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Netlify

A live web link in ~30 seconds — and your agent can do it before you even have an account. Netlify puts the page online first and asks who you are later: an anonymous publish hands you a public URL on the spot, yours to claim within an hour.

Reach for it when you want a finished page or app open in someone's browser now, lightest possible setup. Skip it when the thing must stay private — a free Netlify site is fully public, no password gate below the paid tier.

Last verified: 2026-06-07 · Confidence: high on the anonymous-deploy flow and password gating; medium on credit limits.

It allows you to

  • Get a link before you sign up. Your agent publishes anonymously and a public URL is live in ~30 seconds — no account, no login. [confirmed]
  • Keep it, or let it go. Claim the link within an hour and it's permanently yours; leave it and Netlify takes it down. [confirmed]
  • Hold a custom name. Point your own domain at it for free; the default is a random *.netlify.app address. [confirmed]
  • The shared wins — one public link, no recipient account, update in place — are on the Deploy a website overview; below is what Netlify adds.

Ideal for

  • A short course or guide people open on their phone — the EA Mini Course, an effective-altruism crash course with syllabus, talks, and reading list, on a free *.netlify.app link. [confirmed]
  • A throwaway preview you want eyes on this minute — paste a draft page into chat, get a live URL in 30 seconds, let it expire on its own if it was one-off.
  • A one-page interactive report or dashboard — a built app (charts, a calculator, a wired-up form) a non-coder could never run from raw files, but opens instantly as a link.
  • A workshop schedule or resource hub — a small site a team points people at, kept current by sending updates to the same URL.

Who can get in

A free Netlify site has exactly one access state: public. Anyone with the URL views it; sharing the URL is granting access. [confirmed]

  • No password on free. Site-wide password protection starts on Pro and up, so treat any free site as readable by the whole internet. [confirmed]
  • The only built-in expiry is the one-hour claim window on an unclaimed anonymous link. [confirmed]
  • A custom domain doesn't change visibility — a nicer name on the same public site. [confirmed]

Which rungs it can hold. On free, only the whole internet (public); named-people and org-only need a paid gate. → Who can see it? [confirmed]

Handing data to the host. Netlify won't train AI on your content unless you opt in [confirmed], and runs primarily on US infrastructure [unclear]. Weigh it if a form behind the site collects regulated personal data. → Can you trust the company? (company entry)

What you do to set it up

Tell Claude Code, in the folder that holds your site:

Deploy this folder to Netlify anonymously and give me the live URL and the claim link.

That's the whole instant share: ~0 effort, no account — the agent installs the tool if needed and prints a live URL in ~30 seconds. To keep the site, open the claim link and sign up once (~3 min) — the only step an agent can't do for you. [confirmed]

What the other person does

Nothing Netlify-specific: a free site is always public, so the recipient just clicks — no invite, no seat, no sign-in, free to view. The shared recipient path is on the overview.

Other ways to share

  • Only named people should get in, not the whole internet? → a Gated website puts a Google login wall in front; or Cloudflare Pages fences a draft behind named emails free.
  • Need a real backend — a database, logins, a running server? → Fly.io. A free Netlify site serves static files only.
  • Weighing the hosts, or want a Next.js app? → the Deploy a website overview, or Vercel (non-commercial free tier).

Sources

Good to know

  • A free site is fully public — no password below Pro. Don't put anything sensitive on one. [confirmed]
  • Free Starter is credit-metered — 300 credits/month, and when they run out all your sites pause until the next cycle. [confirmed] Re-check live at netlify.com/pricing — the model changed twice in the past year. [unclear]
  • The rest of the fine print — unclaimed-link timing, custom-domain DNS step, data residency — is on the free-plan detail page.