- The difference between an app running on your machine and one that is published.
- Publish a website with Vercel and an AI demo with Hugging Face Spaces.
- Use free APIs so your published app has AI without relying on your computer.
Key concepts
Option A: publish a website with Vercel
Perfect for landings, websites, and 3D simulations. Vercel has a free plan (Hobby) for personal projects.
- Upload your project to GitHub (ask Claude Code: "upload this project to a new GitHub repository").
- Go to vercel.com, connect with your GitHub account, and import the project.
- Vercel builds it and gives you a public URL. Every time you update the code on GitHub, it redeploys automatically.
Option B: an AI demo with Hugging Face Spaces
To showcase an AI app without setting up a server. Hugging Face Spaces offers limited free hardware (including ZeroGPU, with a few minutes of free GPU per day), ideal for demos and prototypes, not for intensive use.
Ask Claude Code: "prepare this project as a Hugging Face Space with Gradio and explain how to upload it".
Free APIs: AI in the cloud without your computer
When you publish an app with AI, instead of Ollama you use an API: an internet service that runs the model for you. Several have generous free plans to get started:
Another route: a VPS (your own server)
If you want your own local AI to serve on the internet, you can rent a VPS (a cloud computer you control) and install Ollama there. It is more advanced and usually costs a few euros per month; for most people, Vercel + a free API is more than enough to start.
Practice challenge
Publish the landing page from the previous chapter on Vercel and connect a contact form that reaches you by email (there are free services Claude Code knows how to integrate). You will have your first professional website on the internet.