The difference table
| Platform drop zones, generally | |
|---|---|
| Input | A folder or a zip, dragged into a browser |
| Account | Sometimes deferred, eventually required to keep the site |
| Result | A public URL on the platform's domain |
| Upgrade path | Claim it into a real project on the same platform |
| Access control | Whatever the platform's plan offers, which is rarely per link |
| Lifetime | Until you delete it, or until an unclaimed grace period ends |
What they are genuinely good at
Removing the first ten minutes. A drop zone is the honest admission that "create a project, connect a repository, configure a build" was never the point for a folder that is already built. They are also a good on-ramp: the thing you dropped can usually be claimed into a real project later without moving it.
Where they differ from each other
Mostly in how long an unclaimed deployment survives, whether you can drop without an account at all, and what the resulting hostname looks like. Those are worth checking on the day you choose, and worth not writing down here, because the answers move.
What none of them covers
- Private by default. The result is a public URL. For agent output assembled from real data, that is the wrong starting state.
- A programmatic caller. A drop zone is a browser affordance; an agent has no hands.
- Replace in place. Dropping again generally means a new address, so the link you sent goes stale.
- An ending. Nothing expires on its own, so the artifact outlives its usefulness by default.
A note on sources
Deliberately no quoted limits, retention windows or prices on this page. Every one of those has changed at least once since these features launched, and a comparison table that is quietly wrong is worse than one that tells you to go and look. Check each platform's own documentation for the numbers, and use the shapes above to know what to look for.
Is a drop zone the same as a publish primitive?
Same shape, different caller and different defaults. A drop zone is one for humans that produces a public URL; a publish primitive is one for programs that produces a private, expiring one.
Can I drop a zip?
Generally yes on all of them, and here too — a zip becomes a multi-file site.
Do dropped sites expire?
Usually only if never claimed. The default here is the opposite: links expire unless you ask them not to, because an artifact that outlives its relevance is a liability.
What if I want both?
Reasonable. Drop the public marketing one-pager; publish the private artifact through the API. They are different jobs.