Deploying to Vercel, Railway, Render, or Fly is how you publish a product. When you just need to hand someone a build, a single .vibeapp skips the account, the pipeline, and the bill.
| Concern | Vibe (.vibeapp) | Cloud hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Account / signup | None | Required |
| Deploy pipeline | Package one file | Build + deploy config |
| Infrastructure | Runs on recipient's Mac | Always-on servers |
| Ongoing cost | Free | Recurring bill |
| Secrets & env exposure | Stays local, sandboxed | Managed in the platform |
| How you deliver it | Send a file | Share a URL you maintain |
| Works offline | Yes | No |
If you're shipping a public product that needs a stable URL, uptime, and shared access, deploy it. That's what platforms like Vercel and Railway are for, and Vibe doesn't compete with that.
For a demo for a client, a prototype for a teammate, an internal tool, or a review copy, hosting is overkill — you'd be standing up (and paying for) infrastructure just to show one person something. With Vibe you package the whole app into one signed .vibeapp and send it. It runs locally and sandboxed on the recipient's Mac, with its database and services included and state auto-saved every 30 seconds. Nothing to deploy, nothing to keep running, nothing to take down later.