Deploy a website, you can.

It's 2025, and you cannot deploy a website. Sure you can write a mind boggling React app. But you have no idea how to get a dynamic website live. Not without some service that automates the process for you, whilst robbing you of the knowledge you need to do it yourself.

So I am going to take you through the steps required to get a dyanmic website live on a remote server. I am going to use Hetzner cloud to host a LAMP stack website.

LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. It's the ultimate stack for building websites. Everything else is just pretentious fluff.

After reading through this post you will be enlightened. You will reject complexity and take back control. You don't need Vercel, Netlify, Heroku, etc… You have the ability to learn and do all that yourself. These companies have gaslit you into thinking that you CANNOT. But I assure you, you CAN.

Linux

Apache

man apt

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install apache2 apache2-dev

man systemctl

sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl status apache2

SSL

Earlier you installed Ubuntu 24.4 LTS, this comes with openssl installed. This means you do not have to fetch it via apt. If, for some reason it's not present, install it with sudo apt install openssl.

Now let's enable the ssl module and restart apache.

sudo a2enmod ssl
sudo systemctl restart apache2

With the ssl module enabled, the next step is to generate a self signed ssl cert. To do this run the command below. It will create the /etc/apache2/ssl folder where the generated .key and .crt files will be stored. Then run openssl specifying those folders. You will be prompted to answer some questions. Use your common sense here.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apache2/ssl
sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt

MySQL

PHP

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://php.new/install/linux/8.3)"

apachectl -M | grep php

sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php8.3
sudo a2enmod php8.3

Isn't php-fpm faster and more flexible? Yes, and it allows you to serve sites with different php versions. But untill our needs actually surpass php_mod, it's perfectly acceptable to use. You are right, chances are our site will never have high traffic. If it did you'd never cross the road.

cd /var/www/html
sudo chown $(whoami) -R .
touch info.php

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Enlightenment

That was a lot. But you got through it. You now have a website that is live. You did all the steps yourself. You gained knowledge, and you can do it again. You are now empowered to deploy more sites, add new features, iterate, and improve. I'm proud of you.

Now I encourage you to continue to reject complexity. Forget Vercel, forget React. Just render some HTML and send it across the internet. Because that is freedom. Using some big tech bro framework or platform robs you of the skills you need to succeed. Have confidence, do it yourself. I assure you, you CAN.