Which Hosting Makes Deployment Easiest with MCP? A Look at Heroku, Vercel, Render, JustRunMy.App
1. Why this matters
AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) make building apps easier than ever.
But once the code runs locally, most of us hit the same wall: how do I put this online so others can try it?
That’s where MCP (Model Context Protocol) comes in. MCP lets AI assistants talk directly to hosting platforms — so your AI can help deploy apps, not just write them.
Several popular platforms already offer MCP servers, but they approach it differently. Here’s what I found digging into them:
2. MCP across hosting platforms
| Platform | MCP Support | Setup Flow | Best For | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heroku | ✅ MCP server available | Requires CLI/admin panel to grab token, then paste manually into IDE | Simple web apps, great addons | Free tier gone, costs add up fast |
| Vercel | ✅ MCP server available | Similar flow: manual token setup in IDE | Frontend/Next.js projects | Less general-purpose, scaling costs |
| Render | ✅ MCP support emerging | Token-based config | General web apps, easy dashboard | Free tier sleeps, costs rise at scale |
| DigitalOcean | ✅ Official MCP server | Manual token setup, strong docs | Balance of control & simplicity | Droplets need hands-on config |
| JustRunMy.App | ✅ MCP server built-in | One-click deeplink adds it into Cursor/VS Code instantly (no CLI/tokens) | Hobbyists, vibe coders, fast sharing | Newer platform, focused on AI workflows |
3. What this shows
Most platforms are adapting MCP by bolting it onto their existing workflows.
That usually means you still need to:
- Grab an authorization token via CLI or admin panel.
- Manually paste it into your IDE settings.
It works, but it’s one more setup step — and for hobby projects, even small friction adds up.
4. A different path (our take)
With JustRunMy.App, we started from a different question: what’s the absolute simplest way to share an app?
- Before MCP even existed, we skipped Git pushes and config screens.
- You could just zip your code and throw it at us — we’d figure it out and spin up a live app.
- That was our “AI-native before AI” philosophy: build for simplicity, not devops rituals.
Now with MCP, we extended that idea: instead of tokens and manual config, we offer a deeplink button that adds our MCP server straight into Cursor or VS Code.
The same AI that helped you write your code can now deploy it in a click.
5. Wrapping up
Each platform has real strengths:
- Heroku’s addons
- Vercel’s frontend focus
- Render’s friendly dashboard
- DigitalOcean’s balance of control
The interesting thing is how MCP is changing the game: we’re moving from manual deploys → agent-driven deploys.
At JustRunMy.App, we’re betting hard on this future: that deployment should feel as smooth as coding with AI already does.
