Since I started using Claude Code, I've built quite a few apps.

In the beginning, I was just amazed that I could actually build them. I'm not a professional programmer, but with AI helping me, I could create apps that were useful for my own business.

But once you've built an app, what happens next?

Do you keep it on your own computer? Or do you put it online so other people can use it?

I happened to have a reason to share my very first app with someone else, so I started using Vercel right from the beginning.

Later, though, I realized something: if I'm the only person using an app, keeping it local can be perfectly fine.

So here's my experience with local apps, Vercel, Cloudflare, and a few other services I've learned about along the way.

My First App Was an Inventory Management Tool

The first app I built with Claude Code was an inventory management app.

I run an e-commerce business, and I work with someone who handles packing and shipping for me.

When I created the inventory app, I wanted both of us to be able to use it.

More importantly, I wanted us to check the same inventory information in real time, even though we were working in different locations.

That wouldn't be very practical if the app only ran on my Mac.

So I asked ChatGPT what I should do.

That's when it introduced me to Vercel.

At first, I had absolutely no idea what Vercel was.

But with AI guiding me through the process, I managed to take an app I'd built locally and make it accessible online.

By the way, putting an app online like this is called deployment.

That's another word I barely thought about before I started building apps.

Of course, making an app accessible online isn't the whole story. If two people need to work with the same inventory data, you also need to think about where that data is stored and who is allowed to access it.

At first, all I wanted was for someone else to use my app.

But little by little, I started learning that there was a lot more going on behind the scenes.

Wait, Do I Really Need to Put Every App Online?

After that, I kept building more apps with AI.

And eventually, something occurred to me.

Wait a minute. If I'm the only person using an app, why do I need to put it online at all?

I don't!

Some apps work perfectly well when they run locally on my computer.

For example, a tool I only use while working on my Mac, or an app that helps me organize my own tasks.

There's no need to deploy every single one of them to Vercel or another hosting service.

On the other hand, if I want someone else to use an app, or I want to access it easily while I'm away from home, putting it online may make much more sense.

Because my first project was an inventory management app, I started out thinking about sharing right away.

But I've heard that some beginners have the opposite experience.

They build something locally and only later realize, "Wait, how do I let someone else use this?"

I guess everyone learns these things in a different order!

One small detail worth knowing: a locally running app can sometimes be accessed from another device, such as a phone on the same Wi-Fi network, depending on how it's configured.

So using an app on your phone doesn't always mean you have to publish it on the internet.

What matters is who needs to use the app, and where they'll be using it.

Then Came Cloudflare, Thanks to a Fortune-Telling-Style App

The next service I started using was Cloudflare.

And the reason was completely different.

I attended a seminar-style event where we made a simple app that gave you a result after you answered a few questions.

I think there were about four questions.

It was a little like a fortune-telling or personality quiz app.

I thought the idea behind it could be useful for my business, so I took what we'd created and adapted it.

That turned into my own "Find Your Recommended Item" quiz apps.

I made two versions: one for false eyelashes and another for earrings.

I published them using Cloudflare, created QR codes linking to the apps, and added those QR codes to flyers included with my products.

Thinking about it now, that's pretty interesting.

Something I originally made during a seminar turned into a tool that customers could actually use after receiving one of my products.

Building apps with AI wasn't just an experiment or a learning exercise anymore.

It was becoming part of my real business.

So What Exactly Is Vercel?

I'd never heard of Vercel until ChatGPT suggested it.

In simple terms, Vercel is a platform that helps you put websites and web apps online.

For example, you can use it to:

  • Publish a web app so people can access it through a URL
  • Connect your project to GitHub and deploy updates
  • Preview changes before publishing them to your live site
  • Run certain kinds of server-side code when your app needs it

For me, Vercel was the place where I could take something I'd built on my own computer and make it available to someone else.

These days, I also use Vercel to publish my blogs.

One thing I learned, though, is that putting an app on Vercel doesn't necessarily mean all of its data is stored there too.

Depending on the app, you might need a separate database.

You don't have to understand every technical detail right away, but it helps to know that where an app runs and where its data is stored can be two different things.

Cloudflare Can Do a Lot More Than I Realized

Cloudflare can also be used to publish websites and apps.

Since I originally used it for my quiz apps, that was pretty much all I knew about it.

Then I learned something that surprised me.

Cloudflare offers services such as Workers, which can run application code, D1 for databases, and R2 for storing files and other data.

It also provides tools for speeding up website traffic and improving security.

In other words, Cloudflare does a lot more than I originally thought.

I'd heard about AWS before, and I learned that Cloudflare can handle some similar kinds of tasks.

Of course, AWS and Cloudflare aren't identical. They have different services, structures, and strengths.

But for someone like me, who initially thought of Cloudflare as just somewhere to upload an app, it was a pretty interesting discovery.

There's a lot more to these platforms than I realized!

There Are Other Options Too, Like Netlify and Render

Vercel and Cloudflare aren't the only places where you can put an app online.

There are plenty of other services.

Netlify

Netlify is another platform for publishing websites and web apps.

Like Vercel, it can connect to GitHub, deploy updates, and provide previews before changes go live.

Actually, I remember trying to use Netlify at some point.

I'm not even completely sure whether I still have something running on it. I'd have to check! Haha.

Render

Render is another option for hosting websites and applications.

It can host static sites, but it can also run server-side applications built with technologies such as Python and Node.js.

I haven't personally used Render so far, but it's good to know it exists.

And of course, there are many more options, including AWS.

Each platform has different features and strengths, so you can't assume every app will run exactly the same way on all of them.

But I don't think beginners need to memorize every available service before they start building something.

Is It Okay to Use Both Vercel and Cloudflare?

This is another question I've heard from people who are getting started.

"I'm using both Vercel and Cloudflare. Should I move everything to one of them?"

I remember someone asking something along those lines.

Other people suggested that there wasn't necessarily a reason to consolidate everything.

And I felt the same way.

If your apps are working fine and you have a reason to use different services, why rush to move everything to one platform?

Of course, using several services means having more accounts, settings, costs, and security responsibilities to keep track of.

If that becomes difficult to manage, or if costs start adding up, it might make sense to simplify things.

But I don't think consolidation needs to be a goal in itself.

In my case, I didn't choose Vercel and Cloudflare after carefully comparing every feature.

I started using Vercel because I wanted to share my inventory management app.

Then I started using Cloudflare because of an app I made at a seminar and later adapted for my business.

Different projects, different circumstances.

These days, I probably use Vercel more often, but I still have my quiz apps published through Cloudflare.

And as long as that's working well for me, I don't feel an urgent need to change it.

Building an App Is One Thing. Figuring Out What to Do With It Is Another.

When I first started using Claude Code, I was amazed that AI could help me build an app at all.

But once I actually started building things, a whole new set of questions came up.

Who is going to use this app?

Does it only need to run on my computer?

Do other people need access to the same data?

Do I want to use it from my phone?

And if I put it online, which service should I use?

Creating an app and deciding how to use it are two different things.

For me, it started with an inventory management app that I wanted to share with someone helping my business. That's how I discovered Vercel.

Then I adapted a little quiz app from a seminar, turned it into something useful for my customers, and published it with Cloudflare.

And as I kept building more things, I realized that some apps didn't need to be online at all.

Looking back, I definitely didn't understand all of this from the beginning.

I learned what I needed, one step at a time, as I built things.

If you're just getting started building apps with AI, I don't think you need to become an expert in servers or cloud platforms first.

Try building something.

Then think about whether it's just for you or whether you want to share it with other people.

You can figure out where to run it when you actually need to.

I'm still learning too. There are so many things I don't know yet.

But honestly, discovering these things along the way is part of what makes building apps with AI so much fun.