How to deploy a Bolt.new app to production in 2026

What "production" actually means for a Bolt.new app

Quick reality check before anyone burns an afternoon on this.

A Bolt.new preview is a sandbox. It runs inside StackBlitz's browser environment, has a temporary URL, and stops the moment your tab closes or the session resets. That's fine for showing a friend on a Zoom call. It's not a product anyone can actually use.

Production means three things at once: a stable URL that doesn't change, an app that survives real traffic (10 visitors or 10,000), and API keys plus environment variables handled securely rather than pasted into the source code. Two out of three is a broken product.

This guide covers the three ways to get from a Bolt.new preview to a real live URL in 2026, what each one costs, and the five things that quietly break Bolt apps the moment they leave the preview window.

The three paths from Bolt.new to live

There isn't one workflow — there are three, and the right one depends on how much control you need and what you're willing to spend.

Path A: Bolt Hosting (the built-in option)

Bolt rolled out built-in hosting in mid-2025, and it's now the default for every new project. Inside your Bolt project, click the gear icon at the top center, open All project settings → Domains & Hosting, then click Publish. About 30 seconds later you have a your-app.bolt.host URL.

The catches. Custom domains require a paid Bolt plan — $25/month Pro or $30/member/month Teams. The free plan keeps Bolt branding and the .bolt.host subdomain (fine for demos, not for a real product). You can't customize the build pipeline beyond what Bolt's UI exposes. And if you cancel the subscription, your hosted app goes down with it.

When this works. You're ready to pay Bolt monthly, you don't need fine-grained control over the build, and you want to ship today.

Path B: Netlify, direct from Bolt

Bolt has a native Netlify integration. Same path inside the gear menu — Domains & Hosting — but use the dropdown to switch the hosting provider from Bolt to Netlify, authorize Netlify when prompted, click Publish. You get a your-app.netlify.app URL.

The catches. The custom-domain version of this integration needs a Netlify Teams plan, meaning you'd be paying both Bolt and Netlify for what should be one workflow. The free Netlify tier covers basic bandwidth and build minutes — enough for early traffic, fine for a side project. Builds inherit Netlify's defaults, which is great for static and JAMstack apps and less great if your Bolt project has a real backend.

When this works. You want Netlify's edge network specifically, your app is mostly frontend, and you're fine managing two billing accounts.

Path C: Export, push to GitHub, host anywhere

The path that scales with you. Open the project in Bolt, click the project title at the top left, then Export — choose Download for a .zip, or click the GitHub icon to push directly to a GitHub repo. Once your code is in Git, you can deploy it on any host you like:

• Netlify (without going through Bolt)

• Vercel

• Cloudflare Pages

• Railway, Render, or Fly.io for full-stack apps with a backend

• livemy.app — one-click deploy with custom domain, free SSL, monitoring and backups, built for non-developers

Why this matters. Your code is yours. You're not locked into Bolt's pricing curve, and if Bolt's roadmap shifts in a direction you don't like, you keep shipping. The trade-off: you set up the host yourself, you configure environment variables yourself, and you handle the build. Most modern platforms do this in under five clicks, but it's more work than "click Publish in Bolt."

From Bolt.new to a live URL on livemy.app (about 3 minutes)

If you're a non-developer and Path C sounds like a lot of work, livemy.app is the part that does the heavy lifting for you. Here's the full flow.

Step 1: Export your Bolt project

In Bolt, click the project title at the top left → Export → Download. Save the ZIP somewhere you'll find in a minute. (If you'd rather wire it up to GitHub for ongoing edits, click the GitHub icon instead and push to a repo.)

Step 2: Sign up at livemy.app

Go to livemy.app and click Start free. No credit card. You land in my.livemy.app — the dashboard.

For testing the deploy, the Free tier is enough. For production hosting with real visitors, pick Maker ($20/month) before going live. Free-tier projects sleep after 60 minutes of inactivity — fine for a demo, not fine for a site you want people to share.

Step 3: Upload the ZIP (or connect the GitHub repo)

In the dashboard, click New project → Upload archive and drop your Bolt ZIP. livemy.app auto-detects the stack — Vite, React, Next.js — and configures the build for you. No Dockerfile, no settings to wrestle with. If you exported to GitHub instead, pick Connect repo and authorize once.

Step 4: Wait two-ish minutes

Typical deploy time for a Bolt-exported app: 2 to 5 minutes. The dashboard streams the build log live as it runs. When status flips to Live, you get a URL on livemy.site (something like your-app.livemy.site). Open it, confirm the site looks right. If something's off, jump to Troubleshooting below.

Step 5: Point your own domain at it

Click Add custom domain in project settings, paste your domain, update one DNS record at your registrar. Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy — all support this in their DNS settings. Within 1–10 minutes the DNS propagates, Let's Encrypt SSL fires automatically, and your domain serves HTTPS. No nginx, no renewal cron jobs.

That's the whole flow. Your Bolt.new export now lives on livemy.app, your AI credits aren't being consumed for hosting, your domain works, traffic is encrypted.

The five things that quietly break Bolt.new apps in production

Bolt's preview environment is forgiving. Production builds aren't. These five gotchas account for most of the "it worked in Bolt, why doesn't it work live" emails in vibe-coder communities.

1. Hard-coded API keys

Bolt often hard-codes things like Supabase URLs and OpenAI keys directly into the source during development. Two problems: the keys leak (they're visible in the browser bundle), and the build fails when the host doesn't see them in its environment variables panel.

Fix. Move every key into a .env file. For client-side Vite apps, prefix with VITE_ (for example, VITE_SUPABASE_URL). Add the same variables in your host's environment variables panel before deploying. On livemy.app: Project Settings → Environment Variables.

2. TypeScript errors the dev server ignored

Bolt's preview runs a permissive dev server. Production builds use tsc and will fail on type errors that didn't trip anything in the preview.

Fix. Before publishing, run npx tsc --noEmit locally on the exported code. Fix anything that comes back red.

3. Case-sensitive import paths

macOS treats Header.tsx and header.tsx as the same file. Linux build servers don't. If Bolt generates import Header from './header' while the actual file is Header.tsx, the build fails on deploy.

Fix. Skim every import in the codebase before shipping. Match casing exactly to the filename.

4. Missing dependencies in package.json

Bolt sometimes installs packages in the preview environment without writing them to package.json. They work in Bolt, then disappear in production.

Fix. After export, compare what's imported in your code against what's listed in package.json. Anything missing? Add it with npm install <package> and re-export.

5. Routes that work in preview, 404 in production

Single-page apps need a fallback rule that says "if the URL doesn't match a file, serve index.html and let React handle it." Bolt's preview does this automatically. Most hosts need you to configure it.

Fix. Add a _redirects file (Netlify) or vercel.json rewrite (Vercel) with /* /index.html 200. On livemy.app, this is auto-detected for SPA frameworks. If you imported a folder of pre-built HTML files, enable SPA mode in the routing settings.

Cost: Bolt Hosting vs livemy.app for one production app

For a finished app — custom domain, always-on, backups — here's what the bill actually looks like.

Bolt Pro is $25/month, includes hosting plus 10M AI tokens you may or may not still be using. livemy.app Maker is $20/month flat, plus an optional $5/month backups add-on. Once your app stops needing daily AI changes, the livemy.app number is more predictable and a few dollars cheaper.

The caveats:

• If you're still iterating with AI daily, Bolt is the right tool for that part of the job. Migrate when iteration slows.

• If your app is genuinely free-tier-sized and never gets traffic, Bolt's free plan (with the .bolt.host subdomain) is hard to beat. So is livemy.app's free tier, for the same use case.

• Backups are optional — if your app has no database, skip the $5/month add-on. For anything with persistent data, turn them on.

Troubleshooting: what to check first when the deploy breaks

After enough of these migrations, the same three failure modes account for most "it didn't work" emails.

Build fails on missing dependencies. Bolt shipped a package it injected during AI generation, but it's not in package.json. The build log says module not found: X. Fix: open package.json, add what's missing, re-upload. Or run npm install locally so node_modules is populated, re-zip, re-upload.

Blank page on the live URL. Almost always a missing environment variable. Bolt injects these at runtime on its own hosting. On livemy.app you set them under Project Settings → Environment Variables. Names to check: VITE_API_URL, NEXT_PUBLIC_*, any auth keys, anything your code reads via process.env.

404 on routes that worked in preview. SPA routing needs a catch-all rewrite. Vite and Next.js projects exported from Bolt: livemy.app's auto-detect handles this. Pre-built HTML files dropped into a folder: enable SPA mode in the routing settings, or rebuild the project as a proper framework.

Got something else? Email hello@livemy.app with the build log. Typical reply: under one business day.

FAQ

Can I deploy a Bolt.new app for free?

Yes. Through Bolt Hosting's free tier (with Bolt branding and a .bolt.host subdomain), through Netlify's free plan via Bolt's integration, or by exporting the code and deploying to a free-tier host like livemy.app or Cloudflare Pages. Custom domains usually require a paid plan on one side or the other.

Do I need to know how to code to deploy a Bolt.new app?

No. Bolt Hosting and the Netlify integration are both one-click. If you go the GitHub plus external host route, you'll copy a few values between dashboards, but you don't need to read or write code beyond verifying your environment variables.

Why does my Bolt.new app work in preview but break when deployed?

Five common reasons: missing environment variables, TypeScript errors that the dev server tolerated, case-sensitive import paths, missing dependencies in package.json, and SPA fallback routes not configured on the host. The five-gotchas section above has the fix for each.

Can I keep editing my Bolt.new app in Bolt after I export it?

Yes. Bolt's GitHub integration syncs both ways — edits in Bolt push to the repo, and edits in the repo can be pulled back. Pick one source of truth (usually Bolt while you're still iterating with AI) to avoid merge conflicts.

What's the cheapest way to host a Bolt.new app with a custom domain?

Export the code from Bolt to GitHub, then host it on a free-tier or low-cost platform that includes custom domains — livemy.app Maker ($20/month), Cloudflare Pages, or Render's free tier. You also pay for the domain itself, around $10–15/year. This avoids paying both Bolt's Pro plan and a host's paid tier.

Is livemy.app actually cheaper than Bolt Hosting?

For ongoing hosting of a finished app, yes. $20/month flat ($25 with backups) on Maker replaces $25/month on Bolt Pro, and you're not paying for AI tokens you may no longer be using. If you're still iterating heavily with AI, Bolt may be the cheaper tool for that phase — migrate once iteration slows.

Deploy your Bolt.new app — takes about as long as a coffee

If your Bolt.new export is ready, you're closer to a live URL than you are to finishing this paragraph.

→ Start free on livemy.app · No credit card · Free tier forever · Pay nothing until you're ready for production hosting.

Questions on the deploy side, or hitting one of the five gotchas above? Email hello@livemy.app with the build log. Replies inside one business day.

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