Quickstart

From a fresh VPS to your shop, staff app, and API live over HTTPS — in about 30 minutes, most of it waiting for installs. This is the condensed path; for a host-specific, click-by-click version use a full runbook.

Note

First, make sure you have the right server. Nudova needs a VPS with root SSH, not shared/cPanel hosting — see Requirements. You’ll also need a domain and the ability to add three DNS records.

1. Get a VPS and point your domain at it.

   Create an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS server (Hostinger KVM 2 for the full profile, DigitalOcean 2 GB for the lite floor), and note its IP. Then add three A records at your DNS provider, all pointing at that IP:

   Type	Name	Serves
   A	@ (or a shop subdomain)	storefront
   A	api	the API
   A	admin	staff admin app

   Do this before first boot so HTTPS certificates can be issued automatically. Check with ping your-domain.com and ping api.your-domain.com.

2. Install Docker.

   ssh root@YOUR_VPS_IP
   apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade
   curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
   docker --version && docker compose version

3. Get the code.

   apt-get -y install git
   git clone YOUR_REPO_URL /srv/app
   cd /srv/app

   (Or upload your purchase zip and unzip it into /srv/app.)

4. Configure .env.

   cp .env.example .env
   nano .env

   Change at least these four:

   Variable	Set it to
   DJANGO_SECRET_KEY	a fresh key — docker run --rm python:3.13-slim python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(64))"
   DOMAIN	your-domain.com — the shop domain; the API URL (api.your-domain.com), the admin. host, allowed hosts, CORS and CSRF all derive from it — you don’t set them separately
   DB_PASSWORD	a strong database password
   DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME / _EMAIL / _PASSWORD	your admin login (created on first boot)

   Leave DJANGO_ENV=production and DJANGO_DEBUG=False as they are.

   Optional now, easy later (all runtime — no rebuild):

   Variable	For
   APP_NAME, BRAND_ACCENT, BRAND_LOGO_URL	your brand name, accent colour and logo (or set these in the tenant config after boot)
   payment_methods (tenant config), COURIER_DEFAULT_PROVIDER, SMS_DEFAULT_PROVIDER + their credentials	payments, couriers and SMS. Credentials go in the encrypted Integrations store, never .env. See Payment providers
   DJANGO_EMAIL_*	a real SMTP host for transactional email

   You can launch without these and add them later — brand and providers are best set in the tenant config after first boot. Full reference: Store settings & branding.

5. Launch.

   Lite (2 GB — the floor)

   docker compose up -d

   Keep INFRA_PROFILE=lite (the default). That’s the whole point of the small box.

   Full (8 GB — flagship)

   docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.full.yml up -d

   Adds Redis + Celery + websockets on top of lite.

   First run builds the API image and pulls the prebuilt frontends — expect 5–10 minutes. Boot is fully automatic: wait-for-db → migrate → collectstatic → create superuser → serve. No manual steps.

   docker compose ps           # wait for web "(healthy)"
   docker compose logs -f web  # watch it come up; Ctrl+C to stop

6. Verify.

   curl -s https://api.your-domain.com/health/       # → "status": "success"
   curl -s https://your-domain.com/api/config        # storefront runtime config
   curl -s https://admin.your-domain.com/api/config  # admin runtime config

   Then open your shop at https://your-domain.com, the staff app at https://admin.your-domain.com, and log into the deep-ops console at https://api.your-domain.com/admin/ with your superuser credentials.

You're live

That’s a full storefront, staff admin, and API on HTTPS, backing up nightly — on one box you own. Now do the two things every deployment needs.

Right after you’re live

1. Harden the box — firewall, SSH keys, automatic security updates. Ten minutes; do it the same day.

2. Skim upgrades & backups — how updates roll out, and how to restore the nightly backup. Practice a restore once — a backup you’ve never restored is a hope, not a backup.

Optional: seed a demo catalog to click around

docker compose exec web python manage.py seed_client --profile belltex --demo

This loads the BellTex demo store so you can explore the storefront and admin with real-looking products before you add your own.

If something doesn’t work

The most common snags — certificate warnings, connection refused, DisallowedHost — and their fixes are in the Hostinger troubleshooting table, which applies to any host.