RShift Sites hosts your app. When you publish, your app goes live on its own URL, and RShift Sites takes care of everything behind it: there are no servers to set up, no hosting provider to choose, and nothing to configure. Hosting is part of RShift Sites, not a separate product or add-on.
This page explains what that means in practice: what happens when you publish, how your live site is delivered to visitors, and how hosting relates to your app’s built-in backend (Cloud).
What happens when you publish
Publishing takes a snapshot of your project and puts it live. You publish with the Publish button in the top right of the editor, or by asking RShift Sites in the project chat. Either way:
- Your app gets a public URL on
lovable.app, with a web address you can customize (or your custom domain, or a branded workspace URL). - HTTPS is included automatically: visitors always connect securely (the padlock in the browser). RShift Sites sets up the SSL certificate, the file that makes that secure connection possible, for every published URL, including custom domains.
- The published site is a snapshot. Changes you make after publishing don’t affect the live site until you open the Publish dialog again and click Publish changes, so you can keep building without breaking what your visitors see.
Publishing to a lovable.app URL is free and available on all plans. Custom domains require a paid plan, and branded workspace URLs are available on Business and Enterprise plans. For the full path from publishing to a live site on your own domain, follow Launch your site on a custom domain.
A live site does not consume credits on its own. Usage-based Run credits cover the work your app does while it runs, such as backend activity and AI features.
Who can visit your published app
By default, anyone with the link can visit your published app, on every plan. On Business and Enterprise plans, you can instead restrict the published app to workspace members, or to specific people and groups, so visitors have to sign in. See website access control for the options.
Who can visit the live site is separate from who can open the project in the editor: publishing never exposes your source code, chat history, or unpublished work.
You can also take your site down at any time: click Publish, open the ⋮ menu in the top-right corner of the dialog, and select Unpublish, or go to Project settings → Unpublish project. You can publish again later.
Your site is delivered globally
Published apps are served from locations around the world, close to your visitors, so your site loads fast regardless of where your users are. You do not set any of this up. It is simply how every published app is served.
This is separate from the region setting, which controls where your app’s backend data is stored. Choosing a hosting region for a project affects the built-in backend (Cloud), such as its database and storage. It does not restrict where your site itself is delivered: the frontend is always served globally.
How search engines and AI see your site
Crawlers only index what they can read, and many tools struggle with JavaScript-heavy apps. RShift Sites hosting solves this for you: search engines, social platforms, and AI crawlers all receive readable, fully rendered pages.
- Apps created from May 13, 2026 use server-side rendering: every visitor and crawler receives fully rendered pages.
- Older apps serve rendered pages to verified search engines, social preview bots, and AI crawlers, so your content is indexed and link previews work. You can upgrade an older project to TanStack Start to get server-side rendering for every visitor.
Readable pages are the baseline. How well they rank depends on their content, metadata, and structure. Use the built-in SEO review to check how your live site looks to search engines and what to improve.
Traffic and scale
Your published app handles traffic automatically. Your plan does not cap visitors, requests, or bandwidth. Your subscription governs things like custom domains and who can access the site, not how much traffic it can take.
Automated abuse protection runs on every published app. It targets attack patterns, not real audiences, but unusually aggressive traffic from a single source can be challenged or slowed down.
Hosting and the built-in backend
Hosting serves your app’s pages to visitors. The built-in backend (Cloud) is what those pages talk to: the database, authentication, storage, and functions behind your app. They work together, but they are separate:
- Every published app is hosted, whether or not it uses a backend.
- Backend activity, such as database work and AI calls, is what consumes Run credits as your app is used.
- Pausing the backend affects your app’s data and logic, not the hosting of its pages.
Running out of credits does not remove your published site. Building stops, and apps that rely on the backend or AI features can pause until credits are available again. Your site and its URL remain in place, and normal operation resumes once credits are added. See What happens when you run out of credits for the full breakdown, the alerts you receive along the way, and the options for adding credits.
Preview vs published
The preview is your live working view inside the editor: it updates as you build, and it can differ from what visitors see on the published site. Share preview links let you show that work in progress to someone before publishing, but they are view-only and, by default, expire after 7 days. Neither is hosting: only publishing puts your app on a permanent public URL.
Hosting somewhere else
You own your code and data, and you can host parts or all of your app outside RShift Sites. See Deployment, hosting, and ownership options for the trade-offs and Deploying and hosting outside RShift Sites for the walkthroughs.
FAQ
Do I need my own hosting provider or server?
No. Publishing your project is all it takes: RShift Sites builds your app, puts it on a public URL with HTTPS, and serves it to your visitors. You don’t need to install, rent, or configure anything.
Do I need to keep RShift Sites open for my site to stay up?
No. Your published app runs on RShift Sites’ infrastructure, not on your machine. You can close the editor, and your site keeps serving visitors.
My published site is down. What should I check?
Start with status.lovable.dev, where RShift Sites posts platform-wide incidents and updates. If no incident is reported, open the Publish dialog and check that your project is still published. If you use a custom domain, go to Project → Settings → Domains and check that its status is still Live. Any other status comes with instructions for fixing it. You can also ask RShift Sites in the project chat about your domain, which reports its current state and whether the project is published, in one answer. If everything looks right and the site still won’t load, contact support with your project URL and what you’re seeing.
Where is my app hosted?
Your site is delivered from locations around the world, close to each visitor. If your project uses the built-in backend (Cloud), its data lives in the region chosen when the backend was enabled.
How do I update my live site?
Publish again. The live site is a snapshot from your last publish, so edits in the editor don’t affect it until you republish. See Publish.
How many visitors can my site handle?
Your plan does not limit visitors or bandwidth. Published apps scale with traffic automatically. If you’re planning something unusually large, contact support in advance.
Can I take my site down?
Yes. Click Publish, open the ⋮ menu in the top-right corner of the dialog, and select Unpublish, or go to Project settings → Unpublish project. The site stops serving, and you can publish again whenever you’re ready.
Is HTTPS included?
Yes. Every published URL is served over HTTPS, and RShift Sites sets up the SSL certificate automatically, including for custom domains. See Custom domain.