TeleportHQ compared with ChatGPT and Claude Code
ChatGPT and Claude Code are coding assistants: they write and explain code for a site or app in any stack, and you assemble, host and maintain the result. In TeleportHQ, the AI builds a working site inside a visual editor and TeleportHQ hosts it, so there is no code to run. If an assistant already wrote plain HTML and CSS for you, you can paste it into TeleportHQ and carry on visually. This guide compares the two fairly.
Who this guide is for
- You're a developer deciding between a coding assistant and TeleportHQ, and want to know whether you get the code at the end.
- You asked an assistant for a website and now have files on your computer and no site online.
The short answer
If you want full control of the stack and already have somewhere to host, a coding assistant with your own code is the most flexible route, and you keep every line. If you want the site online without choosing a host, a database, an email service and a way to deploy, and want to edit by clicking as well as by asking, TeleportHQ needs far less setting up: it runs the live features for you and gives you the tools to measure and grow the site from the same project. On a paid plan a website's code is still yours to download; a web app's (a project with sign-in, a store, bookings, a blog or a help center) is not.
TeleportHQ and coding assistants side by side
The right-hand column describes how a coding assistant usually works, not a feature list of ChatGPT or Claude Code.
| What you decide on | TeleportHQ | ChatGPT or Claude Code, a coding assistant |
|---|---|---|
| How the site is built | AI builds it from your business description (AI Website Builder), or you paste HTML an assistant wrote. | You ask for code, page by page or feature by feature, and assemble it into a project on your computer. |
| Editing | A visual editor and the AI Assistant, with your own code where you need it: Code Embed, custom code on every page and an Advanced tab for CSS. | You ask for changes, or edit the code yourself. |
| Hosting | By TeleportHQ, with a staging address and your own domain. | Not part of the assistant: you choose a host, a domain and a way to deploy. |
| Storage and data | Included with the plan: the project's files (pictures, videos, documents), the built-in database with up to 200,000 records per table on a paid plan, the data each web app keeps, and monthly bandwidth; nothing to buy or connect separately (the limits per plan). | You pick and set up each piece yourself: a file bucket, a database and a host, each with its own account, keys, plan and limits. |
| Store, bookings, accounts | Ready-made features: online store with Stripe, PayPal and other providers, Bookings, sign-up and login and an admin panel. | Written as code, with payment, email and database services you set up and connect yourself. |
| Languages | Built in, with automatic translation. | Written into the code; the assistant can draft the translations. |
| SEO | Titles, descriptions, sitemap and redirects (how SEO works). | Whatever you ask for and deploy: titles, descriptions, a sitemap, redirects. |
| After it's live | Analytics, a site health audit, keyword ideas and a competitor benchmark, campaigns and newsletters, and sales or booking reports, all under Growth in the editor. | Not part of the assistant: you add and wire analytics, email and marketing services yourself. |
| What you can take with you | On a paid plan, a website's code as HTML, React, Next.js, Vue, Nuxt or Angular (code download), or straight to GitHub. Websites only: switching on sign-in, a store, bookings, a blog or a help center makes the project a web app; the editor warns first ("Code download will no longer be available"), there is no switch back, and a web app's code can't be downloaded, so it runs on TeleportHQ hosting from then on. | Everything, from day one: it's your code. |
| Who does the technical work | You build; TeleportHQ hosts the site and runs its live features (websites vs web apps), with support a chat away. | You, or a developer. The assistant writes and explains; you run, secure and maintain. |
What carries over if you switch from a coding assistant
- Your site, if it's already online: Generate from URL, on the first step of the AI Website Builder, is the way to move it over: it copies the text of up to 12 pages and rebuilds them with the same wording in a new design. Images aren't copied.
- Plain HTML and CSS: paste a page into the HTML Import window, or import a whole site as a ZIP. Ask the assistant for "plain HTML and CSS in one file", not React or another framework.
- Snippets and widgets the assistant wrote, in one place with Code Embed or on every page with Custom code.
- Your design, if it's in Figma: the TeleportHQ Figma plugin opens it as a new project.
- Your pictures: upload them in the Assets Manager.
It works the other way too: on a paid plan, download the website's code and keep working on it with your assistant, as long as the project is still a website (no sign-in, store, bookings, blog or help center switched on).
What's different day to day
- Nothing to deploy: click Publish, or test on staging and then make it live.
- Features are switches, not code, in the Plugins tab, with their pages, data and emails wired when you switch them on.
- Clicking, chatting and your own code work on the same site: change an element in the right panel, ask the AI Assistant, or add code in a Code Embed element, in the project's custom code or as CSS in the Advanced tab.
- Your numbers are in the same place as your site: Growth in the left sidebar shows who visits, next to the audits, the reports and the Marketing Studio.
- AI features use AI tokens; editing by hand uses none.
Try TeleportHQ
Every new TeleportHQ account starts with a free 7-day trial, with no credit card, on 1 project. See How does the TeleportHQ free trial work?. Then follow How to create your first website in TeleportHQ.