How do you host an app you built with Claude Code?

Claude Code builds the app on your machine. Where to host it for free, what each host allows, and how to send it to a client on a private link instead.

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By Kaz Kato · Published 12 October 2026 · Updated 12 October 2026

Claude Code builds and runs your app on your own machine, so putting it online is a separate step. For a public site, a static host’s free plan is often enough, within its terms. For a client who should try it privately, on a link of their own, Claude Code can deploy it to a room for you.

This guide compares four free places to host an app built with Claude Code, and what each one’s free plan allows. Then it shows how to deploy to a room instead, from the same terminal. Install the CLI covers the setup, and the hosting comparison goes into more detail.

Can Claude Code host your app?

Claude Code writes your app and runs it on your machine while you work. It can also publish a single page as a Claude artifact, but that page has no backend. An app with several screens, its own data and a server needs a host. Claude Code can do the deploy for you, once you choose where.

Claude Code can publish its work as an artifact: one self-contained page on claude.ai, with no backend. For a hosted tool with a backend, its docs say to deploy it on your own infrastructure.

A page like that can reach a client with no account. Claude Code can publish an artifact to a public link that anyone can open, with no claude.ai sign-in. On Team and Enterprise plans, public sharing is off until an owner turns it on. Claude Code’s artifacts page describes no record of who opened an artifact, no expiry date and no guided tour. For anyone outside your organisation, it describes a public link, not one for a named person.

So the choice is yours: a host for a public site, or a room for a person you are selling to. Claude Code can run the commands for either.

Where can you host it for free?

Four hosts have a free plan worth knowing: Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages and GitHub Pages. Each can put your app at a public address. Each also has a catch on its free plan, from non-commercial use to monthly limits. None of them tells you which person opened your app.

Host The catch on its free plan Private access Who looked Runs server code
Vercel Hobby is for personal, non-commercial use One shareable link to a protected deployment, per account Visitors in total, told apart by a hash that resets daily Yes, as Vercel Functions
Netlify A hard monthly credit limit; business use is not stated No password protection on Free Analytics listed on Pro Yes, functions on Free
Cloudflare Pages Limits on builds a month, and on files Previews can sit behind Cloudflare Access Free web analytics: page views and visitors Yes, as Pages Functions
GitHub Pages Not for a business, a shop or software sold as a service Only on GitHub Enterprise Cloud No visitor analytics described No: static files only
Roomi (ours) Demos only, on mock data; Free is a draft or a public listing A private link per person, from Pro Each named person, from Pro Container demos from Pro, on Node 24

What each row rests on, from each host’s own pages:

  • Vercel. Vercel’s Hobby plan is free, and Vercel says it is for personal, non-commercial use. On Vercel’s Hobby plan you can create one shareable link to a protected deployment, in total, per account. Vercel’s Web Analytics tells visitors apart by a hash that resets every day, without cookies. It reports pages, referrers, countries, operating systems and browsers across all visitors. Vercel runs an app’s server-side code as Vercel Functions, in Node.js, Python, Go and other runtimes, without you managing a server.
  • Netlify. Netlify’s Free plan is $0 forever, with functions included and a hard limit of 300 credits a month. A project that reaches the limit pauses every project on the account until the next month. Netlify’s pricing page does not say whether its Free plan may be used for a business. Netlify sets site-wide password protection in its dashboard, and it is not available on its credit-based Free and Personal plans. Netlify lists 30-day analytics and metrics among what its Pro plan adds to Free and Personal.
  • Cloudflare Pages. On Cloudflare’s Free plan, Pages builds one site at a time, up to 500 builds a month, for sites of up to 20,000 files of 25 MiB each. Cloudflare Pages Functions run an app’s server-side code on Cloudflare Workers, without a dedicated server. Cloudflare Pages preview deployments are public by default. You can put them behind Cloudflare Access, so only the people you specify can open them. Cloudflare Web Analytics is free and turns on for a Pages site in one click. It reports page views and visitors across the site.
  • GitHub Pages. GitHub says its free Pages hosting is not for running an online business, a shop, or software sold as a service. GitHub Pages hosts static sites, built from the HTML, CSS and JavaScript in a repository, free for public repositories. Its overview describes no visitor analytics for a site’s owner. A GitHub Pages site can be published privately, to people who can read its repository, only by an organisation on GitHub Enterprise Cloud.

If you are showing the app to win paid work, read the business-use line twice. A demo sent to win a client may well count as business use, so check the host’s own terms. Vercel shareable link or a room looks at Vercel for client work in detail.

What is the difference between hosting it and showing it?

Hosting puts one address in front of everyone and counts the traffic. Showing gives each person a link of their own, a guided tour of what matters, and a record of what each of them did. Hosting suits a launch page. Showing suits a client you need to call at the right moment.

A room on Roomi does three things a host does not:

  • A link per person. Each private link carries the name of the person you made it for. It can expire after the days you choose, and you can revoke it at any moment. A closed link answers “Not found”.
  • A tour. Three to six steps, one idea each, in the order you would pitch it, so the app explains itself when you are not there.
  • A record. You see each visit in order, the seconds spent on each app and page, how far through the tour they got, their comments and their answer to what happens next. Analytics and the pipeline lists every measure.

Deploy it to a room from Claude Code

You stay in the terminal where you built the app. Claude Code does the technical part, and nothing goes live until you have read the rehearsal and said yes.

  1. Install the CLI. Claude Code can run npm install -g @getroomi/cli for you, once you agree. It needs Node 24.
  2. Sign in yourself. Run roomi login. It opens your browser for you to approve, so Claude never signs in for you.
  3. Describe the demo. Run roomi init. It writes pitch.json and PITCH.md, and adds a line to CLAUDE.md, so Claude Code reads the rules from then on: mock data only, no secrets, nothing published without your yes.
  4. Ask Claude Code to write the tour. It reads your screens and drafts the steps for you to change.
  5. Rehearse. roomi deploy checks the description, scans for secrets, builds the app, runs each step of the tour and prints what would go live. Nothing leaves your machine.
  6. Publish. Read the rehearsal, then say yes. Claude runs roomi deploy --commit.
  7. Make a link for your client. roomi link "Priya Shah" --expires 14 prints their address. Send it yourself: Roomi sends nothing.

When you send it, say who you are and how they can reach you. Say too that the room records what they do and shows it to you, as Roomi’s terms ask.

An app with its own server

A static app runs on every plan, Free included. An app with a server is a container demo, on Pro and up, and each private link gets a copy of its own. The build contract is short, and a few lines of it catch people out:

  • Docker on your machine. roomi deploy builds your Dockerfile locally before anything is uploaded.
  • Node 24 only. The platform runs your build on Node 24 whatever your base image is, so a Python app cannot be a live demo. The Replit guide sets out the choices for one.
  • No internet. A container demo cannot reach anything outside it. A feature that calls an AI model at run time needs canned answers first.

Container demos has the whole contract, and your first container demo walks through one.

What will Claude Code never do without you?

It will not sign in for you, and it will not publish without your yes. roomi login needs your approval in your own browser. roomi deploy only rehearses. Claude runs roomi deploy --commit once you have read what would go live and agreed, and a change after that means a new rehearsal.

The rules come from the PITCH.md that roomi init writes, which Claude Code reads before it works on the demo. Build with your AI agent shows what is in it.

Which should you choose?

Choose by who it is for. For a public site anyone can find, use a static host’s free plan, within its terms. For a public app with a server, use a host that runs server code. For a named client you want to follow up, deploy it to a room and give them their own link.

You can do both: host the public version, and send each client a room. Pricing shows what each plan includes.

Questions people ask

Can I host a Claude Code app for free?

Yes, on several hosts’ free plans, within each one’s terms. Vercel’s Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use, and GitHub Pages is not for running a business. On Roomi, Free runs static demos, as a draft or a public listing.

Do I need DevOps skills?

Not for a static app: Claude Code builds it, and the deploy rehearses before anything goes live. An app with its own server runs on Roomi as a container demo, which needs Docker on your machine and Pro.

Can Claude Code publish to Roomi without asking me?

No. roomi deploy only rehearses. Publishing takes roomi deploy --commit, which Claude runs only after you have read the rehearsal and said yes. Signing in is yours alone, in your own browser.

Can I host a Python app on Roomi?

Not as a live demo. A container demo runs on Node 24, whatever its base image, so a Python server will not start. A front end built to static files can still run, on mock data.

How do I update it after sending it?

Deploy again, and every link shows the new build on its next load. Send it as a preview deploy first to check it without your viewers seeing it, and roll back to an earlier build if you need to.

Sources

About the author

Kaz Kato, Co-founder & CTO, Roomi. Kaz co-founded Roomi with Tesh, whom he has built with since 2017: two startups that failed, one venture studio that didn’t, and an exit.

Put it in front of a client, on a link of their own.

Ask Claude Code to deploy it to Roomi. It starts free, and a private link for each client starts on Pro.

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