Self-Hosting Next.js

Robinson sets out a deployment using a Next.js app, PostgreSQL, Nginx, and Docker on a VPS advertised at $4 per month. He compares VPSs with dedicated servers and explains the trade-offs in cost, control, performance, and reliability. On the smallest server, 512 MB of memory proved tight, so he added swap space to help builds complete.

A Bash script installs Docker and Docker Compose, prepares the server, clones the app, creates environment variables, configures Nginx and SSL with Certbot, and starts the containers. The example runs the app, PostgreSQL, and a cron service in separate containers, connected through Docker Compose. Robinson recommends Next.js standalone output to reduce the Docker image size by about 80%, and notes that Docker makes the deployment portable to other infrastructure.

The demo shows server-rendered data, image optimization, streaming with Suspense, PostgreSQL CRUD actions, ISR, middleware, environment variables, startup instrumentation, cron, and Nginx rate limiting. For streaming, Nginx proxy buffering is disabled and compression is handled by Nginx. Next.js uses an in-memory cache by default on a single container, while a custom cache handler can use durable storage such as Redis.

Robinson describes scaling from one VPS running the app, database, and cron to separate services and, at larger scale, Kubernetes with multiple Next.js containers. He presents managed platforms such as Vercel as a way to offload routing, TLS, caching, image optimization, and scaling, while self-hosting trades cost savings and control against operational work. Other options include static export, community adapters, Coolify, and Kamal.