I'm not sure about that. The doc [0] says that there are some static files that should be distributed by whatever HTTP server you want (they suggest python's simple http server) After that, it's all js in the browser.

Edit: I see what you mean: Pouchdb-server [1] is a couchdb-compatible server that speaks the same sync protocol. If you don't want to install it, you can work with any hosted couchdb-speaking cloud instance, such as iriscouch [2] or cloudant [3]

[0] http://pouchdb.com/getting-started.html

[1] https://github.com/nick-thompson/pouchdb-server

[2] http://www.iriscouch.com/

[3] https://cloudant.com/