Why Your Lovable Site Shows a Blank Page on Static Hosting

Short answer: your project is probably TanStack Start, which runs server code, and a static host cannot run it. Open package.json and look for @tanstack/react-start. If it is there, you need a host that runs a server, not Netlify or Cloudflare Pages serving files.

This catches people out because it used to work.

What changed

Until recently, every Lovable project was React and Vite. Those build to plain static files — an index.html and some assets — and any static host will serve them happily.

On 13 May 2026 the default for new projects changed to TanStack Start (and for new Enterprise projects on 22 June 2026). TanStack Start does server-side rendering, server functions and API routes. That is a genuine improvement — server-rendered pages are better for SEO and for how fast the first screen appears — but it means the project is no longer just a folder of files.

Lovable’s documentation says it plainly: these apps “run server code, such as server-side rendering, server functions, and API routes,” so they “need a host that runs the server part as well as serving the static files.”

Upload one to a static host and there is no index.html to serve. You get a blank page, or an error about a missing index. Nothing is broken — the host simply has nothing it knows how to do.

How to tell which one you have

Open package.json in your project and look at the dependencies.

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@tanstack/react-start": "^1.x.x"
  }
}

• @tanstack/react-start is present → server-rendered. You need a host that runs server code.
• It is not there, and you see vite → older static build. Any static host works.

That one check decides everything else.

Where each kind can go

Older React and Vite projects build to static files. Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, or object storage behind a CDN. Cheap, simple, and very fast.

TanStack Start projects need somewhere that can run a Node server. Lovable’s export uses a Node server preset, so anywhere that runs Node works — a managed platform, a container, or an ordinary VM.

One thing worth knowing: if you use Supabase, it does not have to move. The database stays where it is and the app keeps pointing at the same URL and key. Only the front end needs rehoming.

Should you upgrade an older project?

Lovable has said existing projects do not need to move, and offers an in-place upgrade that rewrites the page structure while carrying your design, content and backend across. Your published site keeps serving the old version until you publish again, and the upgrade can be reverted from version history.

My honest take: if the current site works and you are happy with it, leave it alone. “Newer” is not a reason on its own. Upgrade when you want what server rendering actually gives you — better SEO, a faster first paint — not because the default changed.

And check what the upgrade costs in credits before you start.

If hosting is the problem, hosting might not be the answer

Worth asking why you are moving it at all.

If you are rehosting because you want to publish blog posts, change prices or swap photos without a developer, hosting is not your problem — the platform is. A static site and a server-rendered one are equally awkward to edit if you do not write code.

That is usually the point where people move to WordPress instead, and the hosting question disappears with it.

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Stuck getting a Lovable project live, or wondering whether to rebuild it properly? Tell me what you have — see Hansons Kitchens for one I took from Lovable to a site the client runs themselves.