Deployment has evolved from FTP uploads to sophisticated automated pipelines. Understanding your options helps you choose the right approach for each project.
Docker: Consistency Across Environments
Docker solves the 'it works on my machine' problem. Your application runs the same everywhere:
dockerfile
# Multi-stage build for optimized production image
FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build
FROM node:20-alpine AS production
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=builder /app/dist ./dist
COPY --from=builder /app/node_modules ./node_modules
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "dist/server.js"]Serverless: Pay for What You Use
Serverless functions are perfect for APIs with variable traffic:
javascript
// AWS Lambda handler
exports.handler = async (event) => {
const { httpMethod, body, pathParameters } = event;
try {
const result = await processRequest(httpMethod, body);
return {
statusCode: 200,
headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
body: JSON.stringify(result)
};
} catch (error) {
return {
statusCode: 500,
body: JSON.stringify({ error: error.message })
};
}
};Vercel/Netlify: The Developer Experience
For frontend applications, platforms like Vercel offer the best developer experience:
- Automatic deployments from Git
- Preview deployments for every PR
- Edge network for global performance
- Built-in CI/CD without configuration
CI/CD with GitHub Actions
yaml
name: Deploy
on:
push:
branches: [main]
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
with:
node-version: '20'
cache: 'npm'
- run: npm ci
- run: npm test
- run: npm run build
- name: Deploy to Production
run: ./deploy.sh
env:
DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.DEPLOY_KEY }}Choosing Your Strategy
- Static sites: Vercel, Netlify, or GitHub Pages
- Full-stack apps: Docker on cloud providers or Vercel
- Variable workloads: Serverless functions
- Complex infrastructure: Kubernetes for orchestration
Start simple and scale complexity only when needed. A well-deployed simple system beats a complex system that's difficult to maintain.