Get It Live
Deploy your prototype to the internet in under an hour. No polish, just a real URL.
What Ship is about
You validated that someone wants what you are building. Now get it in front of them. This stage is about going from "works on my laptop" to "here is a link" as fast as possible -- then adding accounts, payments, and the basics to keep it running.
- Get It Live -- deploy your prototype to the internet in under an hour. No polish, just a real URL.
- Building an AI Product -- if AI is what your user interacts with, this is how to build it right. Patterns, UX, trust.
- Ship It -- the pre-launch checklist. What actually needs to work before you send someone the link.
- Sign Up & Payments -- user accounts and charging money. Only matters once you have validated demand.
- Fix Things & Keep Going -- things will break. Here is the minimum you need to keep moving.
The most important thing here: speed over polish. Every day your product sits on your laptop instead of the internet is a day you are not learning whether it works for real people. Ship ugly. Ship fast. Fix it live.
Right now your app only works on your computer. This guide gets it onto the internet -- with a real web address you can send to people -- in under an hour.
Why This Comes Before Everything Else
You've validated your idea (step 1). Now get your prototype on the internet as fast as possible. Not perfect -- just live. A real link you can text to someone. That changes everything: suddenly it's not an idea on your laptop, it's a thing on the internet.
Don't worry about user accounts or payments yet. That's the next step. Right now: just get it online.
What You Need
| What | Tool (as of mid-2026) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A place to store your code | GitHub | Free. Like a backup drive for your project that also connects to everything else. |
| A place to host your app | Vercel | Free to start. You connect it to GitHub. Every time you save your code, it updates your live site automatically. |
| A web address (optional for now) | Any domain registrar | $10-15/year. Vercel gives you a free one (yourapp.vercel.app) to start with. |
The Steps
- Push your code to GitHub. Tell your AI: "Help me create a GitHub repository and push my project to it." The AI will walk you through it. This takes about 5 minutes.
- Connect GitHub to Vercel. Go to vercel.com, sign up with your GitHub account, and click "Import Project." Select your repository. Vercel will detect your project type and configure itself.
- Click Deploy. Vercel builds your project and gives you a URL. That's it -- your app is on the internet.
- Test it. Open the URL on your phone. Open it in a private/incognito browser window. Does it work? Can you see what you expected?
If Your App Uses a Database
If your prototype already stores data (user-generated content, form submissions, etc.), you'll need the database online too -- not just the app.
- Go to supabase.com and create a free project. It gives you a database in the cloud.
- Tell your AI: "Move my local database to Supabase. Here's my current data structure: [describe your tables]." It'll generate the setup for you.
- Add your Supabase connection info to Vercel. In Vercel's dashboard, go to Settings → Environment Variables. Add the values Supabase gave you. This is how your live app connects to the live database.
If your prototype doesn't use a database yet (it's just pages with content), skip this -- you'll add it when you need user accounts.
Common Problems
| What's Happening | What to Do |
|---|---|
| "Build failed" on Vercel | Click "View Build Logs," copy the error, paste it to your AI. |
| Works locally but blank online | Usually a missing environment variable. Check Vercel Settings → Environment Variables. |
| Looks different on phone vs computer | Tell your AI: "Make this page responsive so it looks good on mobile." |
| Changes aren't showing up | Make sure you saved and pushed to GitHub. Vercel auto-deploys from GitHub. |
What You Should Have Now
- A real URL you can share with anyone
- Your app works in a browser on any device
- Changes you make update the live site automatically
No user accounts yet. No payments. That's next.