Creator

Deploying to Vercel

Push your code to a GitHub repository
Go to vercel.com and import the repository
Add all required environment variables (see below)
Deploy

The build command is npm run build and the framework is automatically detected as Next.js.

Required environment variables

Core (always required)

NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL="https://yourdomain.com"
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://..."  # Use transaction pooler URL
AUTH_SECRET="your-random-secret"
AUTH_URL="https://yourdomain.com"

Email (pick one)

Resend:

NEXT_PUBLIC_EMAIL_SERVICE="resend"
NEXT_RESEND_API_KEY="re_..."
NEXT_RESEND_FROM_EMAIL="noreply@yourdomain.com"

Mailgun:

NEXT_PUBLIC_EMAIL_SERVICE="mailgun"
NEXT_MAILGUN_API_KEY=""
NEXT_MAILGUN_DOMAIN="mg.yourdomain.com"
NEXT_MAILGUN_FROM_EMAIL="noreply@yourdomain.com"

Payment (pick one)

Stripe:

NEXT_PUBLIC_PAYMENT_GATEWAY="stripe"
NEXT_PUBLIC_STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY="pk_live_..."
NEXT_STRIPE_SECRET_KEY="sk_live_..."
NEXT_STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET="whsec_..."

Lemon Squeezy:

NEXT_PUBLIC_PAYMENT_GATEWAY="lemonsqueezy"
LEMONSQUEEZY_API_KEY=""
LEMONSQUEEZY_STORE_ID=""
LEMONSQUEEZY_WEBHOOK_SECRET=""

Storage (pick one, optional)

Cloudflare R2:

NEXT_PUBLIC_STORAGE_SERVICE="r2"
R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID=""
R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=""
R2_ENDPOINT=""
R2_BUCKET=""
R2_PUBLIC_URL=""

Supabase Storage:

NEXT_PUBLIC_STORAGE_SERVICE="supabase"
NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=""
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=""
SUPABASE_STORAGE_BUCKET=""

OAuth (optional)

NEXT_PUBLIC_AUTH_GOOGLE="true"
AUTH_GOOGLE_ID=""
AUTH_GOOGLE_SECRET=""

NEXT_PUBLIC_AUTH_GITHUB="true"
AUTH_GITHUB_ID=""
AUTH_GITHUB_SECRET=""

Monitoring (optional)

NEXT_PUBLIC_SENTRY_DSN=""
SENTRY_DSN=""
SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN=""
SENTRY_ORG=""
SENTRY_PROJECT=""

Rate limiting (optional)

UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL=""
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN=""

Post-deployment checklist

Push schema — Run npm run db:generate then npm run db:push against your production database
Seed admin user — Run npm run db:seed against the production database
Set up webhooks — Configure Stripe or Lemon Squeezy webhook URLs to point to your production domain
Update OAuth redirect URIs — Add your production domain to Google and GitHub OAuth app settings
Verify email sending — Switch from test/sandbox email credentials to production ones
Update NEXT_RESEND_FROM_EMAIL — Change from onboarding@resend.dev to your verified domain email
Test the full flow — Register, log in, make a test payment, verify emails are sent

Database hosting

Creator works with any PostgreSQL provider. Popular options:

Neon — Serverless PostgreSQL with generous free tier
Supabase — Managed PostgreSQL with additional features
Railway — Simple managed PostgreSQL
Vercel Postgres — Integrated with Vercel deployments

Use the transaction pooler connection string for DATABASE_URL. The database client is already configured with prepare: false for compatibility.

Deployment