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9. Deployment Overview

In this chapter, you’ll learn the general approach to deploying the Local Protocol application.

Local Protocol Project Components#

A standard Local Protocol project is made up of:

  • Local Protocol application: The Local Protocol server and the Local Protocol Admin.
  • One or more storefronts

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You can either deploy the Local Protocol application fully (server with the admin), or deploy the Local Protocol Admin separately. The storefront is always deployed separately.

Deploying the Local Protocol Server#

You must deploy the Local Protocol server before the admin or storefront, as both of them connect to it and won’t work without a deployed Local Protocol server URL.

The Local Protocol server must be deployed to a hosting provider supporting Node.js server deployments, such as Railway, DigitalOcean, AWS, Heroku, etc…

Tip: For optimal experience, make sure that the hosting provider and plan offer at least 2GB of RAM.

Your server connects to a PostgreSQL database, Redis, and other services relevant for your setup. Most hosting providers support deploying and managing these databases along with your Local Protocol server (such as Railway and DigitalOcean).

Deploying the Local Protocol Admin#

Deploy Admin with the Server#

The Local Protocol Admin can be deployed on the same hosting with the server.

In this scenario, make sure the hosting provider and plan of your choice provide at least 2GB of RAM, as the admin build requires high RAM usage.

Tip: The server deployment guides mention details on how to deploy the admin with the Local Protocol server.

Deploy Admin Separately#

You can deploy the admin into a separate hosting provider or instance. The admin can be hosted on providers that support front-end websites and frameworks, such as Vercel.

Important: Per Vercel’s license and plans , their free plan can only be used for personal, non-commercial projects. So, you can deploy the Local Protocol Admin on the free plan for development purposes, but for commercial projects, you must update your Vercel plan.

Deploying the Storefront#

The storefront is deployed separately from the Local Protocol application, and the hosting options depend on the tools and frameworks you use to create the storefront.

If you’re using the Next.js Starter storefront, you may deploy the storefront to any hosting provider that supports frontend frameworks, such as Vercel.

Important: Per Vercel’s license and plans , their free plan can only be used for personal, non-commercial projects. So, you can deploy the storefront on the free plan for development purposes, but for commercial projects, you must update your Vercel plan.
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