Put an AI-Built App on Your Own Domain in 6 Steps: Lovable and Bolt Plans vs £7 on Jobbit

The app works. You described a booking page or a quote calculator to an AI builder, it appeared in the preview, you clicked around it on your phone and sent the link to a friend. Then you tried to make it live at your own address, and the link in the preview stayed as something ending in lovable.app, bolt.host or vercel.app, with a plan upgrade in the way. Netlify and Bolt reported more than a million Bolt sites deployed between November 2024 and March 2025; how many of those ended up on the owner's own domain is a number nobody publishes, and the gap between "built" and "live where customers can find it" is where most of them stopped.

Putting an AI-built app on your own domain is six steps, and only one of them is technical. This guide walks through them, compares what Lovable, Bolt, v0 on Vercel, Replit and Jobbit each give you free and charge for a custom domain (prices checked on 20 October 2026), explains the DNS records in plain English, lists the fine print that catches people, and shows the one-sentence version where an agent does the whole thing, including the hosting.

The 6 steps

1. Own the domain. Buy it at a registrar or through Jobbit's domain page, or find the login for the one you already have. You will need to add records to it, so you need the account, not just the name.
2. Decide where the app will live. The builder's own hosting, a host like Vercel or Netlify, or Jobbit, which hosts what its agent builds. This decides the price and the plan.
3. Publish to the free subdomain first. Every builder gives you one (yourapp.lovable.app, yourapp.bolt.host, yourapp.vercel.app, a replit.app address). Test the live version there before touching DNS.
4. Add the DNS records the host asks for. Usually an A record for the bare domain and a CNAME for www, sometimes a TXT record to prove you own the name. The next section explains each.
5. Wait, then check the padlock. Propagation takes minutes to a day or two; the host issues the HTTPS certificate automatically once the records resolve.
6. Finish the parts the builder did not do. The legal footer and privacy notice, the form that emails you, the analytics, and the plan's fair-use rules.

What each builder gives you, and what it charges

The pattern across the builders is the same: the build is cheap or free, and the moment you want the app at your own address you are on a paid plan, usually $18 to $25 a month, with the hosting sometimes extra. Jobbit's version is £7 a month for the plan that hosts the app on your domain, because the agent that built it also runs it.

DNS in plain English

Your domain is a name; the app lives at an address. DNS records are the lines that connect the two.

• A record: points a name straight at an IP address. The bare domain (yourbusiness.co.uk, also called the apex or root) usually uses one, because a technical rule stops the apex from carrying a CNAME alongside the email and nameserver records it already has. Cloudflare and some hosts work around that with "CNAME flattening" or an ALIAS record, which is what Bolt asks for.
• CNAME record: points a name at another name, and is the normal choice for www.yourbusiness.co.uk and other subdomains.
• TXT record: holds text, used by Lovable and Replit to prove you control the domain. Replit's must stay in place after verification.
• Propagation: the time for the world's resolvers to notice the change. The vendors quote up to 24 hours (Bolt), 48 hours (Replit) and 72 hours (Lovable); in practice it is often minutes.
• HTTPS: the padlock. Lovable, Replit, Vercel and Jobbit issue the certificate automatically once the records resolve; Let's Encrypt and similar authorities do it free, so nobody should be selling you an SSL certificate for a small site.

If you own the domain through Jobbit, the agent hosts the DNS zone, so there are no records to type. If you own it elsewhere, the agent gives you the exact lines to paste.

The fine print that catches people

• Vercel's Hobby plan is for non-commercial, personal use. A business site on it breaks the fair-use terms; Pro is $20 a month. v0's free tier is separate from Vercel's and allows 7 messages a day.
• Builder plans are measured in credits or tokens. Lovable's free plan caps at 30 credits a month and Pro gives 100; Bolt's free plan gives 1 million tokens a month and Pro 10 million. Every change you ask for after launch spends them.
• Republishing is manual on most builders. Lovable publishes the current version only; edits in the preview do not go live until you publish again.
• Downloading your code can be a paid feature. Lovable states that you own what you build and syncs to GitHub, but downloading the codebase is for paid plans. Get the export before you cancel anything.
• The database may not come with you. A builder's backend is often a separate service with its own plan. Ask where the data lives before you move.
• The legal footer is not optional in the UK. Trader name, address and email, the company details if you are a limited company, and a privacy notice for any form that collects data. The website build guide covers what each one needs.

What a year costs

The builders are not expensive either. The difference is what happens the week after launch: on Jobbit, "add a Christmas banner" or "the form should also ask for a postcode" is one sentence to the same agent that hosts the site, with no second service to log into.

Moving an app you built elsewhere

If the app already exists on another builder and you want it on your own domain without the second subscription, export the code (GitHub sync on Lovable and v0, the workspace on Replit, download on Bolt), then give it to the agent.

Expect two kinds of answer: most front-end apps move in minutes; apps that lean on the builder's own database or login service need that part rebuilt, and the agent will say so before it starts.

How an AI agent helps beyond the deploy

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Manus and Meta's Muse will all explain DNS. Jobbit does the job:

• Builds, hosts and connects the app on your domain, with HTTPS, from one chat.
• Gives you the exact records when the domain lives elsewhere, and checks from outside that they resolve.
• Fixes the legal footer, the form and the analytics that builders leave out.
• Changes the live app in a sentence for as long as you keep the plan, with no republish step.
• Moves an app in from another builder's export and tells you what depends on a service you no longer have.
• Buys and manages the domain if you want one place for all of it, with renewal reminders.

Mistakes that keep an app on a subdomain

• Buying the domain at one place and forgetting the login. You need to add records; find the registrar first.
• Adding a CNAME on the bare domain. Most registrars refuse it; use the A record or the host's flattening option.
• Testing the domain from your own laptop only. Your machine caches the old answer; check from a phone on mobile data or ask the agent to check from outside.
• Leaving the business on a personal, non-commercial hosting plan.
• Skipping the form test. A live booking page that emails nobody is worse than no page.
• Cancelling the builder before exporting the code.

Read next

• Build a website with AI in an afternoon: seven steps from blank page to your own domain.
• Can an AI agent really build your website, app or automation?: what you get today and at what cost.
• How to connect a domain to your website without breaking your email: the DNS records in full.
• Best AI app builders and agents compared: Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit and Jobbit.

Frequently asked questions

How do I put a Lovable app on my own domain?

Publish it to its lovable.app address, upgrade to a paid plan (Pro is $25 a month), then add the A records for the bare domain and www plus the TXT verification record Lovable shows you, or let Entri add them. Propagation can take up to 72 hours and the certificate is issued automatically. Or give the exported code and the domain to an agent on Jobbit and let it host and connect it.

Can I use a custom domain on Vercel for free?

Vercel's Hobby plan allows custom domains, but its terms restrict Hobby to non-commercial, personal use. A business site needs Vercel Pro at $20 a month. v0, the AI builder, has its own free tier of 7 messages a day.

What DNS records do I need for a custom domain?

Usually an A record pointing the bare domain at the host's IP address and a CNAME pointing www at the host's name, sometimes with a TXT record to verify ownership. The bare domain cannot normally carry a CNAME, which is why hosts give an IP or an ALIAS option. The host, or the agent, tells you the exact values.

How long does a custom domain take to go live?

From minutes to a couple of days. Bolt quotes up to 24 hours, Replit up to 48 and Lovable up to 72, but most changes resolve within an hour. Check from a phone on mobile data rather than the laptop you edited on, because it caches the old answer.

Do I need to buy an SSL certificate?

No. Lovable, Vercel, Replit and Jobbit issue HTTPS certificates automatically once the domain resolves, using free certificate authorities such as Let's Encrypt. Anyone selling a certificate for a small business site is selling something the host does for free.

Can I move an app from Lovable or Bolt to another host?

Yes, if you export the code first: Lovable syncs to GitHub (download is on paid plans), v0 syncs to GitHub, Replit holds the code in its workspace. Front-end apps move easily; apps that depend on the builder's own database or login service need that part rebuilt. An agent on Jobbit will tell you which before it starts.

What is the cheapest way to host an AI-built app on my own domain?

Build it with the agent on Jobbit and keep it on the Go plan at £7 a month, which includes hosting, the domain connection, SSL and 2,000 credits for changes. The builders' custom-domain plans run $18 to $25 a month, with hosting sometimes extra, and the domain itself costs about $5 to $23 a year.