Put it on hosting that suits how it's built, give it everything it needs to run there (settings, a database, stored files), point your domain at it, and turn on HTTPS. Most hosting platforms will build and publish the app straight from your code repository. The hosting is rarely the hard part. The hard part is everything the app quietly relies on that only exists on the computer it was built on.
What's the problem
The app runs on a laptop, and maybe a few people have seen it. Getting from there to a public address is where a lot of projects stop. Every guide assumes you already know what kind of hosting you need, and every hosting company assumes you know what your app is made of.
Why it happens
- An app is usually several things. The frontend (what runs in the browser) can be served as plain files. The backend (the server code and API) needs a program running all the time. The database is a service of its own. Many apps are all three, and each needs a home.
- The app expects a specific setup. It listens on a particular port, reads passwords and keys from settings, and expects a database to exist with the right tables. On the laptop all of that was set up once and forgotten.
- The domain lives somewhere else. You bought the domain from a registrar. The hosting is with another company. Until the domain is pointed at the hosting, nobody can find the app.
How to fix it
- Work out what you have. Just a frontend, a frontend with a backend, or a mobile app that talks to a backend. The project's
package.json,requirements.txtor similar file, and its README if there is one, will tell you. - Put the code in a repository you own. GitHub or GitLab, in your account or your business's account, not your developer's.
- Pick hosting that fits. Static hosting for a frontend on its own. A platform that runs server code for a backend. A cloud provider such as AWS when you need more control. Open the accounts in your own name.
- Create the database on a managed database service, and run the project's migrations so the tables exist.
- Set every setting. Every environment variable the code reads goes into the hosting dashboard with its production value.
- Deploy, then read the logs. The build log tells you if it built. The runtime log tells you if it started.
- Point your domain at it. At your registrar, add the records your host gives you, or switch the domain's nameservers to theirs.
- Turn on HTTPS. Most platforms issue a free certificate automatically once the domain points at them.
- Test what matters on the live address. Sign up, log in, the main thing the app does, and payments if it takes them.
When to call Preventionlabs
If you have the code and some patience, the steps above will get many apps online. Online isn't the same as live: still up next week, safe to let strangers sign up, and able to take more users without a rebuild. That's what we deliver. The app running in your own hosting account with the user flows you list working end to end, protected to MVP level, on infrastructure that scales through configuration. Then it's handed back to you, with plain-language notes on how to run, deploy and scale it.
Submit your project for a free assessmentFree assessment. $10,000 AUD flat to get it live, only if we take it on and you go ahead.
Sources
- MDN Web Docs: Publishing your websiteweb reference
Keeping website source code in a GitHub repo (see below) and granting the hosting company access so they can fetch the source, build it if necessary, and publish it.
- MDN Web Docs: Publishing your websiteweb reference
This is usually done by logging into your domain registrar's website, and setting your domain's nameservers to the ones provided by your hosting company.
- Render: Web Services: Port bindinghosting platform docs
We recommend binding your HTTP server to the port defined by the PORT environment variable.
- Let's Encrypt: About Let's Encryptcertificate authority
We give people the digital certificates they need in order to enable HTTPS (SSL/TLS) for websites, for free, in the most user-friendly way we can.