The problem
Managed platforms make Next.js deployment effortless, and then bill you for it, while locking you into their runtime. Doing it yourself on a VPS means wiring up SSL, reverse proxies, zero-downtime releases, and caching by hand. ExodusDeploy closes that gap.
What I built
A single CLI that turns a plain VPS into a production-grade Next.js host.
- Zero-config deploys. Point it at your server and your repo; it builds, ships, and serves, no YAML to hand-write.
- Blue/green releases. New versions go live behind the scenes and only take traffic once healthy. A bad deploy never takes the site down.
- Instant rollbacks. The previous release stays warm, so reverting is one command and a few seconds.
- SSL and caching included. Automatic Let's Encrypt certificates and a tuned caching layer, set up for you.
Technical highlights
Blue/green on a single box came down to atomic symlink swaps behind Nginx plus real health checks before cutover, the same pattern the platforms use, packaged so you don't have to assemble it. Certificates renew themselves; the cache invalidates on deploy.
The result
Platform-grade deployment ergonomics on infrastructure you own and pay for once, no vendor lock-in, no per-seat surprises.