Netlify: why does a programmer need it?

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 16:37:17 +0300

When you first start building websites, everything seems pretty simple: you write HTML, CSS, JavaScript, open the project in a browser — and everything works. But pretty quickly, the next question comes up: how do you show this website to other people now? You can’t exactly send everyone an archive with the files and instructions on which file they need to open. This is where Netlify becomes useful. Simply put, Netlify is a service that allows you to quickly publish a website or web application on the internet and get a regular link that anyone can open. At the same time, you don’t need to rent a separate server, manually configure nginx, learn Linux just for a small project, or upload changed files to hosting via FTP every time. This is especially convenient for frontend developers: you make a landing page, a portfolio, documentation, a small website with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or a project on a modern framework — and all of this can be published online quite quickly. Netlify is designed specifically for publishing web projects and can deploy them directly from a Git repository.

And this is not limited to regular websites. You can also use Netlify to showcase small browser games. For example, if you made a game in Cocos Creator and built it for Web, the result is a web version that can be hosted like a regular web project. The same applies to games made with Phaser, Three.js, Babylon.js, or simply written from scratch with JavaScript and Canvas. The main thing is that after the build, the game can run in a browser and does not require a separate game server that is constantly running. In that case, you upload the finished build to Netlify, get a link, and can simply send it to someone: they open it in a browser and launch the game right away. For a game developer, this is a very convenient way to show a prototype, test mechanics, or a small finished game without making other people download an archive, install a program, or launch the project through an editor.

This is especially useful if you are studying or building a portfolio. Let’s say you made a small 2D game, a platformer, a puzzle, or some kind of prototype in Cocos Creator. You can keep the source code on GitHub and add a link to the working version on Netlify next to it. This gives the person looking at your project two options right away: if they are interested in the code, they open GitHub; if they just want to see the result, they click Demo and play directly in the browser. For a portfolio, this looks much better than a repository where there is no quick way to see the result. In this case, Netlify essentially becomes a simple way to turn your local project into a demo version that is available from anywhere with a browser.

One of the most convenient things about Netlify is the ability to connect a project to GitHub. After that, the publishing process becomes much easier. You work on the project as usual, change the code, make a commit, push the changes with git push, and Netlify sees the new version of the repository, builds the project, and updates the published version. For a regular website, this might be a new page or a design fix, while for a browser game it could be a new level, fixed mechanics, an updated interface, or a new build. You don’t need to manually go to the hosting panel and replace files every time. Netlify supports this continuous deployment workflow from Git, so updating a published project fits naturally into a developer’s usual workflow.

After publishing, Netlify immediately gives the project an address on the internet. At first, it will be a technical address on a Netlify domain, but for test projects, educational work, small applications, and games, this is often more than enough. You can send this link to a client, a friend, a teacher, add it to your resume, or leave it in the project’s README on GitHub. If the project becomes more serious, you can connect your own domain. For a beginner developer, this is especially useful because it allows you to quickly go from a project that only works on localhost to a real website or game that other people can open. Netlify also allows you to upload regular static files directly, so for a very small project, you don’t even need to build a complex deployment system right away.

Netlify is useful not only as a place where you can upload finished HTML files. It also has automatic builds, environment variables, redirects, domain management, serverless functions, and other features that may become useful as the project grows. Of course, you don’t need to learn all of this right away. At the beginning, it is enough to understand the basic idea: you have your code, you have a finished web build, you have Netlify that publishes it, and you have a link where the result can be opened. Later, you can start learning the additional features. At the same time, it is important to understand that Netlify is not a universal solution for absolutely everything. If a project needs a complex backend, a constantly running game server, its own server-side logic, or a custom infrastructure, Netlify alone may not be enough.

The main advantage of Netlify for a programmer is not even that it simply provides hosting. Its real convenience is how easy it makes it to show the result of your work. You can build a website, create an application, or make a small browser game with Cocos Creator, Phaser, or another tool, and then simply give someone a link. There is no need to explain how to install the project, ask them to run a local server, or send archives. For educational projects, portfolios, prototypes, and small web applications, this is a very practical solution. Development does not really end at the moment when the code starts working on your computer. At some point, you need to show the result to other people, and Netlify allows you to do that without unnecessary hassle with server infrastructure.

cocos-creator | Ian L. Dolganov

Netlify: why does a programmer need it?