Host a Full-Stack Next.js App with PostgreSQL on a VPS — Start to Finish.

In your domain registrar's DNS settings, add two A records that point to your VPS's public IP address:

DNS can take a few minutes to propagate. Confirm it's pointing to the right server:

nslookup yourdomain.com

Once it resolves to your IP, SSH into the server:

ssh root@yourdomain.com

Update the package list and install PostgreSQL:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib

Switch to the postgres system user and open the PostgreSQL shell:

sudo -i -u postgres
psql

Now create a login role and a database that role owns. Run these inside the postgres=# prompt:

CREATE ROLE myapp_user WITH LOGIN PASSWORD 'strong_password_here';
CREATE DATABASE myapp_db OWNER myapp_user;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE myapp_db TO myapp_user;
\q

Type exit to leave the postgres user. Your Next.js app will connect using this string:

postgresql://myapp_user:strong_password_here@localhost:5432/myapp_db

Install Node.js using fnm (Fast Node Manager) so you can manage versions cleanly, then activate the latest LTS:

curl -fsSL https://fnm.vercel.app/install | bash
source ~/.bashrc
fnm install --lts
fnm use --lts
node -v

Clone your repository. Use the HTTPS URL for a public repo, or the SSH URL for a private one:

# public repo
git clone https://github.com/username/your-nextjs-app.git

# private repo (SSH)
git clone git@github.com:username/your-nextjs-app.git

cd your-nextjs-app

Install dependencies, create your .env, and add the database URL plus any secrets your app uses:

npm install
cp .env.example .env
nano .env

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://myapp_user:strong_password_here@localhost:5432/myapp_db"
NODE_ENV=production

If you use an ORM like Prisma or Drizzle, run your migrations now, then create the production build:

# example — Prisma
npx prisma migrate deploy

npm run build

If you just run npm run start, the app dies the moment you close your SSH session. PM2 keeps it alive in the background and restarts it automatically. Install it globally and start your app:

npm install -g pm2
pm2 start npm --name "nextjs-app" -- run start

Next.js listens on port 3000 by default. Make PM2 relaunch your app after a server reboot:

pm2 startup
pm2 save

Handy commands to manage it later:

• pm2 list — see running apps and their status
• pm2 logs nextjs-app — tail live logs
• pm2 restart nextjs-app — restart after pulling new code

Your app runs on port 3000, but visitors should reach it on https://yourdomain.com. Caddy is a web server that reverse-proxies traffic to your app and provisions a free SSL certificate automatically. Install it:

sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y caddy

Open the Caddy config file:

sudo nano /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Replace its contents with this — it proxies your domain to the Next.js server and redirects www to the root domain:

yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

www.yourdomain.com {
    redir https://yourdomain.com{uri}
}

Save (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X), then reload Caddy to apply it:

sudo systemctl reload caddy