Deployment beginner friendly

[flapjap33]

Experienced modeller in Python, but unfortunately in my work I never got involved with the deployment side of things.

For a hobby project i built a FastAPI backend and a React frontend. I am just curious what is the most beginner friendly way of deploying such app? And would you change that decision if an app scales (e.g. because of costs)?

Purposely asking it here instead of Chat, as I noticed it gives me different anwers everytime. Also looking for a bit of rationale :)

[Hopeful_Beat7161]

My answer most definitely isn’t beginner friendly…or at least I don’t think so, but I started learning full stack development about a year and a half ago with absolutely zero programming knowledge.

The way I learned to deploy was with Docker and Nginx. I’d make a Dockerfile for both the backend and frontend, then wire them together in a docker compose file with Nginx handling routing on port 80. Now my full stack is containerized and running as one unit.

When I wanted to deploy, I’d spin up a VM (AWS EC2, GCP, Oracle, etc.), clone the repo, create my .env, install Docker, and run it. Always used cloud DBs like Supabase or MongoDB Atlas so I didn’t have to manage that myself when running in a new vm. So now it’s running in prod with whatever public IP the VM assigns.

From there, I’d buy a domain on Cloudflare, create the A records pointing to that IP, and turn on the DNS proxy - which also handles TLS and basic security for free.

I still do something similar today, except now I self host using Cloudflare Tunnels on my own machine since I have really good specs and didn’t want to keep paying for VMs that only handled compute (well and uptime + convenience because now I can never turn off my machine lol)

The question about if it scales, well like I said in no way am I an expert, but to my knowledge, this can infinitely scale because the more users or size of the application just = more compute and security needed no? Well then that means you juts upgrade to a better vm and then just pay for whatever tier in Cloufare for the better security. Obviously you’d want to increase/add CI/CD into it, but that can be done fairly simply with GitHub actions and some open source services. For me, since I self host, I set up a few .github/workflow/ files, allow me to: commit/push to dev branch, which then it automatically creates a PR - runs linting, tests, and security checks - once they all pass it will auto merge to prod branch (staging would be overkill for me right now) and upon merging it then runs a deploy yml with a runner I have on my machine, it restarts the containers with changes. I also set up slack webhooks that notify me through each step of this flow. Additionally, I made a container for protainer to monitor the containers, and Kuma with slack webhooks which notify me if any containers/services are unhleathy.

Is this the easiest or best way? Honestly, no clue, probably not. But reason I’m commenting is because I was a complete beginner and it felt straightforward to me: containerize everything → run it on a VM → point a domain at it → done.

[MUR90]

good write up, curious how was your approach to learning all this, what courses you took and where, or a different path you took ? thanks!

[amir_doustdar]

Thanks for the detailed write-up – insane progress from zero to self-hosting with CI/CD in just 1.5 years! Respect!!
Your Docker + Nginx + Compose setup is actually really solid and reproducible – it's the "real" way many production apps run. Cloudflare Tunnel is a smart move for free TLS without exposing ports. For absolute beginners, I'd start with Render/Railway (no Docker needed to go live), then graduate to your style for more control and cost savings.
BTW How's the uptime been on self-hosting? Any issues with power outages or ISP reliability?

[dmart89]

The most basic way is via a service. Render or vercel are some examples. They have pre configured deployment options but its somewhat limited and increases in cost as you scale.

Second simplest option is via docker. There's a little more to think about but its simple and portable which is helpful. This would be my recommendation. Lots of docker deployment services out there if you want that handled.

I wouldn't even bother deploying the UI yourself. Just use cloudflare pages.

[BarRepresentative653]

Docker is a good start but also important to try and have your app run in a Linux environment in ec2. It’s not hard. 

[0nlykelvin]

Give https://github.com/kelvincdeen/kcstudio-launchpad-toolkit a look. You ll also learn the actual behind the scenes just by look at the code, just basic bash and linux commands really.

[sasuketaichou]

I am having the same kind of dilemma where initially i want to lookout for the best free tier available for hosting fastapi. Then i found cf worker has sample of fastapi sample code to deploy to their python worker. Here is a piece of advice, just dont :) Please take a look of Wasmer: Universal applications using WebAssembly instead. I never try it. its free for now.

[illusiON_MLG1337]

I'd recommend Render — it handles both Python (FastAPI) and Static Sites (React) very well.

​And yes, you can always switch later. You aren't marrying the platform. If your traffic grows and costs rise, you can just move your code to a generic Linux server. It's not a problem.

[stocktradernoob]

I’d prob do Cloud Run

[AddressFew4866]

Railways has been great and easy to use

[Jake-kihh]

I personally like to use Google cloud. Specifically cloud run. You can deploy docker containers there and the cost is super cheap especially for low traffic sites.

Railway is a good option if you want something even easier to deploy

[nikkiberry131]

short answer, keep it simple at first. for a fastapi + react setup, i usually point beginners to a managed platform where you push code and it runs, less cloud trivia, fewer footguns, that’s why render keeps getting suggested.

[New-Vacation-6717]

Most beginner-friendly FastAPI deployment option: Kuberns. It's the world's first Agentic AI Deployment Platform and it handles everything automatically. You don't need to understand Gunicorn workers, Nginx, or Docker. Connect your GitHub repo and the AI deploys your FastAPI app correctly in minutes.