Claude's Publish button gives you a public link, and for a page nobody important will open, that is enough. For every other artifact, Hostus is the better home for the same file: a client judging the proposal, an investor skimming the update, a team filling in the form. The link stays stable while you edit, access can be private or email-gated, you see which sections were read, the form already works, and Claude can update the page through the connector. Below is exactly what you get when you drop an artifact's HTML on Hostus, and, just as plainly, what you do not get. For the five sharing options side by side, see the guide to sharing a Claude artifact.
How do you host a Claude artifact on Hostus?
- Get the HTML out of Claude. Open the artifact, use the code view in the lower right corner, and copy the code or download the file; both controls are in Anthropic's artifacts help article. If the artifact is a React component, ask Claude to rewrite it as one self-contained HTML file with inline CSS and JavaScript first.
- Drop it on hostus.io. Drag the
.htmlfile onto the homepage and type your email. You get a magic link; no password, no card. The homepage drop takes one file up to 1 MB; in the app the limit is 5 MB per file, and you can add a folder with images, video and fonts. - Send the link. The page is live at
https://your-slug.v.hostus.iowith SSL. Readers need no Claude account and no Hostus account. Public documents are noindex by default.
Can you edit the live page without breaking the link?
Yes. The owner opens the document in the browser and edits headings, paragraphs, table cells and list items on the live page. Save, and the same link serves the new version; every save is a version you can restore. The first version of an artifact is rarely the last: a client wants a different number in the table, a typo shows up in the headline. Fix it in place instead of exporting again and sending a second link.
Two limits. The editor is desktop only, and it edits text: to change layout, scripts or styling, ask Claude for a revised file and upload it as a new version, which also keeps the link.
Can you make the artifact private or ask for an email first?
Each document has an access setting you can switch at any time.
- Public. Anyone with the link. Noindex by default.
- Private. Invite-only. Each reader signs in with a magic link sent to their email; no account, no password.
- Email-gated. The reader types an email before the page opens. Restrict to a list, to a domain (everyone at the client's company), or leave it open just to know who is reading. You see who opened it and when; revocation is instant.
The gate also covers the document's media files. To be clear: gating identifies readers, it does not encrypt the content. It is the tool for "I want to know who saw this and be able to cut them off", not for secrets.
What did they actually read?
Analytics are cookieless: views, referrers, a UTM builder, and reading by section. Sections are anchored to the headings in your HTML, so an artifact Claude structured with h2 tags gets a per-section profile with no extra work: time on each section, what was re-read, where readers stopped. Per reader on email-gated documents, aggregated otherwise. For a proposal this replaces guessing: the pricing section got two minutes, the timeline got four seconds, so open the follow-up call with the timeline. No IP addresses stored, no fingerprinting, no session replay.
Does the form inside the artifact work?
Yes, without changing the code. Any <form> with named fields in a hosted page stores its responses automatically: no action URL, no key, no backend. Claude tends to generate forms exactly like this, with nowhere for the data to go. On Hostus it goes to an inbox on the document, with unread state, a reviewable spam folder, CSV export, and the option to close the form after N responses or by hand. Each response is also emailed to you with Reply-To set to the respondent.
Details that matter: your own test submissions are saved and tagged as tests. Honeypot and timing checks send suspicious submissions to Spam, never dropped. A form that already posts elsewhere (Formspree, for example) is left alone; data-hostus="ignore" opts a form out explicitly. The free plan includes 100 responses a month; past that, extra responses are kept and unlocked on a paid plan, and the visitor always sees success. For the alternatives side by side, see where Claude artifact form submissions go.
Can Claude update the page for you?
Yes, through the Hostus connector. In the Claude app choose Add custom connector and enter https://app.hostus.io/api/mcp; one OAuth login connects your account. Claude then has 12 tools: publish, update a document by describing the change, semantic search, read summaries or sections, related documents, save context, reading data, and form responses. A typical loop is "update the pricing table on the proposal" followed by "who has opened it since Monday?" without leaving the chat. There is also a public REST API with a Bearer key and a Claude Skill. The connector is optional.
Good to know before you switch
Hostus has no custom domain: every document lives at a v.hostus.io subdomain, so if your own domain is a requirement, use GitHub Pages or a host with custom domains on a paid tier. It hosts single HTML files, optionally with a folder of images, video and fonts; there is no PDF hosting, and a compiled React build is not the fit (ask Claude for a self-contained HTML file, or deploy the build to Netlify or GitHub Pages). Free is 20 documents, 2 MB of HTML in total and 100 form responses a month with every feature included; paid is $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year for unlimited documents, 200 MB and unlimited responses. There is no team workspace (a folder can be shared read-only with one invite link, but no seats or co-editing), the editor is desktop only, and responses export as CSV rather than syncing to Google Sheets.