a 1 GB published site, 100 GB of bandwidth a month and 10 builds an hour. No server-side code at all. | AWS's managed CI/CD plus CloudFront hosting for React, Vite and Next.js, with SSR on Lambda and first-party wiring into Cognito, AppSync, DynamoDB and S3. Pricing is pure pay-per-unit — $0.15 per GB served, $0.01 per build minute, $0.30 per million SSR requests. |
| Category | Hosting, deploy & edge | Hosting, deploy & edge | Hosting, deploy & edge |
| Cost tier | mixed | free | mixed |
| Pricing | Free: 300 credits/mo, hard-capped (~15 GB bandwidth). Pro $20/mo flat, unlimited seats, 3,000-20,000 credits. Credits: 20 per GB bandwidth, 10 per compute GB-hour, 15 per production deploy, 2 per 10k requests. Top-up $10 per 1,500 credits. | Free on public repos with GitHub Free; private repos require Pro ($4/mo), Team or Enterprise. Soft limits: 1 GB published site, 100 GB bandwidth per month, 10 builds per hour (waived when using a custom Actions workflow). | Free tier: 1,000 build minutes, 5 GB stored, 15 GB served, 500k SSR requests, 100 GB-hours SSR compute per month. Then $0.01 per standard build minute, $0.023/GB stored, $0.15/GB served, $0.30 per 1M SSR requests, $0.20 per SSR GB-hour. |
| Why builders pick it | The friendliest deploy-from-Git flow outside Vercel, with built-in forms, redirects and identity that save you writing a backend. Drag a dist folder onto the dashboard and it is live in seconds. | The zero-thought way to publish a Vite build, docs site or portfolio — one Actions workflow and it is live forever with no billing relationship to worry about and no credit card on file. | If the rest of your stack already lives in AWS, Amplify keeps auth, data and hosting inside one IAM boundary with per-branch environments. The free tier covers a low-traffic first year comfortably. |
| Watch out for | Netlify famously invoiced a hobbyist $104,000 after a 2024 DDoS (later waived). Today the Free plan is a genuine hard cap — sites pause rather than bill — and auto-recharge on Pro is off by default. Leave it off. The 300-credit free tier is far smaller than the old 100 GB. | GitHub's terms forbid running a business, e-commerce or SaaS on Pages. Billing risk is genuinely zero, but so are redirects, SSR, server env vars and access control. Exceeding 100 GB earns a polite email, not an invoice. | AWS has no hard spend cap — Budgets only send alerts. Amplify tutorial defaults have produced four-figure bills, including a documented $1,100 charge from an undisclosed OpenSearch instance (refunded). Create an AWS Budget with an SNS or Lambda action that disables the offending resources. |
| How to wire it up | npx netlify-cli deploy --prod | npx gh-pages -d dist | npm create amplify@latest && npx ampx sandbox |
| Editor's pick | No | No | No |
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# Tool comparison — Netlify vs GitHub Pages vs AWS Amplify Hosting Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects. Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code. ## Netlify (netlify) - URL: https://www.netlify.com - Category: Hosting, deploy & edge - Cost: mixed — Free: 300 credits/mo, hard-capped (~15 GB bandwidth). Pro $20/mo flat, unlimited seats, 3,000-20,000 credits. Credits: 20 per GB bandwidth, 10 per compute GB-hour, 15 per production deploy, 2 per 10k requests. Top-up $10 per 1,500 credits. - What it is: Git-driven host for static and SSR sites with build plugins, edge functions, forms, identity and split testing. It has moved to a unified credit model: bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB, compute 10 credits per GB-hour and each production deploy 15 credits. - Why builders pick it: The friendliest deploy-from-Git flow outside Vercel, with built-in forms, redirects and identity that save you writing a backend. Drag a dist folder onto the dashboard and it is live in seconds. - Trap: Netlify famously invoiced a hobbyist $104,000 after a 2024 DDoS (later waived). Today the Free plan is a genuine hard cap — sites pause rather than bill — and auto-recharge on Pro is off by default. Leave it off. The 300-credit free tier is far smaller than the old 100 GB. - Wiring: npx netlify-cli deploy --prod - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/netlify ## GitHub Pages (github-pages) - URL: https://pages.github.com - Category: Hosting, deploy & edge - Cost: free — Free on public repos with GitHub Free; private repos require Pro ($4/mo), Team or Enterprise. Soft limits: 1 GB published site, 100 GB bandwidth per month, 10 builds per hour (waived when using a custom Actions workflow). - What it is: Serves a static site directly from a repository branch or a GitHub Actions build, with free HTTPS on custom domains. Limits are soft rather than metered: a 1 GB published site, 100 GB of bandwidth a month and 10 builds an hour. No server-side code at all. - Why builders pick it: The zero-thought way to publish a Vite build, docs site or portfolio — one Actions workflow and it is live forever with no billing relationship to worry about and no credit card on file. - Trap: GitHub's terms forbid running a business, e-commerce or SaaS on Pages. Billing risk is genuinely zero, but so are redirects, SSR, server env vars and access control. Exceeding 100 GB earns a polite email, not an invoice. - Wiring: npx gh-pages -d dist - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/github-pages ## AWS Amplify Hosting (aws-amplify-hosting) - URL: https://aws.amazon.com/amplify/ - Category: Hosting, deploy & edge - Cost: mixed — Free tier: 1,000 build minutes, 5 GB stored, 15 GB served, 500k SSR requests, 100 GB-hours SSR compute per month. Then $0.01 per standard build minute, $0.023/GB stored, $0.15/GB served, $0.30 per 1M SSR requests, $0.20 per SSR GB-hour. - What it is: AWS's managed CI/CD plus CloudFront hosting for React, Vite and Next.js, with SSR on Lambda and first-party wiring into Cognito, AppSync, DynamoDB and S3. Pricing is pure pay-per-unit — $0.15 per GB served, $0.01 per build minute, $0.30 per million SSR requests. - Why builders pick it: If the rest of your stack already lives in AWS, Amplify keeps auth, data and hosting inside one IAM boundary with per-branch environments. The free tier covers a low-traffic first year comfortably. - Trap: AWS has no hard spend cap — Budgets only send alerts. Amplify tutorial defaults have produced four-figure bills, including a documented $1,100 charge from an undisclosed OpenSearch instance (refunded). Create an AWS Budget with an SNS or Lambda action that disables the offending resources. - Wiring: npm create amplify@latest && npx ampx sandbox - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/aws-amplify-hosting ## Quick read - Free with no card: GitHub Pages. ## Rules 1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is. 2. Read the full dossier before integrating. 3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.
Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=netlify,github-pages,aws-amplify-hosting