Claude Code will happily build you a website in an afternoon — I’ve watched it scaffold a five-page marketing site, write the CSS, and fix its own broken navigation in under an hour. What it won’t do is tell you where that site should live. You end the session with a folder of files on your laptop and a vague sense that hosting is the next step, and the advice out there is thin: a $49/month niche service aimed at exactly this moment of confusion, and a couple of generic tutorials that assume you already know what a reverse proxy is.
I run production sites on every host named below, and I’ve deployed Claude Code builds to most of them. This is the decision tree I actually use — static site, dynamic app, or WordPress conversion — with realistic prices and the honest cases where a free tier is all you need. If you haven’t started the build yet, read can Claude build a website first; this guide picks up where that one ends.
In this guide
First, figure out what Claude actually built
Every bad hosting decision I’ve seen with AI-built sites traces back to skipping this step. Open the project folder and look at what’s actually in it, because the answer decides everything downstream.
- Static site. You see index.html, a css folder, maybe some JavaScript — and no server code. This is what Claude produces by default when you ask for a portfolio, landing page, or small business site. It’s also the cheapest thing on the internet to host.
- Dynamic app. There’s a package.json with a start script, an Express or Next.js server, an app.py, or a database file. Something has to stay running 24/7 to serve requests. You need an actual server.
- CMS-shaped project. The files are static today, but the plan involves a blog, weekly content changes, or a business partner who will never open a code editor. That’s a content management problem, and the honest answer is usually WordPress.
| What it looks like | Where I’d host it | Realistic monthly cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static site | HTML/CSS/JS only, no server code | Kinsta static hosting, Hostinger, Netlify/Vercel free tiers | $0–4 |
| Dynamic app | Node/Python backend, database | Cloudways managed cloud server | ~$11–14 |
| Needs a CMS | Non-coders will edit it regularly | WordPress on Hostinger or Kinsta | ~$3–35 |
Hosting a static Claude Code site
Quick verdict: if Claude built you plain HTML and CSS, you should be paying somewhere between nothing and the price of a coffee.
The free tiers on Netlify and Vercel are genuinely fine for this — I mean that without a catch. Around 100GB of bandwidth a month, automatic HTTPS, deploy by dragging a folder into the browser. For a portfolio or a side project, that covers you for years. The trade-offs are real but small: the free plans are for hobby use under their terms, you don’t get email, and your site lives on infrastructure whose pricing and policies you don’t control. I’ve had client projects start there and never need to leave.
Kinsta is the option almost nobody knows about: their static site hosting is free — up to 100 sites — served through the same Cloudflare enterprise edge as their premium WordPress plans. That’s where I put static builds for anything business-shaped, because if the project later grows into WordPress, the upgrade path is one dashboard away instead of a migration. And if you want the everything-included route, Hostinger shared hosting runs ~$3/month at the time of writing and bundles the thing the free tiers never give you: email at your own domain. Upload the folder through their file manager or connect a Git repo, and you’re live in minutes.
Hosting a dynamic app
If Claude built you a Next.js app with API routes, an Express backend, or a Python service with a database, the free-tier math changes. Serverless free plans put cold starts and execution limits between your users and your app, and “hobby” databases have a habit of pausing when you stop paying attention.
My default here is Cloudways — managed cloud servers on DigitalOcean, Vultr, or AWS starting around $11–14/month. You get a real server that runs whatever stack Claude produced, but Cloudways handles the patching, firewall, and backups that a raw VPS dumps in your lap. Their Copilot assistant is also legitimately useful when something breaks at 11pm and you’d rather ask a question than read nginx logs. The alternative is running your own VPS for a few dollars less — I’ve written up how to set up a VPS for your AI agents if you want that control, but be honest about whether you’ll actually apply security updates every month. Most people won’t, and that’s the whole argument for managed.
If you’re weighing the budget end against the managed end, my Hostinger vs Cloudways comparison covers exactly that fork in detail.
When WordPress is the smarter move
Here’s the conversation I have most often: someone ships a beautiful static Claude build, and three weeks later their business partner asks how to change the pricing table. The answer — “open VS Code, edit the HTML, redeploy” — lands badly every single time.
If non-developers will edit the site, or you’re planning a blog that publishes more than once a quarter, convert the build to WordPress. Claude Code is surprisingly good at this: point it at the static files and ask it to turn them into a WordPress theme, and it will produce something editable in an afternoon. Then the hosting choice is a budget question. Hostinger gets a converted site live for a few dollars a month. When the site is a genuine revenue asset, I move it to Kinsta — Google Cloud C2 machines, that Cloudflare enterprise layer, and a clean API that makes it the most automation-friendly managed WordPress host I use, at ~$30–35/month entry. One honest caveat: Kinsta doesn’t host email, so keep your mailboxes at your registrar or on Google Workspace. If budget is the whole decision, my cheapest AI website builder roundup covers the low end properly.
The deployment workflow that actually works
Whatever host you pick, put the project in a Git repository first. Not for engineering purity — because it turns every future update into “push and done” instead of “which files did I change?”
- Initialize the repo. Ask Claude Code to run git init, write a sensible .gitignore, and push to GitHub. It does all three without complaint.
- Connect the host. Kinsta static, Netlify, and Vercel all deploy straight from the GitHub repo on every push. Cloudways and Hostinger both support Git deployment too — or rsync over SSH for the old-school route.
- Let Claude do the deploying. This is the part people miss: Claude Code runs CLI tools. It can execute the deploy itself, verify the live site responds, and fix what broke. Ask it to write a deploy script and a README so future-you knows how the whole thing works.
That last point is why I care about hosts with clean APIs and sane tooling — it’s the same property that matters for agent workflows generally, which the best AI web hosting pillar ranks in depth.
Mistakes I see constantly
- Buying managed WordPress hosting for a static brochure site. That’s paying $30/month for a job a free tier does. Match the hosting to what Claude built, not to what the ads say.
- Leaving the site on a free subdomain. yourbusiness.vercel.app tells every visitor this is a hobby. A domain costs ~$10/year. Buy it on day one.
- Pushing API keys to a public repo. Claude sometimes hardcodes keys into client-side JavaScript during a build. Search the project for anything that looks like a secret before your first push — this one bites people monthly.
- Running a DIY VPS with no backups. If you go the raw-server route to save $5/month, the first thing you configure is automated backups. Managed platforms do this for you; that’s largely what you’re paying for.
Frequently asked questions
Can I host a website built with Claude Code for free?
If it’s static — HTML, CSS, JavaScript, no backend — yes, genuinely. Kinsta’s static hosting, Netlify, and Vercel all have free tiers that handle real traffic. Budget ~$10/year for a custom domain regardless. Dynamic apps with a backend are where free stops being honest; plan on ~$11+/month for a server that stays awake.
Do I need special hosting for an AI-generated website?
No. A website Claude built is made of the same files as a website a human built, and any normal host serves it. The only question that matters is whether it’s static files or a running application — that’s what decides the hosting type and the price.
Can Claude Code deploy the website by itself?
Yes. Claude Code runs command-line tools, so it can push to GitHub, trigger a deploy, rsync files to a server over SSH, and then check that the live URL responds. Scope any credentials you give it to the one project, but this is one of the strongest reasons to use Claude Code over a chat-only AI for building sites.
Should I convert my Claude Code site to WordPress?
Only if people who don’t code will edit it, or you’re publishing content on a schedule. For a set-and-forget landing page, WordPress adds maintenance you don’t need. For anything with a blog or a non-technical editor, the conversion pays for itself the first time someone updates a page without touching the code.
Want the guided version? Our free courses walk you through this start to finish — including “Launch Your First Website with Claude.”