Deployment

Deploy your SaaS application to any hosting platform.

This guide covers the general steps to deploy your application to any hosting platform that can run a Node.js server. TanStack Start builds a server bundle (via Vite + Nitro) that you run with Node.

Deployment Overview

Deploying your application involves these key steps:

Provision infrastructure - Database, storage, and hosting
Configure environment variables - Set production credentials
Deploy the application - Push code to your hosting platform
Run database migrations - Set up your database schema
Configure webhooks - Connect your billing provider

Infrastructure Requirements

Your production environment needs:

Component	Purpose	Options
Hosting	Run your TanStack Start app	Railway, AWS, Fly.io, any Node host
Database	PostgreSQL database	Neon, PlanetScale, Supabase, Railway
Storage	File uploads	AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Railway Storage
Email	Transactional emails	Resend, Postmark, SendGrid

Environment Variables

Every hosting platform requires you to set environment variables. Copy these from your Environment Setup:

Core Variables

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://...
VITE_SITE_URL=https://your-domain.com
VITE_BILLING_PROVIDER=stripe

Public values are inlined at build time

VITE_* variables are inlined into the bundle during pnpm build. Make sure they are present in the build environment, not only at runtime.

Storage Variables

STORAGE_BASE_URL=https://...
STORAGE_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=...
STORAGE_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...
STORAGE_S3_BUCKET=...
STORAGE_S3_REGION=...

Billing Variables

For Stripe:

STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_...
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_...

For Polar:

POLAR_ACCESS_TOKEN=...

Additional Environment Variables

If you configured additional settings during development (OAuth providers, email, feature flags, etc.), make sure to add those environment variables to your production environment as well. Refer to the Environment Setup guide for the complete list.

Build Configuration

For the monorepo structure, configure your hosting platform:

Root Directory: apps/web
Install Command: pnpm install
Build Command: pnpm build (or pnpm --filter web build)
Output Directory: apps/web/.output (Nitro server build)
Start Command: node apps/web/.output/server/index.mjs (from apps/web: pnpm start)

Database Migrations

After your first deployment, run Prisma migrations to create the database schema:

read -s DATABASE_URL && export DATABASE_URL && pnpm --filter "@kit/database" prisma:migrate

This command:

Prompts for your DATABASE_URL (hidden input)
Exports it as an environment variable
Runs the Prisma migration

Post-Deployment Checklist

After deploying:

[ ] Application loads without errors
[ ] Database connection works
[ ] Authentication flows work (sign up, sign in)
[ ] Billing webhooks receive events
[ ] File uploads work
[ ] Emails send successfully

Platform Guides

For step-by-step instructions on specific platforms:

Railway - All-in-one platform with built-in database and storage