Can I export my Lovable or Bolt app and host it myself?

This question usually comes up at one of two moments: you want to use your own domain name, or you start feeling uneasy about your entire business sitting on a tool's account. Both are fair reasons, and in both cases the answer is yes.

What you get

Most tools export to a GitHub repository. What is in there is real code: the screens, the logic, the configuration. That is your property and you can put it with any hosting provider that handles this kind of project. You are not locked in, and that is better news than a lot of people assume.

What is not in there

• Your database. It usually sits with a separate service and does not travel with the code; you have to take it over or export it separately.
• Your environment variables. The keys to your database, payment provider and email were in the tool and have to be set up again in the new place.
• The build steps the tool did invisibly for you. Running locally often takes a few commands that are written down nowhere.
• Everything you configured in the tool itself: domains, forms, analytics, built-in authentication.

Those four points together are why an export often ends in a repository nobody touches again. The code is there, it just does not run anywhere.

The order that does work

Export first, while everything is still running. Then get the code working locally, with your own copy of the database and your own keys, so you know for certain you have every part. Only after that put it live on your own hosting, and keep the old version up for another week. Move your domain last, not first.

An export is not a move. It is packing the boxes; the keys to the new house are a separate arrangement.

The checklist for a Lovable app with Supabase

• Connect GitHub first. In Lovable you do this from the project settings; Lovable then creates a private repository and keeps it in sync both ways. Do this before you move anything, so there is a history to go back to.
• Set your VITE_ variables again on your new host. Most Lovable apps are Vite projects, and Vite bakes everything starting with VITE_ into the code that goes to the browser at build time. If they are missing on your new host, the app builds fine but talks to nothing. It also means anything prefixed VITE_ is public: a secret key never belongs there.
• Update your Site URL and Redirect URLs in Supabase. The Site URL is where Supabase sends people when your code does not pass another address, and it is used in confirmation emails and password resets. If it still points at your old Lovable address, your users click a link in their email that leads to the old place. Put your new domain in, and add it to the list of allowed redirect URLs as well.
• Your edge functions keep running. If you use your own Supabase project, they live at Supabase and not with your hosting, so moving your frontend does not touch them. If you want to change them afterwards, you deploy them yourself from now on with the Supabase CLI (supabase functions deploy).

Does your app run on Lovable Cloud?

Then it is a different story. Lovable Cloud is the backend Lovable manages for you, and according to Lovable's own documentation there is no one-click migration to your own Supabase project: you export your data, connect a new Supabase project and rebuild the schema there. Two things to know before you start. The region of a Cloud project cannot be changed afterwards. And removing Cloud is permanent, so export your database and download your stored files before you press that button.

Do this immediately on export

Rotate your keys. Anything that has been in the tool and has passed through chat windows, treat as no longer secret. Creating new keys takes five minutes and is one of the few security measures you can take yourself without any knowledge.

Then check whether the export landed properly: one commit with the whole app in it means your history starts today. Not a disaster, but worth knowing, because going back to “how it was last week” is then no longer possible.

When you need help

If your app takes payments, has users or stores data that is not yours, the export is the right moment to have someone look at it. Not to rebuild everything, but to check whether the keys are in the right place and whether the database shields anything. Those two are almost always missing, and they are still missing after an export.

Exactly which checks those are is in is your AI-built app safe for real customers. If you would rather not carry on alone after the export, from Lovable to a real website is the route where I take it over.

If you first just want to know where you stand, start with the free vibecode scan. I spend ten minutes looking at your project and you get an honest verdict back.