Am I allowed to host a commerical website on GitHub Pages?

Question

Can I host my company's website on GitHub Pages, if I wanted?

Are there any restrictions on what you can and can't use GitHub pages for?

We don't get a lot of traffic, so I don't think bandwidth is the issue. I'm interested from a legal perspective.

Answer 1

Note! This answer is old and outdated, please check the other answers here, as well as checking the current Terms of Service.

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(rest of answer is left as-is)

According to the GitHub Terms of Service, under section G. General Conditions, you'll find this:

5. You may use GitHub subdomains (e.g., yourname.github.io) solely as permitted and intended by the GitHub Pages tool to host your company pages, personal pages, or open source project pages, and for no other purpose. You may not use GitHub subdomains in violation of GitHub's trademark or other rights or in violation of applicable law. GitHub reserves the right at all times to reclaim any GitHub subdomain without liability to you.

(my emphasis)

After you did contact GitHub directly you commented that their response was:

The content of Pages is at the user's discretion, as long as it's legal and doesn't otherwise violate the Terms of Service. Some users may choose to include ads, donation buttons, ticket sales, or other ways of monetizing their projects, and that's OK with us. Of course we hope folks will Keep It Classy™ and use this power for awesome! Thanks

Answer 2

As of May 23th, 2018 much of this seems to have changed.

From the terms of service

I. Additional Terms for GitHub Pages

Short version: The GitHub Pages hosting service is subject to certain rules, in addition to the rest of the Terms.

Each GitHub account comes with access to the GitHub Pages static hosting service. This hosting service is intended to host static web pages for GitHub users. GitHub Pages are subject to some specific bandwidth and usage limits, and may not be appropriate for some high-bandwidth uses. Please see our GitHub Pages guidelines for more information.

GitHub reserves the right at all times to reclaim any GitHub subdomain without liability.

K. Advertising on GitHub

Short version: We do not generally prohibit use of GitHub for advertising. However, we expect our users to follow certain limitations, so GitHub does not become a spam haven. No one wants that.

1. GitHub Pages

We offer Pages sites primarily as a showcase for personal and organizational projects. Some monetization efforts are permitted on Pages, such as donation buttons and crowdfunding links.

2. GitHub Repositories

GitHub repositories are intended to host Content. You may include static images, links, and promotional text in the README documents associated with your repositories, but they must be related to the project you are hosting on GitHub.

You may not advertise in other Users' repositories, such as by posting monetized or excessive bulk content in issues.

3. Spamming and Inappropriate Use of GitHub

Advertising Content, like all Content, must not violate the law or these Terms of Use, for example through excessive bulk activity such as spamming. We reserve the right to remove any advertisements that, in our sole discretion, violate any GitHub terms or policies.

Answer 3

It might be worth noting that the clause posted in the accepted answer is no longer in the GitHub Terms of Service.

Here is the updated clause:

You may use the GitHub Pages static hosting service solely as permitted and intended to host your organization pages, personal pages, or project pages, and for no other purpose. You may not use GitHub Pages in violation of GitHub's trademark or other rights or in violation of applicable law. GitHub reserves the right at all times to reclaim any GitHub subdomain without liability to you.

If you interpret "organization" as your company, then it should be fine. It might be worth checking for an updated response from GitHub themselves with regards to this question.

Answer 4

Updated policy as of September 2020

You can use GitHub Pages to host a website about yourself, your organization, or your project directly from a GitHub repository.

Prohibited uses

GitHub Pages is not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web hosting service to run your online business, e-commerce site, or any other website that is primarily directed at either facilitating commercial transactions or providing commercial software as a service (SaaS).

Additionally, GitHub Pages sites must refrain from:

• Content or activity that is illegal or otherwise prohibited by our Terms of Service or Community Guidelines
• Violent or threatening content or activity
• Excessive automated bulk activity (for example, spamming)
• Activity that compromises GitHub users or GitHub services
• Get-rich-quick schemes
• Sexually obscene content
• Content that misrepresents your identity or site purpose

If you have questions about whether your use or intended use falls into these categories, please contact GitHub Support or GitHub Premium Support.

In general, Github seems open to niche, information-rich, sites. It's common to host blogs on Github Pages for example. You could probably host technical documentation about a commercial product you're selling. However, you couldn't host a product catalogue, for example.