How to Deploy AI-Built Apps.

The Demo Is Not The Launch

AI-built apps often work locally before they are ready for customers. Deployment exposes the unfinished parts: missing environment variables, exposed API keys, weak auth, broken redirects, no error monitoring, poor mobile behavior, and database rules that were never hardened.

Launching means turning the demo into a production system. That includes hosting, domains, SSL, secrets, logs, monitoring, backups, security checks, and a handover path for future changes.

Deployment Checklist

• Move secrets out of source code and into environment variables.
• Separate local, preview, and production environments.
• Configure DNS, SSL, redirects, and canonical domains.
• Review authentication, authorization, CORS, and database rules.
• Add error tracking, uptime monitoring, and basic analytics.
• Test critical flows from a clean browser and mobile device.
• Document how to deploy, roll back, and rotate credentials.

Common Stack Choices

Next.js apps often fit Vercel when the architecture is frontend-heavy. Render, Railway, Fly.io, or AWS may be better for long-running APIs, background jobs, databases, or custom Docker setups. React Native and Expo apps need a separate mobile release path through EAS, TestFlight, Play Console, and store review.

Do not pick hosting only by what the generator used. Pick it based on runtime needs, database access, background work, compliance, team familiarity, and rollback requirements.

Launch Flow

The main point: deploying an AI-built app is not just clicking publish. It is the discipline of making the product safe, observable, recoverable, and understandable for the next person who touches it.