Practical comparison of Firebase Hosting, GitHub Pages, Netlify and Cloudflare Pages. Columns show estimated max concurrent users on the free plan, recommended approach for large media (videos), typical pro pricing & benefits, and the scenarios each platform fits best.
| Platform | Free plan — max concurrent users (estimate) | Storage for videos / large files | Pro plan — cost & benefits | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firebase Hosting | ~100–500 (depends on dynamic backends) |
Small static assets OK. For large video/media use Firebase Storage (pay-as-you-go) + signed URLs or external CDN. | $25+/mo* — Blaze (pay-as-you-go): scalable bandwidth, storage, serverless functions, built-in CDN, signed URLs, auth & database scaling. | Apps needing serverless backends, auth, realtime DB and integrated services. |
| GitHub Pages | ~100–200 (static repo hosting) |
Not for large video hosting. Keep media in external services (YouTube, Vimeo, cloud object storage). Repo size guidelines ~1GB. | Free — Pro/Team add CI minutes, private repos and features; no dedicated “pro hosting” for Pages itself. | Documentation, portfolios, simple static sites that fit in a Git repo. |
| Netlify | ~200–800 (edge CDN + caching) |
Free plan serves assets; for large videos use external storage or Netlify Large Media (paid). Free bandwidth is limited. | $19+/mo (Pro) — more build minutes, team features, passworded sites, more bandwidth, Large Media support, faster support. | Deploy-from-Git static sites with previews, serverless functions, and small teams. |
| Cloudflare Pages | ~500–2000 (global edge network) |
Pages serves static assets from the edge. For large files use R2 (object storage) or a dedicated video CDN; R2 billed separately. | $5–25+/mo** — R2/Workers usage; benefits include global edge performance, low-latency assets, Workers for edge logic and durable storage. | Global distribution, edge logic, low-latency static sites and apps at scale. |
