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Deployment
3 components · sorted by setup time
Live URL beats localhost every time.
Why it matters
Judges want to tap a link, not watch you share your screen with a local server. Getting deployed in the first hour of the hackathon means every subsequent push goes live automatically. It also catches environment issues early — before they surface at 11pm the night before judging.
⚠ common pitfall
Don't wait until the last hour to deploy. Deploy an empty shell on day one. The first deployment is always the hardest — get it out of the way early.
✦ how to choose
Vercel is the default for Next.js — zero config, free tier, preview deployments per branch. Railway for anything that needs a persistent backend or worker process. Fly.io if you need containers or custom runtimes.
3 Deployment tools — fastest setup first