Vibe coding is building software by describing what you want in plain language and letting an AI tool write the code, rather than writing it yourself. The term covers everything from a quick landing page to a full application, which is exactly where the confusion starts: the two need different things once the describing part is done.
A vibe-coded static site, HTML, CSS, and browser JavaScript, can go live with nothing more than a place to serve the files. A vibe-coded application with its own database or server logic needs an actual backend, and no amount of better prompting removes that.
For how to tell which one you built and why that decides how you publish it, see vibe deployment: simple sites need a simpler way to deploy.