---
title: "Deploying on Heroku"
---

# Deploying on Heroku

This is a guide for deploying a Medusa project on Heroku. Heroku is a PaaS (Platform as a Service) that allows you to easily deploy your applications in the cloud.

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:::note

We assume, that you are currently running a local instance of Medusa. If not, check out our [Quickstart](https://docs.medusajs.com/quickstart/quick-start) or use `npx create-medusa-app` to set up your application in a matter of minutes. For the latter, see [this guide](https://docs.medusajs.com/how-to/create-medusa-app) for a small walkthrough.

:::

### 1. Install the Heroku CLI

Install Heroku on your machine:

**Ubuntu**

```bash
sudo snap install --classic heroku
```

**MacOS**

```bash
brew tap heroku/brew && brew install heroku
```

**Windows**

Download the appropriate installer for your Windows installation:

[64-bit installer](https://cli-assets.heroku.com/heroku-x64.exe)
[32-bit installer](https://cli-assets.heroku.com/heroku-x86.exe)

### 2. Login to Heroku from your CLI

Connect to your Heroku account from your terminal:

```bash
heroku login
```

:::note

Follow the instructions on your terminal

:::

### 3. Create an app on Heroku

In your **Medusa project directory**, run the following commands to create an app on Heroku and add it as a remote origin.

```bash
heroku create medusa-test-app
heroku git:remote -a medusa-test-app
```

### 4. Install Postgresql and Redis on Heroku

Medusa requires a Postgres database and a Redis instance to work. These are added through the Heroku CLI using the following commands.

:::tip

In this example below, we initialize the resources on free plans. This is not a valid configuration for a production environment.

:::

#### Postgresql

Add a Postgres add-on to your Heroku app

```bash
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev
```

You can find more informations, plans and pricing about Heroku Postgres [here](https://elements.heroku.com/addons/heroku-postgresql).

#### Redis To Go

Add a Redis instance to your Heroku app

:::note

The add-on `redistogo:nano` is free, but Heroku requires you to add a payment method to proceed.

:::

```bash
heroku addons:create redistogo:nano
```

You can find more informations, plans and pricing about Redis To Go [here](https://elements.heroku.com/addons/redistogo).

### 5. Configure environment variables on Heroku

Medusa requires a set of environment variables. From you project repository, run the following commands:.

```bash
heroku config:set NODE_ENV=production
heroku config:set JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret
heroku config:set COOKIE_SECRET=your-super-secret-pt2
heroku config:set NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION=false
```
:::tip

Make sure to use actual secrets in a production environment.

:::

Additionally, we need to set the buildpack to Node.js

```bash
heroku buildpacks:set heroku/nodejs
```

#### Configure the Redis URL

The library we use for connecting to Redis, does not allow usernames in the connection string. Therefore, we need to perform the following commands to remove it.
Get the current Redis URL:

```bash
heroku config:get REDISTOGO_URL
```

You should get something like:

```bash
redis://redistogo:some_password_123@some.redistogo.com:9660/
```

Remove the username from the Redis URL:

```bash
redis://r̶e̶d̶i̶s̶t̶o̶g̶o̶:some_password_123@sole.redistogo.com:9660/
```

Set the new environment variable `REDIS_URL`

```bash
heroku config:set REDIS_URL=redis://:some_password_123@sole.redistogo.com:9660/
```

### 6. Configure Medusa

Before jumping into the deployment, we need to configure Medusa.

#### `medusa-config.js`

Update `module.exports` to include the following:

```js
module.exports = {
  projectConfig: {
    redis_url: REDIS_URL,
    database_url: DATABASE_URL,
    database_type: "postgres",
    store_cors: STORE_CORS,
    admin_cors: ADMIN_CORS,
    database_extra:
      process.env.NODE_ENV !== "development"
        ? { ssl: { rejectUnauthorized: false } }
        : {},
  },
  plugins,
};
```

#### `package.json`

Update `scripts` to include the following:

```json
...
"scripts": {
    "serve": "medusa start",
    "start": "medusa develop",
    "heroku-postbuild": "medusa migrations run",
    "prepare": "npm run build",
    "build": "babel src -d dist --extensions \".ts,.js\""
},
...
```

### 6. Launch your Medusa app

Finally, we need to commit and push our changes to Heroku:

```bash
git add .
git commit -m "Deploy Medusa App on Heroku"
git push heroku HEAD:master
```

### 7. Inspect your build logs

You can explore your Heroku app build logs using the following command in your project directory.

```bash
heroku logs -n 500000 --remote heroku --tail
```

### 8. Create a user (optional)

As an optional extra step, we can create a user for you to use when your admin system is up and running.

```bash
heroku run -a medusa-test-app -- medusa user -e "some-user@test.com" -p "SuperSecret1234"
```

### What's next?

You now have a production ready application running on Heroku. This can be scaled and configured to fit your business needs.

Furthermore, you can deploy a Medusa Admin for your application, such that you can start managing your store from an interface.

- [Deploy Admin on Netlify](https://docs.medusajs.com/how-to/deploying-admin-on-netlify)
- Deploy Admin on Gatsby Cloud (Coming soon)
