heroku-buildpack-nodejs VS Dokku

No default language could be detected for this app. HINT: This occurs when Heroku cannot detect the buildpack to use for this application automatically. See https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/buildpacks

Choose a buildpack explicitly https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/buildpacks

Another alternative that comes to my mind it is to use the node.js buildpack and serve the static files using serve or similar.

Support for Buildpacks from Heroku

You use a buildpack.

Counting objects: 36, done.Delta compression using up to 4 threads.Compressing objects: 100% (33/33), done.Writing objects: 100% (36/36), 19.22 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done.Total 36 (delta 3), reused 0 (delta 0)remote: Compressing source files... done.remote: Building source:remote: remote: -----> Failed to detect set buildpack https://codon-buildpacks.s3.amazonaws.com/buildpacks/heroku/python.tgzremote: More info: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/buildpacks#detection-failureremote: remote: ! Push failedremote: Verifying deploy....remote: remote: ! Push rejected to dry-waters-63931.remote: To https://git.heroku.com/dry-waters-63931.git ! [remote rejected] master -> master (pre-receive hook declined)error: failed to push some refs to 'https://git.heroku.com/dry-waters-63931.git' My root directory:

Now that your app is registered to Heroku, we have to set up a buildpack.

-----> Building on the Heroku-20 stack -----> Using buildpack: https://github.com/heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs -----> Node.js app detected -----> Creating runtime environment NPM_CONFIG_LOGLEVEL=error NODE_VERBOSE=false NODE_ENV=production NODE_MODULES_CACHE=true -----> Installing binaries engines.node (package.json): unspecified engines.npm (package.json): unspecified (use default) Resolving node version 16.x... Downloading and installing node 16.14.0... Using default npm version: 8.3.1 -----> Installing dependencies Installing node modules npm ERR! code 1 npm ERR! path /tmp/build_1816a6d9/node_modules/argon2 npm ERR! command failed npm ERR! command sh -c node-gyp rebuild npm ERR! gyp info it worked if it ends with ok npm ERR! gyp info using [email protected] npm ERR! gyp info using [email protected] | linux | x64 npm ERR! gyp info find Python using Python version 3.8.10 found at "/usr/bin/python3" npm ERR! gyp http GET https://nodejs.org/download/release/v16.14.0/node-v16.14.0-headers.tar.gz npm ERR! gyp http 200 https://nodejs.org/download/release/v16.14.0/node-v16.14.0-headers.tar.gz npm ERR! gyp http GET https://nodejs.org/download/release/v16.14.0/SHASUMS256.txt npm ERR! gyp http 200 https://nodejs.org/download/release/v16.14.0/SHASUMS256.txt npm ERR! gyp info spawn /usr/bin/python3 npm ERR! gyp info spawn args [ npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '/tmp/build_1816a6d9/.heroku/node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/gyp/gyp_main.py', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args 'binding.gyp', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-f', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args 'make', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-I', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '/tmp/build_1816a6d9/node_modules/argon2/build/config.gypi', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-I', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '/tmp/build_1816a6d9/.heroku/node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/addon.gypi', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-I', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '/app/.cache/node-gyp/16.14.0/include/node/common.gypi', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-Dlibrary=shared_library', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-Dvisibility=default', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-Dnode_root_dir=/app/.cache/node-gyp/16.14.0', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-Dnode_gyp_dir=/tmp/build_1816a6d9/.heroku/node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-Dnode_lib_file=/app/.cache/node-gyp/16.14.0/<(target_arch)/node.lib', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-Dmodule_root_dir=/tmp/build_1816a6d9/node_modules/argon2', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-Dnode_engine=v8', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '--depth=.', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '--no-parallel', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '--generator-output', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args 'build', npm ERR! gyp info spawn args '-Goutput_dir=.' npm ERR! gyp info spawn args ] npm ERR! gyp: Undefined variable module_name in binding.gyp while trying to load binding.gyp npm ERR! gyp ERR! configure error npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack Error: `gyp` failed with exit code: 1 npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.onCpExit (/tmp/build_1816a6d9/.heroku/node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:259:16) npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:520:28) npm ERR! gyp ERR! stack at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:291:12) npm ERR! gyp ERR! System Linux 4.4.0-1098-aws npm ERR! gyp ERR! command "/tmp/build_1816a6d9/.heroku/node/bin/node" "/tmp/build_1816a6d9/.heroku/node/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild" npm ERR! gyp ERR! cwd /tmp/build_1816a6d9/node_modules/argon2 npm ERR! gyp ERR! node -v v16.14.0 npm ERR! gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v8.4.1 npm ERR! gyp ERR! not ok npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: npm ERR! /tmp/npmcache.9omWv/_logs/2022-02-12T13_14_33_973Z-debug-0.log -----> Build failed We're sorry this build is failing! You can troubleshoot common issues here: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/troubleshooting-node-deploys Some possible problems: - Node version not specified in package.json https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/nodejs-support#specifying-a-node-js-version Love, Heroku ! Push rejected, failed to compile Node.js app. ! Push failed

My first instinct was to (cry) manually set the appropriate buildpack for a node.js server as mentioned by Heroku's Dev Center. However, Heroku states that...

Dokku is a popular, open-source, and self-hosted platform as a service (PaaS) that allows users to easily deploy and manage their applications, very similar to your own self-hosted Heroku. Under the hood, Dokku is powered by Docker, uses Heroku buildpacks by default, and has a number of official and community plugins.

Would be great to see a comparison to some better known alternatives like

- Dokku [0]

- CapRover [1]

[0] https://dokku.com/

[1] https://caprover.com/

If you want to dig into it anyways, Dokku is an interesting mention. They provide an Open Source PaaS that you can install on your server to simplify self hosting containers.

When I came across Coolify, I thought of giving it a try. I am aware of Dokku, but I never really tried it because it doesn't have a UI. I work primarily as a UI developer, so having a nice UI to work with is a plus for me.

I run all my projects on Dokku. It’s a sweet spot for me between a barebones VPS with Docker Compose and something a lot more complicated like k8s. Dokku comes with a bunch of solid plugins for databases that handle backups and such. Zero downtime deploys, TLS cert management, reverse proxies, all out of the box. It’s simple enough to understand in a weekend and has been quietly maintained for many years. The only downside is it’s meant mostly for single server deployments, but I’ve never needed another server so far.

https://dokku.com/

Yeah there are a bunch of selfhostable things:

Caprover (https://caprover.com/)

Dokku (https://github.com/dokku/dokku)

But people still choose Netlify and Vercel for ease of use I think.

Maybe we need something that's just Netlify. The closest I've seen to the "right" UX is Ness:

https://ness.sh

The modern iteration of these tools has taken the developer experience learnings from the Platform as a Service (PaaS) category, and will bring them to your own VM, giving you your own personal PaaS. Example of this include Dokku, Coolify, Caprover, Cloud66 and many more!

Based on the fact that your ideal is to have a similar experience to heroku than managing your own server setting up reverse proxies take a look at these options:

1) https://dokku.com - lets you turn your light sail instance basically into heroku

2) https://render.com

3) https://fly.io

4) If you have aws credits this is their heroku equivalent: https://aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk

above is not what I do but would be the options I would pursue if I understand your preference and requirement correctly.

All in all, I really recommend trying out Dokku if you are a developer interested in hosting your own projects. It makes it super easy to get everything you need to get up and running without having to worry about the specifics. And the price is impossible to beat!

The installation instructions are on the frontpage of our site. Thats basically all you need to do to install Dokku. As far as using it, we have a simplified tutorial here.