Deploying your first app for free

Beginner path

Pick the free path that matches the app

You already have a page from the afternoon guide, or a repo from somewhere else. Publishing it is a separate step.

Vercel Hobby. $0 a month. The pricing FAQ says it is for personal, non-commercial use. Included usage includes 1 million CDN requests and 100 GB of fast data transfer a month. You cannot buy more without upgrading. Details are on the Vercel page.

Bolt free hosting. The pricing page lists website hosting on the free plan, with Bolt branding, a 10 MB upload cap, and the token limits on the Bolt page. Custom domains start on Pro.

Replit Starter. One published app. The docs say that link goes down after 30 days and shows a Made with Replit badge. See the Replit page.

• The app is personal, or I am on a paid plan.
• I opened the URL in a private window.
• No secret key is visible in the page source.
• I know what happens when the free allowance runs out.

Advanced path

Production is a different bill

Hobby and Starter are demos with rules. A production app on Vercel Pro is $20 a month plus usage past a $20 credit. Supabase Pro starts at $25 and adds compute per project. Bolt Pro starts at $25 for the 10 million token tier if the app is still being generated, which is a different meter from hosting.

Put environment variables in the host's dashboard, not in the prompt that created the project. Then turn on the host's access logs if the plan includes them, and read them once before you call it launched.