How to Deploy Next.js Applications with Docker

Next.js is the modern open source React.js framework officially support by the React team and Vercel. Most developers choose to deploy Next.js through Vercel, but a standalone export option is available for other platforms. Docker is the industry standard for developing, testing, and shipping production software. It's more lightweight than a virtual machine and portable across cloud vendors like AWS, Digital Ocean, Azure, Vercel, Netlify, and much more.

Step 1: Preparation

Add the following snippet to your next.config.js file to enable standalone output for Docker.

// next.config.js
module.exports = {
  // ... rest of the configuration.
  output: "standalone",
};

Test your application as it would be in production using next build and running node server.js in .next/standalone/. This way we can catch any errors before moving our code into a production environment.

Install Docker on your development system.

Step 2: Adding the Dockerfile

Create a Dockerfile file at the root of your Next.js application and copy the following code.

Note that if you're using Windows, pnpm won't work properly, because Docker will try to use symlinks in your node_modules folder, so I recommend using Yarn or NPM.

FROM node:18-alpine AS base

# Install dependencies only when needed
FROM base AS deps
# Check https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/tree/b4117f9333da4138b03a546ec926ef50a31506c3#nodealpine to understand why libc6-compat might be needed.
RUN apk add --no-cache libc6-compat
WORKDIR /app

# Install dependencies based on the preferred package manager
COPY package.json yarn.lock* package-lock.json* pnpm-lock.yaml* ./
RUN \
  if [ -f yarn.lock ]; then yarn --frozen-lockfile; \
  elif [ -f package-lock.json ]; then npm ci; \
  elif [ -f pnpm-lock.yaml ]; then corepack enable pnpm && pnpm i --frozen-lockfile; \
  else echo "Lockfile not found." && exit 1; \
  fi


# Rebuild the source code only when needed
FROM base AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=deps /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY . .

# Next.js collects completely anonymous telemetry data about general usage.
# Learn more here: https://nextjs.org/telemetry
# Uncomment the following line in case you want to disable telemetry during the build.
# ENV NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED 1

RUN \
  if [ -f yarn.lock ]; then yarn run build; \
  elif [ -f package-lock.json ]; then npm run build; \
  elif [ -f pnpm-lock.yaml ]; then corepack enable pnpm && pnpm run build; \
  else echo "Lockfile not found." && exit 1; \
  fi

# Production image, copy all the files and run next
FROM base AS runner
WORKDIR /app

ENV NODE_ENV production
# Uncomment the following line in case you want to disable telemetry during runtime.
# ENV NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED 1

RUN addgroup --system --gid 1001 nodejs
RUN adduser --system --uid 1001 nextjs

COPY --from=builder /app/public ./public

# Set the correct permission for prerender cache
RUN mkdir .next
RUN chown nextjs:nodejs .next

# Automatically leverage output traces to reduce image size
# https://nextjs.org/docs/advanced-features/output-file-tracing
COPY --from=builder --chown=nextjs:nodejs /app/.next/standalone ./
COPY --from=builder --chown=nextjs:nodejs /app/.next/static ./.next/static

USER nextjs

EXPOSE 3000

ENV PORT 3000
# set hostname to localhost
ENV HOSTNAME "0.0.0.0"

# server.js is created by next build from the standalone output
# https://nextjs.org/docs/pages/api-reference/next-config-js/output
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

This Dockerfile script will run several stages and cache them appropriately to reduce image build times. FROM base AS deps install your dependencies using whichever package manager's lockfile you've used during development, FROM base AS builder copies your node_modules and builds the application, FROM base as runner will execute on the end server and run your app. You can find an example project here.

Step 3: Building and Testing the Docker Image

Now run docker build -t {image-name} . and don't forget the .!

Before you deploy, it's important to test your docker image with the correct environment variables. Run docker run -p 3000:3000 {image-name} to test your application at localhost:3000. If you want to test on a different port, use docker run -p {port}:3000 {image-name}.

If you're deploying to Digital Ocean, your image name will look like registry.digitalocean.com/your-registry/name. See their docker registry documentation for more details.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to comment them!