Shinylive for R: Serverless Application

This will launch a version of R that runs on your web browser. The static files are hosted on GitHub Pages. Your computer takes over the role of a traditional server, which is why it takes longer to load.

Note - For content that is still interactive but doesn't require sophisticated user input, you could simply render an rmarkdown html file such as flexdashboard. That can be hosted or sent as a self-contained file.

In the past, if you didn't have access to a server, sharing your shiny app required one of the following...

• having a personal or business server, which is secure but probably too much work to deploy a simple app

• sharing your data with a third party and either paying them or using a traffic-limited free version (not ok for sensitive data)

• turning your shiny app into a more complex golem R package (also makes it easy for local deployments for even basic users)

• having your end user download R or Rstudio (yikes if they don't know how) to run the app locally

The current tradeoffs are... 

• It takes time to load even simple apps (may improve with time)

• You can use most but not all available CRAN R packages

• Seemingly, no current way for remote/GitHub/dev R-packages (likely to get added)

Nonetheless, now you have a way to share your shiny app publically or privately with no servers and no end-user downloads.