> Canonical: https://drkishanrees.com/learn/get-it-online/

# How do I get my site onto the actual internet?

*Getting a vibe-coded site online is three things: a GitHub account for the code, a host that watches it, and a push. Knowing what a commit and a push actually do is the whole of the confidence.*

Launch & Costs. 4 min read.

First published 7 August 2026

<TrueFalseCard statement="When your website works on your own computer, it is already live on the internet for others to see." correct={false}>

Working on your own machine and being online are two different things. Your computer is showing the site to you alone, and nobody else can reach it. It goes live only when the code is put somewhere public and a host is told to serve it. That step is deliberate, and this session is what it involves.

</TrueFalseCard>

When a model lists the questions a beginner asks about building with AI, this one arrives the moment
the thing actually works: it runs on my laptop, so how do I get it onto the real internet? The honest
answer has three moving parts, and none of them needs you to be technical: a home in the cloud for
your code, a host that turns that code into a website, and one command that connects the two.

## What does "online" actually mean here?

A website is just files sitting on a computer that is always on and always reachable, answering when
a browser asks for them. Your laptop is neither, and you would not want it to be. So getting online
means moving your project's files onto a machine whose whole job is to serve them, and pointing your
address at it. You do not rent or configure that machine yourself; a host does that for you. What you
provide is the code, in a place the host can reach.

## What is a GitHub account, and why do I need one?

GitHub is that place. A GitHub account gives your project a home in the cloud, a repository, which
holds your code and its entire history, every saved version, safe off your laptop. It is free to
start, and it is the single most useful thing to set up early, because almost everything else, the
host, the updates, the ability to undo, hangs off it.

Here is the part that surprises people: you may never type a git command yourself. The tool you build
with can do the saving and the sending for you, and often does. You still want the account, and you
still want to understand what it is doing on your behalf, because that understanding is the difference
between publishing with confidence and publishing with your eyes shut. The next section is that
understanding.

## What do committing and pushing actually do, and when does the real site change?

Two separate steps, and only the second one touches anything real.

**Committing** is saving a snapshot into your project's history book, on your machine only. Think of
it as signing and dating today's work in the ledger. Nothing leaves your laptop, and nothing anyone
can see changes. It also means you can always turn back to exactly this page of the ledger later if
you need to undo something.

**Pushing** is sending those saved snapshots up to the project's copy in the cloud, the repository on
GitHub. If a hosting service watches that copy, and this site's host does, pushing is the moment the
real site rebuilds and updates, usually within a minute or two. Committing is bookkeeping; pushing is
publishing.

Three habits fall straight out of that split:

- **Commit often.** Bookkeeping is free, and every commit is a page you can turn back to.
- **Push deliberately.** Publishing is a decision, so know which rooms of your project are public and
  which are locked before you make it.
- **Let the checks stand guard.** If your project runs its quality checks as part of the build, and
  this one does, a broken push simply fails and the live site stays exactly as it was. The gate
  catches it; the world never sees it.

## So how do I get it online the first time?

Three steps, in order, and the tool can help you with each one:

1. **Put the code on GitHub.** Create the account, and let your tool create the repository and send
   the first copy up.
2. **Connect a host that watches it.** This site uses Cloudflare Pages, which is free for a static
   site like this one. You point it at the repository once, and it agrees to rebuild the site
   whenever the repository changes.
3. **Push.** That first push is your first publish. The host sees the change, builds the site, and
   serves it at your address, usually within a minute or two.

From then on, nothing about the mechanism changes. The next session is about living with that: how to
update a site once it is out there, without fear. It is the same commit and push you have just met,
used on purpose.

## So, how do I get my site onto the internet?

You give your code a home in the cloud, a GitHub repository; you connect a host that watches that
home, Cloudflare Pages here; and you push, which is the moment the site goes live. Committing saves,
pushing publishes, and a build that checks itself means a mistake fails safely instead of reaching
anyone. You may let the tool run the commands, but the account, the decision to publish, and the
understanding of what live means all stay yours.

## Questions and answers

### What is a GitHub account, and why do I need one?

It is a free home in the cloud for your project's code, kept with its full history. You need one because a host cannot serve a site that lives only on your laptop: the code has to sit somewhere public first, and GitHub is where it sits. You may never type a git command yourself, since the tool can do it for you, but the account is still yours.

### What do committing and pushing actually do?

Committing saves a dated snapshot of your work into the project's history, on your machine only; pushing sends those snapshots up to the copy on GitHub. If a host watches that copy, and this site's host does, the push is the moment the live site rebuilds. Committing is bookkeeping; pushing is publishing.

### How does my site actually go live the first time?

You put the code in a repository on GitHub, connect a host that watches it (this site uses Cloudflare Pages), and push. The first push is the first publish: the host builds the site and serves it at your address, usually within a minute or two. Every update after that travels the same way.

## Related resources

- How this site is built and hosted, on the colophon: https://drkishanrees.com/colophon/
- The Bot Crawls, a study that went live by this route: https://drkishanrees.com/colophon/bot-crawls-001/

Cite as: Rees, Kishan. 'How do I get my site onto the actual internet?'. drkishanrees.com, first published 7 August 2026. https://drkishanrees.com/learn/get-it-online/