How to serve a custom HTTPS domain on GitHub Pages with CloudFlare: *FREE*, secure and performant by default

HOWTO.md

Instructions

CloudFlare is an awesome reverse cache proxy and CDN that provides DNS, free HTTPS (TLS) support, best-in-class performance settings (gzip, SDCH, HTTP/2, sane Cache-Control and E-Tag headers, etc.), minification, etc.

1. Make sure you have registered a domain name.
2. Sign up for CloudFlare and create an account for your domain.
3. In your domain registrar's admin panel, point the nameservers to CloudFlare's (refer to this awesome list of links for instructions for various registrars).
4. From the CloudFlare settings for that domain, enable HTTPS/SSL and set up a Page Rule to force HTTPS redirects. (If you want to get fancy, you can also enable automatic minification for text-based assets [HTML/CSS/JS/SVG/etc.], which is a pretty cool feature if you don't want already have a build step for minification.)
5. If you don't already have one, create a new repository on GitHub to store your site's contents (preferably in the form of static web pages and assets; though not necessary, for the A-Frame site we use a static-site generator called Hexo).
6. From your domain registrar's settings, create a CNAME record to point <domain>.<tld> to <user>.github.io. (Refer to the GitHub docs for more information.)
7. In your Github repo, create a file at the root called CNAME containing the domain name (e.g., aframe.io).
8. Push to GitHub Pages (either by pushing to gh-pages or master of your repo; or you can use the master branch of a repo named <org>.github.io - example: https://github.com/aframevr/aframevr.github.io/ automatically gets published to https://aframevr.github.io/, which redirects to https://aframe.io/)
9. You're done! All content will now be served to your users from CloudFlare.

I am not sure why I keep getting NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID, no matter what I do. I have followed the steps on your website as well. I can setup Cloudflare for any other site, just doesn't want to work on GitHub

I have same issue as @AmusingThrone

After setting this up for an Apex domain, I get errors: "ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH" in Chrome, "SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP" in Firefox.

UPDATE: the problem was only temporary, during the time it took CloudFlare to generate the certificate. Now the certificate shows as active, and the domain is loading fine.

So if your site already gets traffic, a good idea is to set up everything while keeping SSL optional. In a second step, once your certificate works, you may enable a rule to force HTTPS.

Just seeing all these comments now. Good tips, @ms-studio. Thanks!

Regarding step 6: I am trying to use a repo that does not match my account name (I already have that deployed as a different site). The name of the repo I am trying to deploy is qubitix.

So then my A is qubitix.com and then I need to setup a cname to <user>.github.io or user.github.io/qbitix ? It won't let me do the second but I don't see how the first won't go to the other repo which matches my user name.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

To be secure you'd also have to enable "Full SSL (Strict)" in Cloudflare… see why

great! thx!

For the folks here looking for more help setting up the page rule, check out Cloudflare's official instructions on how to set this up. It turns out I had set up the rule wrong, which was preventing my site from showing up properly. Hope this helps!

Worked like a charm, thanks!

Thank you!

Thanks, worked for me!

After running 3. point the nameservers to CloudFlare's, all your DNS setting must be changed in Cloudflare!
(I spent time changing settings in Hover, only to discover at it's all-CloudFlare, all-the-time, after changing DNS settings.)
🌩️ ⚡

Thanks bro! Yea Cloudflare DNS requires proper cleanup for this to work.

Thank you!

I'm having the same question as @Andrew-Max: My github pages is served under <username>.github.io/<repo>, where would I configure that in Cloudfare/Registrar/GitHub for that to work?

EDIT: I just decided to move my page to a user github page hosted under <username>.github.io and everything works and is secure. Thanks!

@rugk I understand the importance of Strict but I couldn't set it up. How would the SSL certificate on my github page be valid if I set a CNAME on github? Even CloudFlare's official guide (see above) recommends using Full but not Full (strict). I don't see how it could work.

I looks like the option "Always use HTTPS" is not served as a page rule anymore.
I found this option under the Crypto tab.

@gpkc are you sure? cause I was able to find the "Always use HTTPS" as a page rule.

Just so everyone's aware, Github Pages now supports forced HTTPS for custom domains.

https://blog.github.com/2018-05-01-github-pages-custom-domains-https

I described my experience here when I tried to configure it
https://medium.com/@avsenev/build-your-website-with-github-pages-godaddy-and-cloudflare-62ac7cb3faed

Unfortunately I faced the situation that this approach is not covered all my needs and I switched to amazon s3 and route53.

Brilliant! Thanks a lot

I have done all the steps above mentioned but when I open GitHub webpage it displays an error 521

I have done all the steps above mentioned but when I open GitHub webpage it displays an error 521

@usama-shafiqu3: you have a CNAME file at the root of your repo? if you go to the Settings page of your repo, scroll down to the GitHub Pages section, you can see whether it's configured on the correct branch (master or gh-pages).

For those wondering about the link in step six which now seems to be broken, the guide is here: https://help.github.com/en/github/working-with-github-pages/managing-a-custom-domain-for-your-github-pages-site

@Aurorum fixed link; thanks

brilliant, thanks a lot.
this articles was supplemented by your steps
https://blog.cloudflare.com/secure-and-fast-github-pages-with-cloudflare/

If despite all that, you're still getting: "404 File not found The site configured at this address does not contain the requested file." your repo might be configured to use: main instead of master branch. You may try to change default repo back to master, but Github Pages doesn't seem to care about that (you may have to modify Actions/Workflows)... but hey don't worry, at least you support some good cause, the more time you waste/spend on things like this !

Great Tutorial! thanks for sharing

I managed to have HTTPS on my custom domain without any third party.

• Make sure your A record points to the correct IP addresses
• Create a CNAME record www and set it to <USERNAME>.github.io
• Go back to your repo settings and remove the custom domain and re-enter it then Save.
• HTTPS checkbox should be checked after certificate issued

I managed to have HTTPS on my custom domain without any third party.

* Make sure your A record points to the correct IP addresses

* Create a CNAME record **www** and set it to <_USERNAME_>.github.io

* Go back to your repo settings and remove the custom domain and re-enter it then Save.

* HTTPS checkbox should be checked after certificate issued

did you use Cloudfare (CF) Proxy DNS or disabled that?