How to host a ChatGPT-generated app

Short answer: ChatGPT can write the app, but it can’t host it. To put a ChatGPT-generated app online, connect ChatGPT to a host — like Croft — and ask it to deploy. It goes live at its own web address, with a database and a login for the people you invite.

Whether ChatGPT builds it in a Canvas or just writes the code, you end up in the same place: something that works in the chat but has nowhere to live. No URL to send, no database behind it, nothing saved when you close the tab. Hosting is the missing last mile.

The steps

1. Connect ChatGPT to your croft. In ChatGPT’s connector settings, add Croft and sign in. (Connecting ChatGPT needs ChatGPT Plus or better — its connector support isn’t on the free tier.) Full guide →
2. Ask it to build and deploy. Describe the app, or paste the code it already wrote, and say “deploy this to my croft.” ChatGPT builds it onto your private server.
3. Share the link. It’s live behind your login; invite the people who need it.

What “hosting” actually gives you

On Croft, the deployed app gets its own URL, a real database so data persists, one login through enterprise single sign-on, plus HTTPS and backups — none of which you set up. ChatGPT is great at writing the app; Croft is where it runs, gets shared, and keeps working.

Prefer to use Claude or Grok instead? Same idea, one link. And if you’re wondering what a “generated app” really is before it’s hosted, here’s what an artifact is and why it isn’t an app.

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