# Deploy to Firebase using Pretty URLs

Firebase is a very simple and secure way to deploy a Web Starter Kit site. You can sign up for a free account and deploy your application in less than 5 minutes.

The instructions below are based on the [Firebase hosting quick start
guide](https://www.firebase.com/docs/hosting/quickstart.html).

1.  [Sign up for a Firebase account](https://www.firebase.com/signup/)

1.  Install the Firebase command line tools

        npm install -g firebase-tools

    The `-g` flag instructs `npm` to install the package globally so that you
    can use the `firebase` command from any directory. You may need
    to install the package with `sudo` privileges.

1.  `cd` into your project directory

1.  Inititalize the Firebase application

        firebase init

    Firebase asks you which app you would like to use for hosting. If you just
    signed up, you should see one app with a randomly-generated name. You can
    use that one. Otherwise go to
    [https://www.firebase.com/account](https://www.firebase.com/account) to
    create a new app.

1.  Firebase asks you the name of your app's public directory. Enter `dist`.
    This works because when you run `gulp` to build your application, WSK
    builds everything and places it all in `dist`. So `dist` contains
    everything your application needs to run.

1.  Build

        gulp

1.  Deploy

        firebase deploy

    The URL to your live site is listed in the output.

    You can see a deployed version of WSK at [https://web-starter-kit.firebaseapp.com/](https://web-starter-kit.firebaseapp.com/).