You built an app with AI. Now it has to run somewhere.
You described what you wanted, an assistant wrote it, and after some back and forth it works. You can see it at localhost:3000 . It does the thing. Then you try to show someone, and there is nowhere to send them. If you have spent the last few days getting increasingly frustrated at this stage, here is the useful thing to know first: you have not hit the limits of your ability. You have hit a…
You have an application powered by artificial intelligence, but now it needs a place to run. At first, you describe the app to another person who writes the code. After reviewing it, you can access it through localhost:3000. However, showing it to others proves challenging because there's no destination for them to visit. First, you learn that building and deploying are separate skills.
Writing the app focuses on functionality, while deploying covers all the underlying technical requirements. An AI assistant excels at writing code due to the tight feedback loop and local environment, but deploying involves considerations like database setup, runtime, port availability, certificates, and restart procedures. This process is unfamiliar and prone to failure.
One crucial decision you must make is whether you need a server at all. If your app is simply a website with static pages or a front end interacting with APIs in the browser, you can push it to GitHub and deploy it on platforms like Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, or Vercel in just ten minutes on a free tier. If your app requires a backend and a small database, platforms such as Vercel, Railway, Render, or Fly provide reliable and affordable options for initial deployment.
However, a server becomes necessary when your app relies on background jobs, scheduled tasks, persistent storage, or data that must comply with specific country regulations. The remaining seven common issues that break a project in production include handling sensitive information, managing database persistence, preserving uploaded files, avoiding hardcoded localhost references, using production-mode servers, ensuring automatic restarts, and maintaining proper backups.
To address these issues, you should follow best practices like using environment variables for secrets, choosing appropriate storage solutions for uploaded files, testing backups thoroughly, and implementing robust server configurations. Finally, if you decide to host your own server, ensure it includes a secure login, SSH key authentication, a disabled root login, firewall protection, and automatic security updates.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
