Guide
How to host a Node.js app cheaply
You've got a Node app — an Express or Fastify API, a server-rendered site, a websocket service — and it needs to run somewhere with a real URL. Configuring a VPS by hand or paying a managed platform's monthly minimum is more than a small app needs. Here's a cheaper, lower-effort way to host a Node.js app and keep it online.
You wrote an app, not a server
node index.js on your laptop is the easy part. Production means a process manager to keep it alive, a reverse proxy, TLS, and a box to secure and patch — none of which is your code. Sinkron runs your app as a container across several machines behind one HTTPS URL, with health checks and restarts handled, so there's no server for you to run.
Host it in four steps
1. Containerise it
A small Dockerfile starts from a Node base image, installs dependencies with npm ci, builds if needed, and runs a start command like node dist/index.js. Bind to 0.0.0.0 and the port your session exposes. If you already have an image, use it as-is; the quickstart walks through it.
2. Add a little funding
Top up by card or USDC — no subscription, no minimum, and what you don't use stays yours.
3. Deploy across the network
Point Sinkron at the image, pick a small CPU/RAM footprint and how many runners, and it comes up behind a single load-balanced HTTPS URL — no nginx, no certificates, no server to provision.
4. Pay only while it runs
Billing is per second. We email you before your balance runs low, and your app stops at zero so you never overspend. Stop it yourself any time and the cost drops to zero.
Stateless scales; stateful needs care
Because your app runs on several interchangeable machines, keep state outside the container: a hosted database for data, object storage (with your own S3 keys) for files, and a shared store for sessions rather than in-memory — otherwise a user's next request might hit a different machine. Long-lived websockets work fine; just design so any runner can handle any connection. Stateless Node services scale by simply adding runners.
What it costs
A small Node app has a tiny footprint, so it runs for pennies an hour and nothing when stopped — usually cheaper than a flat monthly VPS that bills around the clock. See how pricing works or compare it to a $5 VPS. The same flow hosts a Flask app, and the small always-on app guide covers the general pattern.
Put your Node.js app online
Free to sign up, billed by the second, no lock-in.