Hosting and deployment included

Included hosting means the tool can publish the app it builds to a live web address from inside the product. You press a button and the app is online, instead of copying files to a separate hosting company and setting up servers yourself. Emergent is listed with this feature.

Building an app is only half the work, because it has to run somewhere before anyone can use it. For a non-technical founder, setting up a host, a domain and a deployment process is often where a project stalls. Built-in publishing removes that hurdle and lets you share a working version in minutes. You need it if you want to test ideas quickly without a technical team. If you already have a host or a developer who manages deployments, it matters little, and being tied to the vendor's hosting can even be a drawback.

• Ask whether you can move the app and its data to another host later, or whether it only runs on the vendor's servers.
• Test publishing a real app and check that it loads quickly and works on a phone.
• Check whether you can connect your own domain name.
• Find out what limits apply to traffic, storage and the number of live apps on your plan.