ilolink vs GitHub Pages
GitHub Pages is free, durable static hosting for anyone happy to keep a repository. That repository is both its strength and its price: a commit, a branch setting and a build stand between your file and a URL. ilolink takes the file and gives you the link, then reports what readers did with it.
The real difference is the workflow, not the hosting
Serving a static page is a solved problem and both do it well. What differs is everything around it. On Pages you create or pick a repo, commit the file, choose a source branch, wait for the build, and get a URL under github.io or your own domain. Every update is another commit. That is excellent if the page is part of a project you are already versioning — and heavy if you just made one document and want to send it to someone this afternoon.
ilolink has no repository and no build step. You paste Markdown or HTML or drop a PDF, .docx or CSV, and the link exists. There is nothing to configure because there is nothing to configure.
What GitHub Pages does not tell you
Pages ships no visitor analytics. Once the URL is out, GitHub does not report views, referrers, how far anyone scrolled, or whether the person you sent it to ever opened it. The usual fix is to bolt on a third-party analytics script, which means a cookie banner conversation, an extra vendor, and a script tag in a document you were trying to keep simple.
ilolink treats that as the point of the product:
- Views and read-through — total and approximate unique views, average time on page, a 0/25/50/75/100% scroll funnel, referrers, countries, device class, 30-day trend. Cookieless, with no fingerprint and no visitor profile, so there is nothing to disclose.
- Heatmaps — click and scroll, split by device.
- Anchored feedback — reactions, private notes and threaded comments pinned to a point, region or line, and readers need no account to leave them.
The documented limits, quoted rather than paraphrased
GitHub's own limits page states that published Pages sites “may be no larger than 1 GB”, that sites have a soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB per month, and a soft limit of 10 builds per hour. Soft means monitored rather than an automatic cut-off. Those ceilings are far above anything a single shared document needs — for a whole site, they are worth knowing. ilolink's equivalent constraint is per document: 15 MB.
Where GitHub Pages is the better tool
- A real, multi-page site — docs, a blog, a project site with relative links and assets. ilolink publishes one document per link and has no navigation concept.
- Version control as the source of truth — history, review, rollback and CI come free because the page is the repo. ilolink versions a document when you update it, but it is not Git.
- Custom domains — supported, with certificates. ilolink does not do custom domains yet.
- Permanence with zero cost — a public repo and a page that outlives your interest in it.
| GitHub Pages | ilolink | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting a link | Repo, commit, branch setting, build | Paste or drop a file |
| Prerequisites | A GitHub account and a repository | A free account |
| Visitor analytics | None built in — add a third-party script | Included, cookieless |
| Scroll depth and heatmaps | No | Scroll funnel + click/scroll heatmaps |
| Reader feedback | No | Reactions, notes, anchored comments |
| Non-HTML formats | Served as files, or built into HTML yourself | Markdown, PDF, .docx, CSV rendered as a page |
| Size | Published site no larger than 1 GB | 15 MB per document |
| Bandwidth | Soft 100 GB per month | No published per-document cap |
| Custom domain | Yes | Not yet |
| Access control | Public page (repo visibility varies by plan) | Public, unlisted, password, or expiring |
Questions
- Does GitHub Pages have analytics?
- No visitor analytics are built in. You would add a third-party script, which brings its own cookie and privacy considerations. ilolink includes cookieless views, approximate uniques, a scroll funnel, referrers and heatmaps on every document.
- How big can a GitHub Pages site be?
- GitHub documents that published sites may be no larger than 1 GB, with a soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB per month and a soft limit of 10 builds per hour. Soft means monitored rather than cut off automatically — check the current limits page before relying on any of it.
- Can I publish a PDF or a Word document?
- On Pages you can serve the file, but the reader downloads it rather than reading a page. ilolink turns a PDF into a page that opens in the browser and a .docx into clean HTML, with the same analytics as any other document.
- Do I need Git or a build step for ilolink?
- Neither. There is no repository and no build. You paste text or drop a file, and the link exists — which is also why there is nothing to misconfigure.
- Is ilolink free?
- Publishing is free for one person, up to 3 published documents. You need a free account to publish; readers never need one. Inviting teammates takes a paid plan: a one-time $9 for 5 people or $19 for 10, paid once and kept forever.
Try it on your own doc
Skip the repo. Publish the document.