What Digital Ocean product is best for my ReactJs App with Node Backend and MySQL DB

Hey there!

For this kind of setup, I would suggest the App Platform:

https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/

For a React frontend with Vite, App Platform’s static site component is perfect. It’ll serve your static assets (HTML, CSS, JS) efficiently and comes with automatic SSL and CDN support to ensure fast load times. You can find the details for setting up a static site here: Deploy a Static Site.

For the Node.js + Express backend, go with the App Platform’s web service component. This will handle your API endpoints for the search and recommendations, and it’ll easily integrate with your OpenAI setup for recommendations. With auto-scaling and zero-downtime deployments, your backend will be resilient, especially as more users join. Here’s a guide on setting up a web service: Deploy a Web Service.

For the MySQL database, DigitalOcean’s managed MySQL cluster is your best bet. It’s fully managed, with automatic backups and point-in-time recovery, so your app’s data will be safe. You can focus more on building features rather than maintaining the database. Check out the managed database setup here: Managed Databases.

Using the App Platform means you get benefits like auto-scaling and automatic deployments directly from GitHub, which is ideal if you’re planning to grow:

https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/introducing-cpu-based-autoscaling-app-platform

But if you’re interested in keeping things on a single Droplet, that’s also an option! A single Droplet could run your entire stack, though it’d lack the ease of scaling and the out-of-the-box deployment automation you get with App Platform:

https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/concepts/choosing-a-plan/

Hope this helps you get started, and let me know if you have more questions!

\– Bobby

Heya,

There are two ways to go about it. Have a Droplet which you can configure or use the MarketPlace

https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/nodejs

and eventually, support yourself or go for the App Platform with a managed DB which would have DigitalOcean manage the server side you’ll need to focus only on the application.

Both are a really good option and your choice should be based on your server knowledge and finances.

My advice if you don’t have good experience with managing a server, you should go for the App Platform and Managed DB. If you have a smaller budger, you should look into Droplets.