DigitalOcean App Platform

DigitalOcean App Platform is a PaaS that detects your Dockerfile, builds it, and deploys with managed HTTPS, scaling, and monitoring.

Quick deploy via dashboard

Go to cloud.digitalocean.com/apps → Create App
Connect your GitHub or GitLab repo
DigitalOcean detects the Dockerfile and builds automatically
Set the HTTP port to 3000
Add environment variables (RUST_LOG=info, DATABASE_URL, etc.)
Choose a plan (Basic $5/mo or Pro $12/mo)
Deploy

Deploy via doctl

# Install doctl
brew install doctl  # or snap install doctl
 
# Authenticate
doctl auth init
 
# Create the app
doctl apps create --spec .do/app.yaml

App spec (`.do/app.yaml`)

name: my-ultimo-app
region: nyc
 
services:
  - name: api
    dockerfile_path: Dockerfile
    http_port: 3000
    instance_count: 1
    instance_size_slug: apps-s-1vcpu-0.5gb
    routes:
      - path: /
    envs:
      - key: PORT
        value: "3000"
      - key: RUST_LOG
        value: "info"
      - key: DATABASE_URL
        type: SECRET
        value: "postgres://..."
    health_check:
      http_path: /health
      initial_delay_seconds: 5
      period_seconds: 10
    source_dir: /
    github:
      repo: your-org/your-repo
      branch: main
      deploy_on_push: true
 
databases:
  - name: db
    engine: PG
    version: "16"
    size: db-s-dev-database
    production: false

Environment variables

# Set via CLI
doctl apps update <app-id> --spec .do/app.yaml
 
# Or in the dashboard: Settings → App-Level Environment Variables

For secrets, set type: SECRET in the spec — values are encrypted and hidden.

Database

Managed PostgreSQL

Add a databases block to your app spec (shown above). App Platform automatically injects ${db.DATABASE_URL} into your service environment.

Reference it in the service envs:

envs:
  - key: DATABASE_URL
    value: "${db.DATABASE_URL}"

External databases

Use the connection string directly as a SECRET env var.

Custom domain

Settings → Domains → Add Domain
Enter your domain (e.g. api.example.com)
Add the CNAME record shown
TLS is provisioned automatically

Scaling

# In app.yaml
services:
  - name: api
    instance_count: 3
    instance_size_slug: apps-s-2vcpu-4gb
    autoscaling:
      min_instance_count: 1
      max_instance_count: 5
      metrics:
        cpu:
          percent: 70

CI/CD

App Platform deploys on every push to the configured branch by default. To trigger manually:

doctl apps create-deployment <app-id>

GitHub Actions (alternative)

name: Deploy to DigitalOcean
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
 
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: digitalocean/app_action@v2
        with:
          app_name: my-ultimo-app
          token: ${{ secrets.DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN }}

Cost

Plan	Specs	Monthly
Basic	1 vCPU, 512 MB	$5
Basic	1 vCPU, 1 GB	$10
Pro	1 vCPU, 1 GB, autoscaling	$12
Pro	2 vCPU, 4 GB	$25

Managed PostgreSQL dev database: $7/month.