Why "It works on my machine" is no longer good enough in the age of AI.
| Feature | Localhost | PrevHQ Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Shareability | ✕ Requires screen sharing / ngrok | ✓ Instant public/private URL |
| Environment Match | ✕ Often differs from Prod | ✓ Identical to Production |
| AI Verification | ✕ Manual pull & run | ✓ Automatic on every push |
| Mobile Testing | ✕ Difficult / Simulators only | ✓ Test on real device instantly |
| Collaboration | ✕ Async is impossible | ✓ Async comments & review |
When an AI agent (like Jules or Copilot) writes code, it often introduces subtle environment-specific bugs. If you only test on localhost, you might miss issues that only appear in a containerized Linux environment (case sensitivity in file names, missing system dependencies, etc.).
"Hey, can you look at this?"
Localhost: You have to commit, push, ask your colleague to pull, install dependencies, and run the server.
PrevHQ: You send them a link: https://feature-chat-ui.onprev.com. They open it on their phone, tablet, or laptop instantly.
PrevHQ spins up a fresh environment for every branch. This means no "drift" from previous installs. If your `package.json` is missing a dependency, your PrevHQ build will fail, alerting you before you merge. Localhost often masks these errors because you have the dependency installed globally or from a previous project.