Ship your site
Two parts: get the site online, then point your own domain at it. Most vibecoders do both in the same hour.
Part 1 — Put it online (deploy)
When you like what you see locally, publish it to the web. There are many hosts you can deploy to; the three most experienced developers reach for first are:
All three have free tiers, custom domains, and free SSL. Pick whichever you have an account on, or any of the three if you are starting fresh. If you already use another host (Render, Fly, Railway, AWS, your own VPS), the kit deploys there too — your AI can walk you through whichever one you pick.
The simplest way is to ask your AI to walk you through it. Copy this into your chat:
I have a TanStack Start project locally and I want to deploy it to [Netlify / Vercel / Cloudflare Pages]. My project is in this folder. Walk me through it step by step, one command at a time. I am not a developer. Assume I have never deployed anything before. Before running any command that needs an account, tell me which account I need to create and link to the signup page.
Your AI will ask clarifying questions and run the commands. Paste any errors back and it will troubleshoot.
When the deploy finishes, you will get a URL like your-site.netlify.app (or similar) that anyone can visit.
For more host-specific notes, see Deploying your site.
Part 2 — Connect your own domain
When the deployed site is live at the host's default URL, you can point your own domain at it.
You need:
- A domain you bought from any registrar
- The deployed site URL from Part 1.
The flow is the same on every host:
- In your host dashboard (Vercel / Netlify / Cloudflare Pages), find "Add domain" or similar.
- Enter your domain.
- The host shows you 2 DNS records to add (usually one
AorCNAMEfor the apex, oneCNAMEforwww). - In your registrar's DNS settings, add those records.
- Wait 5 to 60 minutes. SSL is provisioned automatically.
If anything looks unfamiliar, ask your AI:
I bought a domain on [registrar]. My site is deployed to [host]. Walk me through pointing the domain at the site. I will paste whatever instructions or DNS records you need to see.
For more, see Deploying your site (custom-domain section).
Tip
If you host on Cloudflare Pages and buy your domain at Cloudflare Registrar, the DNS sits in the same dashboard. Fastest path if you have not committed to either yet.
Once your domain points at your site, you are live. Move on to Keep editing forever.