A guide for complete beginners

Make a website with Claude Code. No experience needed.

You'll have something live on the internet by the end of this. I promise it's less scary than it sounds.

01

What is Claude Code?

Claude Code is an AI that lives in your terminal and writes code for you. You tell it what you want in plain English. It writes the files. You end up with a real website.

Think of it like texting a friend who happens to be a developer. Except the friend never gets annoyed at you for asking dumb questions.

02

What you'll need

A computer. That's most of it.

Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. You'll also need a Claude account, which requires a credit card. The Claude Pro plan ($20/month) gives you access to Claude Code. There's also a pay-as-you-go API option if you want to keep costs low and don't mind a little more setup.

For most people starting out: just get Claude Pro. Easier.

Tip You'll need Node.js installed too. Don't panic. It's a free tool, takes 2 minutes. If you hit an error that mentions "node" or "npm," that's the fix.
03

Install it

First, open your terminal. Yes, that scary black window.

On a Mac: press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, hit enter. On Windows: search for "Command Prompt" or "PowerShell" in the start menu. Linux: you already know.

Now paste this in and hit enter:

$ npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

You'll see a bunch of text scroll by. That's normal. It's just installing things. When it stops and shows your prompt again, it worked.

Now check it installed correctly:

$ claude --version
1.x.x

If you see a version number, you're good. If you get "command not found," try closing the terminal and opening a new one.

Heads up The first time you run Claude Code, it'll ask you to log in with your Anthropic account. Follow the prompts, it opens a browser window. Should take about 30 seconds.
04

Your first conversation

Pick a folder on your computer where you want your website to live. Or create a new one. Doesn't matter where.

Then navigate there in the terminal. If you made a folder called "my-website" on your Desktop:

$ cd ~/Desktop/my-website

Now start Claude Code:

$ claude

A little prompt appears. Claude is waiting. Now just tell it what you want.

Make me a personal website with my name, a short bio, and links to my social media. Keep it simple and clean. My name is Alex, I'm a photographer in Chicago, and here are my links: Instagram at @alexphoto, Twitter at @alexphoto.

Hit enter. Watch it work.

Tip The more specific you are, the better. "Make a website" is fine. "Make a personal website with a dark background, my name in big letters at the top, three sections (About, Work, Contact), and a footer" is better. Treat it like giving directions to a human.
05

What just happened

Claude made files. Real files. In your folder.

Open the folder in Finder or File Explorer. You'll probably see something like this:

  • index.html Your website. This is the main file. Every website has one.
  • style.css The styling. Colors, fonts, layout. All of it lives here.
  • script.js Any interactive stuff (not always created, depends on what you asked for).

To see your website, open index.html in a browser. Right-click the file, pick "Open with," choose Chrome or Safari or Firefox.

There it is. Your website. Running on your computer.

Tip Right now it only works on your computer. Nobody else can see it yet. That comes in Step 7.
06

Make it yours

Here's the part that's actually fun. Iteration is the whole game.

Go back to your terminal. Claude is still running (or start it again with claude). Just keep talking to it.

Make the background dark navy. Change the font to something more modern. And add a line that says "Available for freelance work."
The bio section feels too crowded. Give it more breathing room. And make my name bigger.
Add a section for my favorite photos. I don't have real images yet, so use placeholder images for now. Three across in a row.

Each time you ask, Claude updates the files. Refresh the browser to see the changes. Keep going until it looks right.

You can ask for changes in plain English. "Too much whitespace." "Make it more minimal." "I want it to feel warmer." Claude will interpret and adjust.

Heads up If Claude does something you didn't want, just say "undo that last change" or describe what you want instead. It won't take it personally.
07

Put it on the internet

Your site works locally. Now let's make it real.

Three options, roughly in order of "easiest for a beginner":

Netlify Drop Easiest
Go to netlify.com/drop. Drag your project folder right onto the page. Done. You get a real URL in about 10 seconds. Free tier is generous. This is the one I'd recommend to start.
Cloudflare Pages Easy
Similar drag-and-drop experience. Also free. Slightly more features if you eventually want a custom domain. Go to pages.cloudflare.com.
GitHub Pages
Free, but requires a GitHub account and a little more setup. Good long-term option if you think you'll keep building. Skip it for now if this is your first time.

Once it's live, you'll get a URL like your-site-name.netlify.app. Share it. It's real.

Tip Want a real domain like yourname.com? You can buy one from Namecheap or Google Domains for $10-15/year, then point it at Netlify. Claude can walk you through that too, just ask.
08

You just made a website

Seriously. Go look at it. That's a real website you made.

You're a web developer now. Kind of.

The "kind of" is not shade. Plenty of people call themselves web developers and can't ship something in an afternoon. You just did.

From here, the path is just more of the same. Tell Claude what you want. Look at the result. Adjust. Repeat. There's no point where you suddenly need to understand every line of code it wrote. You can stay at this level forever and still build genuinely good things.

But if you get curious, the code is right there. Claude will explain any line of it if you ask. "What does this part do?" is a completely valid question to ask at any time.

That's it. That's the whole thing. Good luck.