Deployment

Deployment

Because Saint CMS achieves its incredible speed by using a local SQLite database (saint_v3.db), you cannot deploy it to serverless platforms like Vercel or Render’s Free Tier.

Platforms with ephemeral filesystems will permanently delete your database file every time the server sleeps or restarts. To safely deploy Saint, you must use a host that supports Persistent Volumes.

Recommended Platforms

1. Railway (Easiest DX)

The closest to the “Vercel experience” for backend apps. It costs pennies per month for lightweight Go binaries.

  • How-to: Deploy your Dockerfile and go to your Railway service Settings -> Volumes. Create a new volume and mount it to /app so your database is saved permanently.

2. Microsoft Azure (Enterprise Standard)

For enterprise scalability, you can easily host Saint on Azure using containers.

  • How-to: Deploy your Docker container using Azure App Service or Azure Container Instances (ACI). You must create an Azure File Share in your storage account and mount it to your container’s /app directory. This ensures your SQLite file persists across container restarts and updates.

3. Northflank (Best Free Tier)

Currently one of the only major PaaS providers that offers a genuinely free tier with a persistent volume.

  • How-to: Create a new service on their free tier, deploy via Docker, and attach a persistent volume to the /app path.

4. A standard VPS (DigitalOcean / Hetzner)

The production standard for maximum control.

  • How-to: Drop your compiled Linux binary directly onto a $5/month Linux server, run it via systemd or tmux, and let it stay alive forever.

The Universal Dockerfile

To deploy to Railway, Azure, or Northflank, create a Dockerfile in the root of your project:

# Use a minimal lightweight Linux image
FROM debian:bullseye-slim
 
WORKDIR /app
 
# Install curl and ca-certificates
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl ca-certificates && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
# Copy your Next.js dashboard into the container
COPY ./out ./out
 
# Download the latest Linux engine from your GitHub Releases
RUN curl -L -o saint-engine [https://github.com/Agbara286/saint/releases/latest/download/saint-linux-amd64](https://github.com/Agbara286/saint/releases/latest/download/saint-linux-amd64)
RUN chmod +x saint-engine
 
# Expose the port
EXPOSE 3333
 
# Start the engine
CMD ["./saint-engine"]
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