What is “the folder”?

This is the question that trips everyone up. Let’s settle it once and for all.

Two kinds of sites

1. The site is already “finished”

Someone handed you a folder that already contains an index.html, some images, a .css file… Nothing to transform: that’s your folder. Go to A ready-made website.

How can you tell? Open the folder. If you see a file called index.html right inside it, you’ve got the right one.

2. The site has to be “built” first

Modern tools (React, Vite, Next, Astro…) don’t keep the finished site lying around. They keep the working files, and create the finished site on demand. That step is called “building”. It produces a brand-new folder: the only one you upload.

Why this extra step?

The working files include things browsers can’t read directly, plus hundreds of behind-the-scenes files. Building turns all of that into one clean little folder (plain HTML, styling, and a bit of code) that any browser understands.

The table that answers everything

Depending on the tool, the finished folder has a different name:

You (or your developer) use…	Command to build	Folder to upload	Guide
A ready-made HTML site	(none)	the folder itself	→
Vite (React, Vue, Svelte…)	npm run build	dist	→
Create React App	npm run build	build	→
Next.js (static export)	npm run build	out	→
Astro	npm run build	dist	→
Not sure	–	let’s figure it out	→

The one rule that always works

You upload the folder that has an index.html right inside it. If that index.html doesn’t exist yet, the project needs to be built first.

Not a developer? Someone else made the site?

Copy this and send it to them: “Could you give me the build folder ready to host (dist, build, or out), not the source code?” They’ll know exactly what you mean.