Deployment

Payblocks is optimized for deployment on Vercel, but can be deployed to other platforms with some additional configuration.

Vercel Deployment (Recommended)

Prerequisites

A Vercel account
Your project pushed to a Git repository (GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket)

Steps

Connect your repository to Vercel:
- Go to Vercel
- Click “New Project”
- Import your repository
- Select the Payblocks repository
Configure environment variables:
- Open .env file and make sure all default secret values are replaced with some random secrets from your side
- Copy all variables from your .env file
- Add them to your Vercel project settings
- If you have used a local MongoDB for development. Update your MONGODB_URI with a hosted MongoDB such as Atlas MongoDB Cloud. We recommend a seperate DB between dev/preview and production
- Update PAYLOAD_PUBLIC_SERVER_URL and NEXT_PUBLIC_SERVER_URL to match your production domain. Set these env variables to be only available for production environment. For preview environments we will fallback to VERCEL_URL which is set automatically.
Deploy:
- Click “Deploy”
- Vercel will automatically build and deploy your project
- Your site will be live at a Vercel-provided URL

Vercel Blob Storage

Payblocks uses Vercel Blob Storage by default for media uploads. Make sure to:

Enable Vercel Blob in your project settings
Add the BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN to your environment variables

As soon as the BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN is set, payload will switch from storing medias in local files (/public/media/...) to store them in Vercel Blob Storage. If you already uploaded some medias in payload admin UI before adding blob storage, you need to manually upload them via the vercel blob storage dashboard. Therefore open your /public/media folder and drag-and-drop them into the Vercel Blob Storage Browser area.

Alternative Deployments

For deployments to other platforms, you’ll need to modify the storage adapter.

Required Changes

Storage Adapter: Replace the Vercel Blob storage adapter in src/config/plugins/upload.ts:

import { s3Adapter } from '@payloadcms/plugin-cloud-storage/s3'

const storageAdapter = s3Adapter({
  config: {
    credentials: {
      accessKeyId: process.env.S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
      secretAccessKey: process.env.S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
    },
    region: process.env.S3_REGION,
    bucket: process.env.S3_BUCKET,
  },
})

Environment Variables: Update your environment variables according to your chosen storage solution.

Platform-Specific Guidelines

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Create an Elastic Beanstalk environment
Configure environment variables
Set up S3 for file storage
Deploy using the AWS CLI or console

Digital Ocean App Platform

Create a new app from your repository
Configure environment variables
Set up Spaces for file storage
Deploy directly from your repository

Self-Hosted

Set up a Node.js environment
Configure your web server (nginx recommended)
Set up PM2 or similar process manager
Configure environment variables
Set up local or cloud storage solution

Production Considerations

Database:
- Use a production MongoDB instance
- Configure proper authentication
- Set up database backups
Environment:
- Use production-grade environment variables
- Configure proper security headers
- Set up SSL/TLS
Monitoring:
- Set up error tracking (e.g., Sentry)
- Configure performance monitoring
- Set up uptime monitoring
Backups:
- Regular database backups
- Media files backup strategy
- Environment configuration backup