How to Deploy a Next.js App to a VPS (The Manual Way)

Most Next.js tutorials end at npm run dev. The deployment section says "push to Vercel" and moves on. That's fine until you need to own your infrastructure, keep costs under control, or just understand what's actually happening when your app goes live. This post walks through deploying a Next.js app to a bare VPS, step by step. No platform, no abstraction layer. Just you, a server, and the commands. By the end, you'll understand every piece of the deployment pipeline. And you'll be able to decide whether you want to keep doing it manually or hand it off to a tool. What You Need A VPS from any provider (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, whatever). 2GB RAM minimum for a Next.js app with a build step. 4GB if you're running a database on the same box. A domain name pointed at your server's IP address. SSH access to the server. A Next.js app that builds successfully with npm run build on your local machine. This guide assumes Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04. Debian works too with minor difference