Deployment
The Unsexy Stack deploys to a persistent server, not a serverless platform. Python belongs on a box where it can hold connection pools and avoid cold-starts. Every tier ships the configs to run it on any $5/month VPS.
What the Professional tier ships
Section titled “What the Professional tier ships”- systemd units for the FastAPI backend and the Next.js frontend.
- nginx reverse-proxy configuration.
- certbot SSL setup.
- Environment handling and a documented deploy walkthrough (
START_HERE.md).
No Vercel, no Railway required — though Railway and Render run it too if you prefer a managed platform.
What the Agency tier adds
Section titled “What the Agency tier adds”- Docker — multi-stage Dockerfiles for backend and frontend, plus
docker-composefor local and production. - CI/CD — GitHub Actions workflows for testing, building, and deployment.
(Docker and CI/CD are Agency-tier only. The Professional tier deploys to a VPS via systemd + nginx.)
The one-command dev loop
Section titled “The one-command dev loop”make setup # installs everythingmake dev # runs FastAPI + Next.js together, OpenAPI docs at localhost:8000/docsOne command brings the whole stack up locally — no two-terminal dance, no guessing which service starts first.