Every week someone posts a version of the same question: "Cursor built my app, it works on my laptop, how do I get it online?" The answers they get usually assume knowledge they don't have. This is a map of the real options for people who built something with AI and have never used a terminal.
What "hosting" actually means
Your app currently runs on your computer, so only you can see it. Hosting means a copy runs on a machine that never sleeps, with a public address. That's the whole concept. Everything below is a different way of getting your files onto such a machine.
If your tool has a deploy button, start there
Lovable, Replit, v0 and Bolt can host what they build. One button, no export. The catch is lock-in of workflow, not code: your project lives inside that tool, and if you outgrow it (or its pricing) you'll be doing this exercise anyway. Perfectly fine for a first version.
If you built with Claude Code or Cursor, you have real files and more choices
Netlify Drop (drop a folder on a web page) is the fastest way to put up a static site, meaning a site with no database and no login. Free, no account needed for a trial. Its limit is exactly that: the moment your app has users, accounts, or saved data, dropping folders stops working as a way of life.
Vercel, Netlify, Railway, Render are what professional developers use, and they're genuinely good. The honest caveat for non-coders: they assume you can push to GitHub, set environment variables, and read a build log when a deploy fails. If those words mean nothing, you can still learn (plenty do), but budget an evening of frustration and keep your AI assistant open for the error messages.
Plyo is the one I work on, so read this knowing that. It's built for exactly the person this post addresses: your AI connects to it directly (over MCP, one paste), every version of your project is saved automatically, and publishing is one click, with a check for exposed API keys and broken pages before anything goes live. If a publish would break your live site, it doesn't go out. Free tier, three projects, no card. Where the professional platforms give you power and expect competence, Plyo gives you fewer knobs and expects none.
A VPS (renting a raw server) is the "full control" option lists love to include. Skip it for now. It's a part-time job, not a hosting choice, and the failure modes (security patches, full disks) land on you at 2am.
How to choose in one minute
Static site, no user data: Netlify Drop, done. Built inside Lovable or Replit and happy there: the built-in button. Real app with a database, built with Claude Code or Cursor, and you don't know git: Plyo. Comfortable with GitHub or wanting to learn professional tooling: Vercel or Railway.
Whatever you pick, do one thing before you share the link: search your own code for "sk-", "key" and "secret", or use any free scanner, because AI tools paste real credentials into frontend code more often than anyone admits. That mistake costs actual money and no host will catch it for you (checking for it on every publish is, disclosure again, one of the reasons Plyo exists).
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