# here.now alternatives: chorus.host, Netlify Drop and Vercel compared

chorus.host is the closest here.now alternative: the same no-account 24-hour publish with a claim link, plus Workers for backend code and an MCP server. Netlify also publishes without an account (`netlify deploy --allow-anonymous` or Netlify Drop), but you have one hour to claim. Vercel Drop needs an account. We make chorus.host; every claim about the others links to its source.

## The short answer

- **Pick here.now** if you want custom domains, team workspaces, built-in storage for forms (Site Data), private file storage (Drives) or site analytics.
- **Pick chorus.host** if the agent also needs backend code (APIs, webhook receivers), an MCP server that works with no account, or sites with more than 2,500 files.
- **Pick Netlify** for git deploys and framework builds, as long as you'll claim the site within the hour.
- **Pick Vercel** for Next.js with an account. Its free Hobby plan is for non-commercial use only.

## chorus.host vs here.now at a glance

Checked against here.now's public docs and [pricing](https://here.now/pricing.md) (last updated 11 September 2026) on 1 October 2026.

| Feature | chorus.host | here.now |
|---|---|---|
| Static sites | `your-site.chorus.host` | `your-site.here.now` |
| Publish without an account | Yes, link lasts 24 hours | Yes, link lasts 24 hours |
| Claim link to keep an anonymous site | Yes | Yes |
| Publishes per hour without an account | 5 per IP | 60 per IP |
| Publishes per hour with an account | 60 | 60 on Free, 200 on Hobby and Developer |
| Max file size (no account / account) | 250 MB / 5 GB | 250 MB / 5 GB |
| Files per site | 10,000 | 2,500 |
| Password protection | Yes, also before a site is claimed | Yes, on account-owned sites |
| Version history and rollback | Yes | Yes |
| Run your own server code | Yes, Workers at `your-api.worker.chorus.host` | No |
| Secrets | Per-Worker secrets | Account variables added to proxy-route calls |
| Drag-and-drop publishing in the browser | Yes | Not in its docs |
| MCP server | Yes, at [chorus.host/mcp](/mcp) | No official server (its agent card says MCP isn't supported); a community wrapper, here-now-pp-cli, exists |
| CLI | `beacon` binary for macOS, Linux and Windows | Skill scripts (`publish.sh`); the community here-now-pp-cli |
| One-request publish | `POST /v1/publish` with the file | No; three calls |
| Skill install | `npx skills add chorus-host/skill -g` | `npx skills add heredotnow/skill --skill here-now -g` (16,075 installs on skills.sh) |
| SPA fallback (unknown paths serve `index.html`) | No | Yes |
| Custom domains | No | Yes, 1 on the free plan |
| Team workspaces | No | Yes |
| Built-in storage for forms and polls | No | Yes (Site Data) |
| Private file storage | No | Yes (Drives) |
| Invite-only access by email | No | Yes |
| Site analytics | No (Workers have request analytics) | Yes |
| Price | Free, no paid plans yet | Free plan; Hobby $4/month; Developer $20/month |

## here.now vs Netlify Drop vs Vercel for agent publishing

Checked 1 October 2026 against each vendor's docs, linked below the table. Cells we couldn't confirm say "not documented".

| | chorus.host | here.now | Netlify | Vercel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publish with no account | Yes: 24 hours, then claim | Yes: 24 hours, then claim | CLI `--allow-anonymous` or Netlify Drop; claim within 1 hour | Drop and the CLI need an account; the deploy-to-vercel skill's no-auth fallback returns a claim URL |
| Anonymous site visibility | Public; a password can be set with the claim token | Public | Drop: a temporary password until claimed | n/a |
| How an agent publishes | One request, three HTTP calls, MCP, beacon CLI or publish.py | Three HTTP calls or the skill script | Netlify CLI (Node) or MCP | Vercel CLI or MCP (OAuth) |
| Browser drag and drop | Yes, no account | Not documented | app.netlify.com/drop, no account | vercel.com/drop, account |
| Framework builds | The beacon CLI runs `npm run build` | Built files only | The CLI builds; Drop serves files as they are | Yes |
| Backend code | Workers | No (proxy routes only) | Netlify Functions | Vercel Functions |
| Official MCP server | Yes, no account | No | Yes | Yes |
| Free tier | Free, no paid plans | Free; paid from $4/month | Free $0; Pro on credit tiers | Hobby free, non-commercial |
| Size guidance | 250 MB per file without an account, 5 GB with one; 10,000 files | 250 MB / 5 GB per file; 2,500 files | Drop: under 50 MB works best | Not documented |

Sources: [here.now pricing](https://here.now/pricing.md), [here.now docs](https://here.now/docs), [Netlify CLI anonymous deploys](https://docs.netlify.com/start/quickstarts/deploy-from-ai-code-generation-tool/), [Netlify Drop quickstart](https://docs.netlify.com/start/quickstarts/netlify-drop-quickstart/), [Netlify MCP server](https://docs.netlify.com/build/build-with-ai/netlify-mcp-server/), [Vercel Drop vs Netlify Drop](https://vercel.com/kb/guide/vercel-drop-vs-netlify-drop), [deploy-to-vercel skill](https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills/blob/main/skills/deploy-to-vercel/SKILL.md), [Vercel MCP](https://vercel.com/docs/mcp/vercel-mcp), [Vercel Hobby plan](https://vercel.com/docs/plans/hobby).

## Where here.now is better

- **More for static sites.** Custom domains (you can even buy one through it), SPA routing, team workspaces, invite-only access, site analytics, folders and an in-dashboard editor. chorus.host has none of these.
- **Storage without a server.** Site Data lets a static page save form entries, polls and checklists from browser JavaScript. chorus.host has no built-in storage; a chorus.host Worker can send data to a database or service you already use.
- **A higher anonymous limit.** 60 publishes per hour per IP, against 5 on chorus.host.
- **Reach.** 16,075 installs of its skill on skills.sh and broad directory presence. chorus.host's skill is on ClawHub, Smithery and the official MCP Registry, but not yet in skills.sh search.

## Where chorus.host is better

- **It runs code.** A Worker at `your-api.worker.chorus.host` answers API calls and receives webhooks, with secrets, live logs and request stats. here.now's docs say not to use it for "server-side compute" or "backend code execution". Its proxy routes add secrets to calls to an upstream API, but they don't run your code. See [Workers](/workers).
- **Frontend and backend in one account.** Publish the site to `my-app.chorus.host` and its API to `my-app-api.worker.chorus.host` with the same API key.
- **MCP with no account.** Add `https://chorus.host/mcp` to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or claude.ai and the agent publishes with one tool call; no OAuth and no sign-up. Netlify and Vercel have MCP servers too, but they need an account.
- **One request.** `curl -sS https://chorus.host/v1/publish -F file=@index.html` publishes a file without computing hashes.
- **Drag and drop.** Drop an HTML file, a folder or a .zip on [chorus.host](/) and get a link, no agent needed.
- **A CLI that builds and deploys.** `beacon deploy` works out whether a folder is a static site or a Worker, runs `npm run build` when there is one, and uploads the result.
- **Passwords without an account.** The claim token from an anonymous publish can put a password on the site. On here.now, passwords need an account-owned site.
- **More files per site.** 10,000 against 2,500.

## When Netlify or Vercel is the better pick

- **A long-lived production site with git:** connect the repo to Netlify or Vercel and every push deploys, with previews per branch.
- **Framework builds:** both build Next.js, Astro, SvelteKit and others on their servers. chorus.host and here.now host files you've already built.
- **A custom domain on a free plan:** Netlify and Vercel include one; chorus.host doesn't offer custom domains.

## Publish the same folder on each

Copy-paste commands for a folder called `./site`, as each vendor documents them:

```bash
# chorus.host: no account, 24 hours, claim link
curl -fsSL https://chorus.host/publish.py | python3 - ./site
# or, from an MCP client
claude mcp add --transport http chorus https://chorus.host/mcp
```

```bash
# here.now: no account, 24 hours (its documented quick start, per file)
curl -sS https://here.now/api/v1/publish \
  -H "X-HereNow-Client: <harness>/<detail>" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"files":[{"path":"index.html","size":1234,"contentType":"text/html; charset=utf-8"}]}'
# PUT each file's bytes to upload.uploads[].url (Content-Type as listed), then:
curl -sS -X POST https://here.now/api/v1/publish/<slug>/finalize \
  -H "X-HereNow-Client: <harness>/<detail>" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"versionId":"<upload.versionId>"}'
```

```bash
# Netlify: no account, claim within 1 hour, password-protected until then
npx -y netlify-cli deploy --allow-anonymous --dir ./site --no-build
```

```bash
# Vercel: needs an account
npx -y vercel login && npx -y vercel deploy ./site
```

## Moving from here.now

| here.now | chorus.host |
|---|---|
| `POST /api/v1/publish` | `POST https://chorus.host/v1/sites`, with `"hash": "sha256:<hex>"` on each file; or `POST /v1/publish` with the files themselves |
| `PUT` each file to its upload URL | Same, using `uploads.pending[].uploadUrl` |
| `POST <finalizeUrl>` | `POST https://chorus.host<version.finalizeUrl>` with `X-Claim-Token` (anonymous) or `Authorization: Bearer chk_...` |
| `claimUrl` | `claimUrl` |

Copy-paste versions of these calls are in [host a static site with no signup](/guides/host-static-site-no-signup). Full API reference: [chorus.host/docs](/docs).

## here.now pricing and limits

From [here.now/pricing.md](https://here.now/pricing.md), last updated 11 September 2026, checked 1 October 2026:

| | Anonymous | Free | Hobby | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $0 | $4/month | $20/month |
| Lifetime | 24 hours | Permanent | Permanent | Permanent |
| Storage | | 10 GB | 500 GB | 2 TB |
| Sites | | 500 | 1,000 | Unlimited |
| Custom domains | 0 | 1 | 5 | 20 |
| Publishes per hour | 60 per IP | 60 | 200 | 200 |
| Largest file | 250 MB | 5 GB | 5 GB | 5 GB |
| Files per site | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 |

## Questions

### What is the best alternative to here.now?

For agent publishing, chorus.host is the closest: the same no-account 24-hour publish and claim link, plus Workers for backend code and an MCP server that needs no account. For long-lived sites built from git, Netlify, Vercel and Cloudflare Pages are the usual picks.

### How much does here.now cost?

here.now has a free plan; Hobby is $4 a month and Developer $20 a month (pricing last updated 11 September 2026). Publishing without an account is free and lasts 24 hours.

### Does here.now have an MCP server?

Not an official one: its agent card says MCP isn't supported. There is a community wrapper called here-now-pp-cli. chorus.host has an official remote MCP server at https://chorus.host/mcp.

### here.now or Netlify Drop: which is faster for an agent?

here.now's API publishes in three HTTP calls with no install. Netlify's no-account path is a CLI (`netlify deploy --allow-anonymous`), which needs Node and an npm download on first run, and its link stays password-protected until claimed. We haven't benchmarked the two against each other yet.

### How long does a Netlify Drop site last without an account?

One hour. Unclaimed sites are removed after that, and until they're claimed they're behind a temporary password.

### Which hosts let an agent publish without an account and a person claim it later?

chorus.host and here.now (24 hours to claim), Netlify (1 hour), Cloudflare's temporary deploys (60 minutes), and Vercel through its deploy skill's no-auth fallback (claim window not documented).

### Can here.now run backend code?

No. Its docs say not to use it for server-side compute or backend code; proxy routes forward requests to an upstream API with your secrets added. chorus.host runs backend code as Workers.

Related: [Netlify Drop, tiiny.host and surge.sh alternatives](/vs/netlify-drop-tiiny-host-surge) and [MCP server setup](/mcp).