gangway as a ChatGPT Sites alternative
ChatGPT Sites turns what you make in ChatGPT into a website or a small app on OpenAI’s hosting. gangway does the same job on a server you run, for any agent, and for apps that need a real backend.
Pick ChatGPT Sites when
Section titled “Pick ChatGPT Sites when”- you want nothing to install or run, and a paid ChatGPT plan already covers the hosting;
- the site is a front end with light storage: a dashboard, a tracker, a report, a prototype;
- the people who use it are in your ChatGPT workspace, or you want it on your ChatGPT profile.
Pick gangway when
Section titled “Pick gangway when”- the app needs a real backend. OpenAI says Sites may not support “some frameworks, private networks, databases, background services, and hosting patterns”. gangway runs any Docker Compose stack: a Node, Bun, Python or PHP server, websockets, workers, and Postgres, MySQL or Redis beside it.
- the data has to stay with you. Everything runs on your own hardware, on your own network if you like, with nothing sent to a third party.
- you use more than one agent. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and ChatGPT all deploy through the same MCP server. See Use it from ChatGPT.
- you want a preview of every pull request. A GitHub repository gets one URL per pull request, torn down when it closes. See Pull-request previews.
- you want the code to be yours. What you deploy is your files, and gangway is open source under Apache 2.0.
Side by side
Section titled “Side by side”| ChatGPT Sites | gangway | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | OpenAI’s hosting | your server, NAS or laptop |
| Made from | a ChatGPT chat | any MCP client, the dashboard, the REST API, or a pull request |
| Backend | light managed storage; some servers and databases not supported | any container: Node, Bun, Python, PHP, websockets, workers |
| Databases | managed by Sites | Postgres, MySQL or Redis beside the app, with a data browser |
| Who can open it | you, chosen people, your workspace, or anyone | public, unlisted, a password, or people signed in to gangway |
| Your own domain | yes, except Enterprise workspaces for now | yes, with a certificate per domain; see Domains |
| Lifetime | until you delete it | a time to live you can extend; idle previews sleep |
| Cost | included in Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise | free and open source; you bring the server |
What gangway asks of you: a Docker host and, for anything others can reach, a domain. The Quickstart takes a few minutes, and a laptop install needs no domain at all.
The ChatGPT side of this table is from OpenAI’s help pages as of October 2026; Sites changes often, so check there for the current limits.