Quite simply, GitHub and GitHub Pages, combined with a static site generator are one of the most cost-efficient (free), reliable, time-tested, and secure ways to host a website.

It is possible to host such website and have a Princeton University custom domain. This page provides instruction on how to do that.

• GitHub is a free website for the long-term storage of certain files. GitHub is a website that developers uses to store source code, because it tracks every single change made to the files, and is very reliable. GitHub has continuously hosted many projects for over a decade for free.

• GitHub Pages allows you to host a website for free. GitHub Pages is a feature of GitHub that allows you to host a website for free, using the files stored in your GitHub repository. You can use GitHub Pages to host a website for your project, or even a personal website.

➡️ To get started in 5 minutes, (1) register a GitHub account, then (2) click here to create a free website; once it is configured, follow the instructions below to configure your Princeton University custom domain. ⬅️

For more information reach out to Jérémie Lumbroso.

HOWTO: GitHub Pages from xxxxxx.princeton.edu

It is possible to host a website on GitHub Pages, but to have a Princeton University domain name, such as this website, hosted from the repository jlumbroso/github-pages-princeton and served on the domain name github-pages.princeton.edu.

• You will need to request an alias be created in the DNS through the ServiceNow form.

  • In this form, select the option “DNS Alias a cloud-hosted site (show mysite.com as if it is mysite.princeton.edu)”;
  • In this form, for “Cloud URL being aliased (destination)”, enter the URL of the GitHub Pages relay URL which is github-pages.princeton.edu.

• It may take about a week for this domain name to be created for you.

• Once it is created, you can follow GitHub’s instruction to setup a custom domain.

Examples of websites:

• github-pages.princeton.edu: This GitHub Pages at Princeton University information page
• mbraverm.princeton.edu: Mark Braverman’s professional page
• cos513.princeton.edu: The page of the course COS 513/SML 513 — Foundations of Probabilistic Modeling taught by Adji Bousso-Dieng

HOWTO: GitHub Pages from xxxxxx.cs.princeton.edu

The subdomain *.cs.princeton.edu is managed not by OIT, but by CS staff, the local IT staff for the Department of Computer Science.

• Contact CS staff at csstaff@cs.princeton.edu to request a subdomain be created for you (by aliasing from that xxxxxx.cs.princeton.edu domain to github-pages.princeton.edu).

• Follow the same instructions as above to setup a custom domain on your GitHub Pages website.

Examples of websites:

• introlab.cs.princeton.edu: The Department of Computer Science’s undergraduate-staffed Introductory Lab’s website
• competitive-programming.cs.princeton.edu: Princeton University’s Competitive Programming website run by Pedro Paredes