Requirements — VPS, not shared hosting

Read this before you buy anything. Getting the server type right is the single biggest cause of a smooth deployment — or a failed one.

You need a VPS, not shared hosting

Nudova runs as Docker containers: the Django API, PostgreSQL, the storefront, the staff admin app, and a Caddy reverse proxy. That requires a small Linux virtual server you control, with root SSH access.

This will not run on shared / cPanel hosting

If a host’s plan page talks about cPanel, mailboxes, and “PHP hosting” instead of RAM, vCPU, and SSH access, it’s the wrong product — Nudova cannot run there. You want a plan that says VPS or Cloud Server and gives you a root login. When in doubt: can you ssh root@your-server and run docker? If yes, you’re good.

What “a VPS you control” means in practice:

• Root SSH access — you can log in and install software.
• A public IP and ports 80 + 443 open — so customers can reach your shop and Caddy can obtain HTTPS certificates.
• A domain you control — to point at the server.
• Docker-capable Linux — Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is what we test on; any modern Docker-capable distro works.

What you need installed

The list is deliberately short — Nudova runs as containers, so the box needs almost nothing on it:

Tool	Needed?	Notes
Docker + Docker Compose	Yes	The whole product runs as containers. One command installs both: curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh. The runbooks do this for you.
A domain + DNS access	Yes	Three records (@, api, admin) point at the box; certificates are issued automatically.
git or your purchase zip	Yes	To get the code onto the box — git clone or upload and unzip.
Node.js	No	You do not install Node on the server. The storefront and admin are prebuilt Next.js images that run inside Docker — Node lives in the containers, not on your VPS. (Only the split topology, where you host the two front ends on a separate platform, involves Node — and that platform provides it.)

No language runtimes on the box

You don’t install Python, Node, PostgreSQL, or a web server on the VPS — Docker brings all of it. If a guide ever tells you to apt install nodejs or set up nginx by hand for Nudova, you’re reading the wrong instructions.

The specs (measured, not marketing)

Minimum — lite profile

The whole product on the smallest supported box. No Redis, no Celery; background email/SMS run inline with strict timeouts, and scheduled jobs run on a cron loop.

	Minimum
RAM	2 GB (+ 1–2 GB swap — required, not optional)
CPU	1–2 vCPU
Disk	20 GB+ SSD
OS	Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (any Docker-capable Linux)
Network	ports 80 + 443 reachable, a domain you control
Example box	DigitalOcean 2 GB droplet (~$12/mo)

Swap is mandatory at 2 GB

The shipped hard memory limits total 1952 MiB of 2048 — tight by design. Measured usage peaks far lower (~1 GB free), but the swap you add during setup is a required safety net so a one-off spike degrades gently instead of killing a container. The runbooks add it for you.

Recommended — full profile

Adds Redis + Celery workers + websockets for higher volume and real-time admin feeds. This is the flagship path, and it’s still cheap.

	Recommended
RAM	8 GB
CPU	2 vCPU
Disk	50–100 GB NVMe
OS	Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Network	ports 80 + 443 reachable, a domain you control
Example box	Hostinger KVM 2 — 2 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB NVMe (~$7–9/mo)

Room to grow

At 8 GB the full profile is comfortable — hard limits total ~5.6 GB of 8, with measured peaks well below. Start here if you expect real traffic or want the live admin feeds; you won’t think about resources again.

Lite or full — the honest framing

You don’t choose a different product; you choose a footprint. It’s the same image and the same code either way — one environment flag (INFRA_PROFILE) decides the behaviour.

Start lite

Most single-tenant shops at low-to-medium volume. The whole product on a 2 GB box, no message broker to operate. It’s the floor — and it’s a real, measured floor.

Move to full later

When you outgrow the small box — sustained traffic, real-time needs — moving lite → full is a one-flag change on the same data and image. You don’t re-platform; you resize.

Full comparison and how switching works → Lite vs full

What you’ll have at the end

Three HTTPS hosts with real Let’s Encrypt certificates, issued automatically:

• https://your-domain/ — the storefront your customers see
• https://admin.your-domain/ — the staff admin app
• https://api.your-domain/ — the API (its /admin/ is the deep-ops console)

Plus nightly database backups with 7-day rotation, and every container running under a hard memory limit so the box stays predictable.

Note

Prefer real headroom at 2 GB? There’s a split topology — API + database on the small box, the two Next.js apps on a free/cheap frontend host — documented in the DigitalOcean runbook. Otherwise, the all-in-one path is the default and it’s what most people run.

Next

Head to the Quickstart for the fast path, or straight to a step-by-step runbook for your host.