Guide
Lovable hosting: where to host a Lovable site
Every Lovable app can be published on Lovable's own hosting with no setup. A lovable.app address is free on every plan, a custom domain needs a paid plan, and no plan caps visitors or bandwidth. You can also export the code and host it yourself, or move the site to WordPress. The right choice depends less on price than on who will maintain the site.
The options at a glance
| Where it runs | What you pay for | Who maintains it | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lovable, on lovable.app | Included on every plan | Lovable | Prototypes, launches, internal tools |
| Lovable, on your own domain | A paid Lovable plan | Lovable | Businesses that keep building in Lovable |
| Netlify, Vercel or Cloudflare Pages | The platform's plan (all three have free tiers) | You or your developer | Teams with a developer and a Git workflow |
| Your own servers or containers | Your infrastructure | You | Companies with hosting or compliance requirements |
| WordPress host, after conversion | A WordPress hosting plan | You or a managed host; editors work in WordPress | Content-heavy sites, non-developer editors, stores |
What Lovable hosting includes
- Publishing to a
lovable.appaddress is free and available on all plans. - HTTPS is set up automatically for every published address, custom domains included.
- Global delivery: published apps are served from locations close to your visitors.
- No traffic caps: plans do not limit visitors, requests or bandwidth. A live site does not use credits on its own; backend activity does.
- Publishing is a snapshot. Changes you make afterwards stay unpublished until you open the Publish dialog and click Publish changes.
- Visibility: anyone with the link can open a published app by default. Business and Enterprise plans can limit access to workspace members.
- SEO: new apps are server-rendered and older apps are prerendered for verified crawlers. Details in Is Lovable good for SEO?
Source: Lovable's How Lovable hosts your app, checked on 17 September 2026.
Using a custom domain
Connecting your own domain needs a paid plan and a few DNS changes at your registrar. Once it works, set it as the primary domain, so search engines index one address instead of two. Lovable's custom domain guide walks through the steps.
Self-hosting a Lovable site
Lovable states that projects can be cloned, modified and deployed on your own infrastructure without restriction (deployment and ownership options). In practice:
- Export the code through GitHub sync or a ZIP download. See how to export Lovable code.
- Connect the repository to Netlify, Vercel or Cloudflare Pages, which rebuild the site on every commit, or build it in your own pipeline.
- For React + Vite apps (created before 13 May 2026): the build command is
npm run buildand the output folder isdist/, with Node 22 recommended. Add a fallback rewrite so every route servesindex.html: a_redirectsfile on Netlify and Cloudflare,vercel.jsonon Vercel. - For TanStack Start apps (created from 13 May 2026): pages are rendered on the server, so choose hosting that runs server-side code, such as Node or the platform's serverless functions, unless you prerender every route to static files.
- Set environment variables before building.
VITE_variables are embedded at build time. Apps on Lovable Cloud needVITE_SUPABASE_URL,VITE_SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEYandVITE_SUPABASE_PROJECT_ID.
What changes when you leave Lovable's hosting:
- You run the builds, SSL, CDN configuration and uptime.
- The backend can stay on Lovable Cloud while the site is hosted elsewhere. If you also move the backend, you take on the database, backups and authentication.
- An older React + Vite app loses Lovable's crawler prerendering and becomes a client-rendered app, unless you add prerendering yourself.
Build and environment details from Lovable's deploying and hosting outside Lovable.
Hosting it as a WordPress site
A Lovable app does not run on WordPress hosting as it is: WordPress hosts run PHP and a MySQL database, not a React build. To host the site on WordPress, convert it into a WordPress theme first. The IQDesk converter turns the exported project into a block theme with the same pages, design, images, forms and products. The theme installs on any WordPress host, and your editors work in the WordPress block editor from then on.
That route makes sense when the people who update the site are not developers, when you publish often, or when you need WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce or an SEO plugin. It is the wrong move if your Lovable project is an app with logins and data, because those parts do not become WordPress pages.
How to choose
- Still changing the site every week in Lovable? Stay on Lovable hosting and add a custom domain.
- Have a developer and want control? Self-host from the GitHub repository.
- Handing the site to a marketing team? Move it to WordPress, where they already know the editor.
Deciding between the platforms themselves? Read Lovable vs WordPress.
FAQ
Is Lovable hosting free?
Publishing to a lovable.app address is free on every plan, and plans do not cap visitors, requests or bandwidth. A custom domain needs a paid plan, and backend activity such as database use consumes credits; a live site on its own does not.
Can I use my own domain with Lovable?
Yes, on a paid plan. Lovable sets up the SSL certificate for custom domains automatically.
Can I self-host a Lovable app?
Yes. Lovable documents hosting the code on Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, cloud storage behind a CDN, containers or your own servers. You take over builds, SSL, CDN configuration and uptime.
Can I host a Lovable site on WordPress hosting?
Not as it is. A Lovable app is a React project and WordPress hosting runs PHP and MySQL. Convert the site into a WordPress block theme first; it then runs on any WordPress host.
Do I lose anything by hosting outside Lovable?
Lovable's crawler prerendering for older React + Vite apps is part of its hosting, and managed sign-in configuration and token refresh only work with the built-in backend. The backend can stay on Lovable Cloud while you host the site elsewhere.