How to Create and Host a Website for Free

What you’ll end up with

A real website on the internet with your own address — for example, https://your_login.github.io.

Try it right here — edit the code and see the result immediately:

index.htmleditable — try changing something!

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8" />
  <title>Ivan Ivanov — photographer</title>
  <style>
    body {
      font-family: system-ui, sans-serif;
      margin: 0;
      min-height: 100vh;
      display: grid;
      place-items: center;
      background: #0f1115;
      color: #fff;
      text-align: center;
    }
    h1 { color: #d97757; font-size: 2.5rem; margin: 0; }
    p { color: #9ca3af; max-width: 32rem; }
    a {
      display: inline-block;
      margin-top: 1rem;
      padding: 0.6rem 1.4rem;
      background: #d97757;
      color: #fff;
      border-radius: 0.5rem;
      text-decoration: none;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <div>
    <h1>Ivan Ivanov</h1>
    <p>Photographer. I shoot life, not poses.</p>
    <a href="#">My work</a>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

Open Sandbox

⬇️ Download the whole instruction as one file

What you’ll need

A ChatGPT account — chat.openai.com (the free plan is enough)
A GitHub account — github.com
~15 minutes of time

Nothing else. Everything runs right in your browser — no payment needed.

Step by step

Find a reference site
Find a website online whose design you like. Copy the link — ChatGPT will build you a site in a similar style, but with your content.
Generate the site in ChatGPT
Sign up for ChatGPT and send the prompt from the template below — substitute your link and your own info:
Prompt for ChatGPT
Create a website similar to [REFERENCE SITE LINK]. But it must be my own working page. Tell about me: [what you do, your experience], my work: [services/projects], contacts: [phone, email, socials], service prices: [your list]. Requirements: everything in a single index.html file (HTML + CSS inside), mobile-friendly, modern design.
ChatGPT generates the whole site as one file
Press Copy on the code block — you’ll need it in step 6.
Sign up for GitHub
Go to github.com and create an account:
github.com — the Sign up button is in the top right corner
Create a repository
Press the “+” in the top right corner → New repository and name it exactly your_login.github.io:
The repository name = the address of your future site
The name can't be changed later
Name the repository login.github.io — lowercase, no spaces. Then the site will open at https://login.github.io with no extra prefixes. It’s the cleanest possible name for a personal page.
Add a short description, choose Public → Create repository.
Open the code editor
The repository is empty, so press the Create a codespace button right on the page — or use the Code → Codespaces menu. An online version of VS Code opens, where you can add, delete and edit files right in your browser.
Press Create a codespace — the online editor opens right in your browser
Create index.html and paste the code
In the file explorer on the left, press new file (+), name it exactly index.html, and paste the code ChatGPT generated:
Pasting the ChatGPT code into index.html
Commit and sync
Open the Source Control tab (the branch icon on the left), write a message for the change history (e.g. “My first website”) and press Commit. Then press Sync Changes at the bottom and confirm:
Commit, then Sync — the code goes to GitHub
Wait a couple of minutes — done!
GitHub Pages deploys your site in 1–2 minutes. Open https://your_login.github.io — your site is already on the internet 🎉
Improve it as much as you like
Ask ChatGPT: “make the header sticky”, “add a gallery with a hover effect”, “change the colors to blue”. Each time, ask for the whole file again and repeat steps 6–7 — the site updates in about a minute.

Screenshots are illustrative

The GitHub and ChatGPT interfaces change from time to time — buttons may be named slightly differently, but the order of steps hasn’t changed in years.

Common mistakes

The file isn’t named index.html — e.g. Index.html or main.html. GitHub Pages looks for exactly index.html, in lowercase.
The repository doesn’t follow the pattern — login-github-io or mysite.github.io won’t work. You need the exact format: login.github.io.
Forgot to Sync — a Commit without Sync keeps the changes only on your machine.
Checking immediately — deployment takes 1–2 minutes. Refresh the page a bit later.

What’s next?

Once the basic site works, you can: connect your own domain, add a blog page, ask ChatGPT for a dark/light theme with a toggle. All of that — in the next guides in the Learn section. Check the blog too — new stuff appears there.

Questions?

If something didn’t work or you have questions — join the Telegram channel.