Deployment

Deploy The Care Nexus to Vercel (frontend) and Render (backend) for production.

Updated June 2026 7 min read

The Care Nexus production deployment uses a split-hosting model: the Next.js frontend deploys to Vercel's global edge network for fast international delivery, and the Express.js backend deploys to Render or Railway for persistent Node.js hosting with always-on WebSocket support. MongoDB Atlas and Upstash Redis are fully managed cloud services that require no server configuration.

Frontend — Vercel

Setup

Connect your GitHub repository to Vercel
Set the root directory to client/
Framework preset: Next.js (auto-detected)
Add production environment variables in Vercel dashboard

Required Environment Variables (Vercel)

Vercel Environment Variables

NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=https://your-api.onrender.com/api
NEXT_PUBLIC_SOCKET_URL=https://your-api.onrender.com
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_production_client_id
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your_production_client_secret
NEXTAUTH_URL=https://your-app.vercel.app
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your_production_nextauth_secret

Backend — Render

Setup

Create a new Web Service on Render
Connect your GitHub repository
Root directory: api/
Build command: npm install
Start command: node index.js
Add all production environment variables

Required Environment Variables (Render)

Render Environment Variables

NODE_ENV=production
PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://...
FRONTEND_URL=https://your-app.vercel.app
# ... all other api/.env variables

Post-Deployment Checklist

Check	How to Verify
Frontend loads	Open https://your-app.vercel.app — landing page renders
Backend health	GET https://your-api.onrender.com/api/health → { status: 'ok' }
Auth works	Register → login → session persists
Socket.IO works	Chat message appears instantly
Google OAuth	Login redirects correctly and returns
File upload	Cloudinary image URL appears
AI features	Gemini responds in chat

CORS update required

After deploying, update backend CORS to allow only your production frontend domain and redeploy the API server.