How to self-host a Base44 app with its backend and database on a Droplet

Question

I have an app built on Base44 and I want to run it on a Droplet instead: the frontend, the backend, the database and the users. The GitHub export gives me code that still calls Base44 for all of that. What’s the setup that actually moves the backend and the data?

KFSys · Answer

Hi there, The short version is that there’s no “self-hosted Base44”. The GitHub export gives you the React/Vite frontend, but the backend (entities, auth, permissions, integrations, file uploads) is Base44’s hosted service, and the code reaches it through the @base44/sdk package. Base44 doesn’t publish a server you can run yourself, so moving the backend and the data means replacing that layer with your own. It sounds bigger than it is, because the SDK surface most apps use is small. Here’s the setup I’d go with on a Droplet: the exported frontend, a small Node.js API, and MongoDB. Base44 records are basically JSON documents, so MongoDB maps onto them almost one to one. 1. Get your data out first The code export doesn’t include any records. In the Base44 dashboard, go to Data and export each entity as CSV. For big tables, it’s easier to write a short script with the SDK that pages through list() and writes JSON, since the dashboard export is per table. User accounts export as rows, but password hashes don’t come with them. Plan on your users setting a new password (a “reset password” email or magic link on first login) after the move. Uploaded files also stay on Base44’s storage, so download those and put them in a Spaces bucket: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/spaces/ 2. Replace the SDK with a thin client of your own In most exports, all calls go through src/api/base44Client.js (and src/api/entities.js re-exports things like base44.entities.Task). If you swap that one file for your own client with the same method names, most of your components keep working untouched: // src/api/base44Client.js const API = import.meta.env.VITE_API_URL || '/api'; async function req(method, path, body) { const res = await fetch(API + path, { method, credentials: 'include', headers: body ? { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' } : {}, body: body ? JSON.stringify(body) : undefined, }); if (!res.ok) throw new Error(await res.text()); return res.status === 204 ? null : res.json(); } const entity = (name) => ({ list: (sort, limit) => req('GET', `/entities/${name}?` + new URLSearchParams({ sort: sort || '', limit: limit || '' })), filter: (query, sort, limit) => req('POST', `/entities/${name}/filter`, { query, sort, limit }), get: (id) => req('GET', `/entities/${name}/${id}`), create: (data) => req('POST', `/entities/${name}`, data), update: (id, data) => req('PATCH', `/entities/${name}/${id}`, data), delete: (id) => req('DELETE', `/entities/${name}/${id}`), }); export const base44 = { entities: new Proxy({}, { get: (_, name) => entity(name) }), auth: { me: () => req('GET', '/auth/me'), logout: () => req('POST', '/auth/logout'), }, }; Then remove @base44/sdk from package.json and search the code for anything else it used (base44.integrations.* for things like InvokeLLM, SendEmail or UploadFile). Each of those needs its own endpoint on your API. 3. Write the API An Express app with the official mongodb driver is enough. It needs: the entity routes above (GET/POST/PATCH/DELETE /api/entities/:name), with an allowlist of entity names so nobody can read random collections login/session handling (/api/auth/*), e.g. with express-session + bcrypt, or a provider like Auth0 if you’d rather not run auth yourself the access rules you had set in Base44 (e.g. “users can only see their own records”). Base44 enforced those for you, and now your API has to, usually by filtering on created_by Keep the fields Base44 used (id, created_date, updated_date, created_by) so your frontend code that sorts or filters by them still works. 4. Import the data mongoimport --uri "$MONGO_URL" --collection Task --type csv --headerline --file Task.csv Run that once per entity. 5. Run it all on the Droplet with Docker Compose services: mongo: image: mongo:7 restart: unless-stopped volumes: [mongo-data:/data/db] api: build: ./api restart: unless-stopped environment: MONGO_URL: mongodb://mongo:27017/app SESSION_SECRET: change-me depends_on: [mongo] caddy: image: caddy:2 restart: unless-stopped ports: ["80:80", "443:443"] volumes: - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile - ./frontend/dist:/srv - caddy-data:/data volumes: mongo-data: caddy-data: yourdomain.com { handle /api/* { reverse_proxy api:3000 } handle { root * /srv try_files {path} /index.html file_server } } Build the frontend with npm run build, point your domain’s A record at the Droplet, and run docker compose up -d. Caddy gets the Let’s Encrypt certificate on its own. Mongo isn’t exposed to the internet here (no ports: on it), which is what you want. If you’d rather not manage backups yourself, use a Managed MongoDB cluster instead and just change MONGO_URL: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/databases/mongodb/ A 2 GB Droplet is plenty to start with. Useful tutorials for the pieces: Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/initial-server-setup-with-ubuntu How To Install and Use Docker on Ubuntu 22.04: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-use-docker-on-ubuntu-22-04 How To Install and Use Docker Compose on Ubuntu 22.04: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-use-docker-compose-on-ubuntu-22-04 How To Host a Website with Caddy on Ubuntu 22.04: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-host-a-website-with-caddy-on-ubuntu-22-04 How To Set Up a Node.js Application for Production on Ubuntu 22.04 (if you’d rather skip Docker and use PM2 + Nginx): https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-a-node-js-application-for-production-on-ubuntu-22-04 My suggestion is to do it in that order and keep the Base44 app running until the new one has all the data and your users can log in. Then switch the DNS over. Hope that helps!

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How to self-host a Base44 app with its backend and database on a Droplet

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How to self-host a Base44 app with its backend and database on a Droplet

Related questions

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