Cohostly vs GitHub Pages: an alternative for AI-built apps

GitHub Pages is free static website hosting straight from a GitHub repository. Cohostly is for the small apps an AI assistant builds for you or your team: deploy from a folder or over MCP, share by email, and approve changes. Here is how to choose.

The short answer

Pick GitHub Pages for what it is built for (below). Pick Cohostly when the app was written by an assistant, a specific set of people should open it, and you want nothing risky to change without your yes.

What GitHub Pages does well

• Free hosting for static sites, docs and portfolios.
• A zero-config path when the site is just HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
• Tight integration with a repository.

Where Cohostly is different

• Share by email, like a document: named people, your team, anyone with the link, or the public.
• Connect Google, Slack and other accounts one permission at a time, so no password sits in the code.
• Secrets are typed on a private page, never into a chat or the source.
• Every change by a teammate or an assistant waits for approval, explained in plain words with its risk.
• Deploy from a folder, .zip, GitHub repo, or straight from Claude, Claude Code or Cursor over MCP.
• Apps rest when nobody is using them and wake in about a second, so small tools cost little.

When GitHub Pages is the better pick

• Your site is fully static and public.
• You want docs or a portfolio attached to a repository.

Moving an app from GitHub Pages to Cohostly

GitHub Pages cannot run a server or keep a secret. If your app needs a backend, a private key or restricted access, deploy it to Cohostly instead.

Questions

Can GitHub Pages run a Python or Node backend?

No, it serves static files only. A backend needs a host that runs a server, such as Cohostly.

Can I make a GitHub Pages site private?

Access control on a static site is limited. Cohostly shares by email so only named people can open an app.