8: Deploying

Deploying a Meteor application is similar to deploying any other Node.js app that uses websockets. You can find deployment options in our guide, including Meteor Up, Docker, and our recommended method, Galaxy.

In this tutorial, we will deploy our app on Galaxy, which is our own cloud solution. Galaxy offers a free plan, so you can deploy and test your app. Pretty cool, right?

8.1: Create your account

You need a Meteor account to deploy your apps. If you don’t have one yet, you can sign up here. With this account, you can access our package manager, Atmosphere, Forums and more.

8.2: Set up MongoDB (Optional)

As your app uses MongoDB the first step is to set up a MongoDB database, Galaxy offers MongoDB hosting on a free plan for testing purposes, and you can also request for a production ready database that allows you to scale.

In any MongoDB provider you will have a MongoDB URL which you must use it. If you use the free option provided by Galaxy, the initial setup is done for you.

Galaxy MongoDB URL will be like this: mongodb://username:<password>@org-dbname-01.mongodb.galaxy-cloud.io .

You can read more about Galaxy MongoDB here.

8.3: Set up settings

You need to create a setting file, it’s a JSON file that Meteor apps can read configurations from. Create this file in a new folder called private in the root of your project. It is important to notice that private is a special folder that is not going to be published to the client side of your app.

Make sure you replace Your MongoDB URL by your own MongoDB URL 😃

private/settings.json

{
  "galaxy.meteor.com": {
    "env": {
      "MONGO_URL": "Your MongoDB URL"
    }
  }
}

8.4: Deploy it

Now you are ready to deploy, run meteor npm install before deploying to make sure all your dependencies are installed.

You also need to choose a subdomain to publish your app. We are going to use the main domain meteorapp.com that is free and included on any Galaxy plan.

In this example we are going to use react-meteor-3.meteorapp.com but make sure you select a different one, otherwise you are going to receive an error.

You can learn how to use custom domains on Galaxy here. Custom domains are available starting with the Essentials plan.

Run the deployment command:

meteor deploy react-meteor-3.meteorapp.com --free --mongo

If you are not using the free hosting with MongoDB on Galaxy, then remove the --mongo flag from the deploy script and add --settings private/settings.json with the proper setting for your app.

Make sure you replace react-meteor-3 by a custom name that you want as subdomain. You will see a log like this:

meteor deploy react-meteor-3.meteorapp.com --settings private/settings.json
Talking to Galaxy servers at https://us-east-1.galaxy-deploy.meteor.com
Preparing to build your app...                
Preparing to upload your app... 
Uploaded app bundle for new app at vue-tutorial.meteorapp.com.
Galaxy is building the app into a native image.
Waiting for deployment updates from Galaxy... 
Building app image...                         
Deploying app...                              
You have successfully deployed the first version of your app.
For details, visit https://galaxy.meteor.com/app/react-meteor-3.meteorapp.com

This process usually takes just a few minutes, but it depends on your internet speed as it’s going to send your app bundle to Galaxy servers.

Galaxy builds a new Docker image that contains your app bundle and then deploy containers using it, read more. You can check your logs on Galaxy, including the part that Galaxy is building your Docker image and deploying it.

8.5: Access the app and enjoy

Now you should be able to access your Galaxy dashboard at https://galaxy.meteor.com/app/react-meteor-3.meteorapp.com.

You can also access your app on Galaxy 2.0 which is currently in beta at https://galaxy-beta.meteor.com/<your-username>/us-east-1/apps/<your-app-name>.meteorapp.com. Remember to use your own subdomain instead of react-meteor-3.

You can access the app at react-meteor-3.meteorapp.com! Just use your subdomain to access yours!

We deployed to Galaxy running in the US (us-east-1), we also have Galaxy running in other regions in the world, check the list here. This is huge, you have your app running on Galaxy, ready to be used by anyone in the world!