Skip to main content

Getting Started

Getting Started with your app

Deploy your first app in under 5 minutes. This guide walks you through connecting a server, linking your code, and shipping your first deployment.

What you'll need

  • A DollarDeploy account (free to start)
  • A GitHub account with a repo you want to deploy
  • Either: an existing VPS (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04), or we'll create one for you

Step 1: Add a server

Go to Servers in the sidebar and click Add Host.

Option A: Provision a new server (easiest)

  1. Connect your provider account via Settings → Integrations (one-time setup)
  2. Click Add Host and select a provider: Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or Verda Cloud
  3. Configure provision: Choose a region and size (2 vCPU / 4GB RAM is a good start)
  4. Click Create — your server will be provisioned and configured automatically in ~60 seconds

Option B: Connect your own server

  1. Click Add Host and enter your server's IP address and SSH username
  2. Use password, or select existing private key to connect to the host
  3. Add hostnames to use to deploy apps (one hostname <> one app) or use autogenerated domain names like myapp.NNNNN.dollardeploy.app
  4. Press Save
  5. Click Test Connection to verify access
  6. Click Prepare — we'll configure the server for deployments

Requirements: Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04, root or sudo access, ports 22/80/443 open.

Step 2: Connect GitHub

  1. Go to Settings → GitHub
  2. Click Connect GitHub and authorize DollarDeploy
  3. Select which repositories to give access to (you can limit to specific repos)

This is a one-time setup. Once connected, you can deploy any authorized repo.

Step 3: Deploy your app

  1. Go to Apps in the sidebar and click Create
  2. Select your GitHub repository
  3. Choose the host (server) to deploy to
  4. Configure your app:
    • Branch: main (or your production branch)
    • Build command: auto-detected for most frameworks
    • Start command: auto-detected (e.g., npm start)
    • Environment variables: add any secrets your app needs
  5. Click Deploy

DollarDeploy will:

  • Clone your repo
  • Build your app on our infrastructure
  • Package and ship it to your server
  • Configure Nginx with HTTPS (via Let's Encrypt)
  • Start your app as a systemd service

First deploy takes 2-5 minutes. Subsequent deploys are faster. You can watch progress in Tasks.

Step 4: Set up your domain (optional)

  1. Go to Apps, click on your app, then Edit
  2. Add your custom domain (e.g., myapp.com)
  3. Point your domain's DNS to your server's IP:
    • A record: @ → your-server-ip
    • A record: www → your-server-ip
  4. Wait for DNS propagation (usually 5-15 minutes)
  5. We'll automatically provision an HTTPS certificate

Automatic deploys

In your app's Overview tab, enable Deploy automatically to trigger a new deployment on every git push to your configured branch. You can also:

  • Trigger manual deploys from the app's Overview
  • Deploy a previous build via Deploy latest build
  • View build logs in the Journal tab or in Tasks

Adding services

Need a database? Go to Servers, click on your host, then open the Services tab:

  • PostgreSQL — connection string auto-injected as POSTGRES_URL
  • Redis — available as REDIS_URL
  • MongoDB — available as MONGODB_URL

Services are installed directly on your server with one click. We highly recommend adding firewall service, which will properly configure firewall and fail2ban.

What's next?

Questions? Join our Discord or check the blog for more guides.