🚀 Deploying a React App on DigitalOcean with Nginx & a Custom Domain (A Budget-Friendly Guide)
Want to Host Your Frontend or Backend App for under $4 a month? Here’s How! 🌍
Why Self-Hosting?
Today, hosting applications can get quite expensive. Cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean offer great services, but costs can quickly add up as your project scales. On the other hand, frontend hosting platforms like Vercel and Netlify provide free plans, but sometimes you need full control over your server for backend applications or more complex configurations.
One cost-effective solution is self-hosting your applications on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) like DigitalOcean or even on a Raspberry Pi, a low-cost mini-computer. This guide will walk you through deploying a React app on DigitalOcean using Nginx, configuring DNS to use your own domain, and optimizing performance with caching.
🛠 What You’ll Need:
- A DigitalOcean droplet (or any other VPS, even a Raspberry Pi)
- A registered domain name (from Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, etc.)
- SSH access to the server
- Basic knowledge of Linux commands
- A ReactJS app ready for deployment