Deploy App — put a website online

Deploy App puts a website on one of your servers and keeps it running. You give it a domain, the code (a Git repository or a .zip) and a server. We build it with Docker, start it, and point nginx at it. Every later deploy is one click, or one message to the chatbot.

It's for anything that runs in a browser: a Next.js or React site, a Node.js API, a PHP or Laravel app, a WordPress blog, a plain HTML site, or anything else with its own Dockerfile. It also runs custom containers: any public Docker image, like Redis or ClickHouse, with your own ports and volumes.

Before you start

• A server added on the Servers page, with a login that is root or can use sudo without a password. Docker, nginx and git are installed for you on the first deploy if they're missing.
• A domain whose DNS you can change. You'll add an A record pointing at the server's public IP. You can deploy before the DNS is right, but visitors only reach the site once it is.
• The code: a Git repository (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or any HTTPS Git host), or the project folder zipped up (leave node_modules out, up to 100 MB).

Deploy your first app

1. Open Deploy App in the sidebar, press New app and choose Application / Website (for a custom container, see Custom containers).
2. Domain — type example.com. Add www.example.com on a second line if you want both. The first one is the app's main domain and can't be changed later (it names the app's folder and settings on the server).
3. Server — pick one. We check it straight away: Docker, nginx, free memory and disk.
4. Project type — Next.js, Node.js server, React / Vite / Vue, static HTML, PHP, Laravel, WordPress, or My own Dockerfile. The type decides how we build it; you don't need to write a Dockerfile. See PHP, Laravel and WordPress.
5. Source — paste the repository's HTTPS URL and branch, or upload a .zip. For a private repository pick a saved Git credential; Test access checks it from the server before you continue.
6. Environment — paste your .env if the app needs one.
7. Press Create. The deploy starts and you watch its log live.

When it finishes, the Deployments tab shows ✓ and the app answers on your domain over HTTP. Then add HTTPS: Domains and HTTPS.

What a deploy does

1. Fetches the code. Git: the latest commit of the branch. Anything changed on the server by hand is put back to what's in the repository, and the log lists what was reverted. Upload: the .zip is unpacked fresh.
2. Builds a Docker image. For the built-in types we write the Dockerfile (you can read it on each deploy); for My own Dockerfile we build yours.
3. Starts the new version beside the live one and waits until it answers. Only then does it replace the live version. If the new version fails to build, crashes, or doesn't answer, your site keeps running the previous version and the deploy is marked failed with the reason.
4. Updates nginx for all of the app's domains.

Day to day

Where things live on the server

These are managed by the panel: edits made to them by hand are replaced on the next deploy. Change the app's settings instead.

Who can do what

The Free plan includes one app.