Have you heard of Create React App? It’s a tool for bootstrapping React apps. Better than a boilerplate where you have to manage the dependencies yourself, Create React App (a.k.a. CRA) contains all the Webpack magic and build scripts. It’s one command to generate a project, and then all you need to do to create a production-ready JS bundle is run npm run build.
Now, how can you get that app live on the internet?
- Set up a VPS, configure nginx, and
scpup the files. (“30 minutes”, but probably like 4 hours) - Configure an Amazon S3 bucket and then set it up correctly to serve a single-page app? (10-30 minutes)
- Just use Surge. (27 seconds)
Deploying an app to Surge is insanely easy, and it’s even free (including a custom domain and SSL).
Here’s a 27-second video:
Here are the steps:
(This assumes you already have an app created with Create React App)
- Install Surge:
npm install -g surge- Run the Create React App build:
cd your-react-project
npm run build- Switch into the
builddirectory:
cd build- Run Surge, and follow the prompts. All it needs is an email and a password, and you can optionally specify a different domain name.
surge- Go to the URL it prints out. For instance, http://lively-payment.surge.sh/.
Happy deploying!