Exporting & Deployment

Robinson recommends Now, made by Zeit, for its automatic framework detection, command line deployment, and Git hosting integrations. He also recommends Netlify, citing its interface and pricing, while saying he prefers Now.

Pages without `getInitialProps` can be statically pre-rendered for faster page loads. Robinson describes `next export` as a way to produce standalone static HTML in an `out` folder, which his team copied into an existing .NET application to ship a feature quickly. For most projects, he favors `next build`, which supports static pages and API routes.

Robinson demonstrates pushing a branch to GitHub and opening a pull request. Now automatically deploys a preview at a unique URL, so teammates and stakeholders can review changes before production. The workflow can also show deployment logs and run linting and tests.

A `now.json` file can set the project name, domain aliases, build settings, and routes; Robinson uses routes to control caching of assets. He also describes uploading Firebase and Mailchimp secrets for use through `process.env`, and adding a 301 redirect after renaming his resume.