Deploy a Static Site to Cloudflare Pages with GitHub Auto-Deploy

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How to set up a zero-config deployment pipeline: push to GitHub, site updates automatically on Cloudflare Pages with a custom domain.

Why Cloudflare Pages

The three big static hosts in 2026 are Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, and Vercel. They all do auto-deploy from Git, custom domains, automatic SSL, and PR previews. The honest comparison:

Cloudflare Pages Netlify Vercel
Free tier bandwidth Unlimited 100 GB / mo 100 GB / mo
Free tier builds 500 / mo 300 build min / mo 6,000 build min / mo
Overage charges None on Free; bandwidth still free on paid Bandwidth $55/100 GB Bandwidth $40/100 GB
Cold-build speed Slower (minute-class) Fast Fast
Edge network 300+ POPs ~6 regions + global edge ~30 regions
Best at Cheap fan-out, surprise traffic Form/auth integrations Next.js

If a single post catches fire on Hacker News, Pages charges $0; Netlify or Vercel can charge real money. The tradeoff is slower cold builds and fewer one-click integrations. For static sites and small SSGs, Pages is the safe default.

What You Need

  • A GitHub account
  • A Cloudflare account (free plan works)
  • A domain managed by Cloudflare DNS
  • A static site (plain HTML/CSS/JS, no build step required)

1. Push Your Site to GitHub

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cd ~/Projects/my-site
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
gh repo create my-site --public --source=. --push

If you don’t have the gh CLI, create the repo on GitHub manually and push:

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git remote add origin [email protected]:YOUR_USERNAME/my-site.git
git branch -M main
git push -u origin main

2. Create a Cloudflare Pages Project

  1. Go to Cloudflare Dashboard
  2. Navigate to Workers & Pages
  3. Click Create > Pages > Connect to Git
  4. Select your GitHub account and the repository
  5. Set the production branch to main

Build Settings

For a plain static site (no framework, no bundler):

Setting Value
Build command (leave blank)
Build output directory /

If your site uses a framework:

Framework Build command Output directory
Hugo hugo public
Hexo hexo generate public
Astro npm run build dist
SvelteKit (static adapter) npm run build build
Eleventy npx eleventy _site
Next.js (static export, Next 14+) next build (with output: 'export' in next.config.js) out
Vite npm run build dist

Click Save and Deploy. Cloudflare builds and deploys immediately.

Your site is now live at my-site.pages.dev.

3. Add a Custom Domain

  1. In your Pages project, go to Custom domains
  2. Click Set up a custom domain
  3. Enter your subdomain (e.g., app.example.com)
  4. Cloudflare automatically creates the DNS record:
Type Name Content
CNAME app my-site.pages.dev

SSL is provisioned automatically. The domain is usually active within seconds since DNS is already on Cloudflare.

4. Daily Workflow

That’s it. From now on, every push to main triggers an automatic deploy:

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# Edit your files
vim index.html

# Push
git add -A
git commit -m "update feature"
git push

# Site updates in ~30 seconds at your custom domain

No deploy commands. No CI config files. No build scripts.

Alternative: Manual Deploy with Wrangler

If you prefer not to connect GitHub (or need to deploy from a different source), you can use the Wrangler CLI:

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# Install wrangler (one-time)
npm install -g wrangler

# Create the project (one-time)
npx wrangler pages project create my-site --production-branch main

# Deploy (every time)
npx wrangler pages deploy . --project-name my-site

This uploads the current directory directly. No Git integration: you run the command manually each time.

Note: Projects created via wrangler cannot be connected to GitHub after the fact. If you want auto-deploy, delete the project in the dashboard and recreate it through the UI with Git connected.

.gitignore

For a static site deployed to Cloudflare Pages:

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.DS_Store
Thumbs.db
*.swp
*.swo
*~
.wrangler/
node_modules/

.wrangler/ contains local deploy cache from the Wrangler CLI. node_modules/ in case you install wrangler locally.

Summary

Step Action Frequency
Create GitHub repo gh repo create Once
Connect to Cloudflare Pages Dashboard UI Once
Add custom domain Dashboard > Custom domains Once
Deploy git push Every change

Total setup time: ~5 minutes. Zero ongoing maintenance.