Question

Hosting a .NET web app as an App or Droplet?

Hello! What would be the best choice for hosting a .NET 6 Web API project on digitalocean:

  • Hosting as a Droplet (using a template or manually installing Docker, nginx and managing the server)?
  • Using the App platform to deploy a docker image?

The project only requires a way to host it as a web app (uses AzureSQL as a database). I would like to have the easiest way to manage the app (meaning fastest way to push updates and maybe not having to deal with server management stuff). I can create a docker image from the source files and let docker build the app or load the binaries as well. The app only required port 80 and 443. I need to setup HTTPS.

Can I do this with the App platform? Host the app with my own docker image and with an ssl certificate (let’s encrypt is enough)?

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Jon Friesen
DigitalOcean Employee
DigitalOcean Employee badge
• October 10, 2022

👋 Szabolcs,

Great question! App Platform will probably be the easiest form of hosting for your .net app. As you mentioned you will need to provide a dockerfile which App Platform can build and deploy for you.

Some additional notes:

  • App Platform will provide a SSL certificate for you, so no need for lets encrypt or starting your own https server)
  • Depending on your preference you could let App Platform build your dockerfile for you OR if you already have a CICD system setup, you can build and push your docker image to DigitalOcean Container Registry and have your app auto-deploy the new image.

Hope this helps!