Deploy Paperclip on DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is a solid choice for Paperclip if you want a clean VPS environment with good documentation and a reliable network. This guide walks through deploying Paperclip on a standard Droplet.

Why DigitalOcean for Paperclip

DigitalOcean Droplets are clean, well-documented Linux VPS instances. They start at $6/mo (1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM) which is sufficient for a personal Paperclip deployment. DigitalOcean has strong documentation and a large community, which makes it a good choice if you'll be troubleshooting setup issues or building on top of your Paperclip instance.

Step 1: Create a Droplet

From the DigitalOcean control panel, create a new Droplet. Choose Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, the Basic plan ($6/mo for 1 vCPU / 1 GB), and the datacenter region closest to your users. Add your SSH key during creation — you'll need it to connect.

Step 2: Connect and prepare the server

SSH into your Droplet as root, then create a non-root user and update the system.

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP
adduser deploy
usermod -aG sudo deploy
apt update && apt upgrade -y

Step 3: Install dependencies

Install Node.js, Git, nginx, and Certbot for SSL.

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | bash -
apt install -y nodejs git nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Step 4: Deploy Paperclip

Clone the repository, install dependencies, and configure your environment file.

su - deploy
git clone https://github.com/paperclip-app/paperclip.git
cd paperclip
npm install
cp .env.example .env && nano .env
npm run build

Step 5: Configure nginx and SSL

Set up nginx as a reverse proxy and obtain your SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt. Replace YOUR_DOMAIN with your actual domain.

# create /etc/nginx/sites-available/paperclip (same as self-hosting guide)
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/paperclip /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx
certbot --nginx -d YOUR_DOMAIN

Step 6: Keep it running with pm2

Install pm2 to keep Paperclip running as a background service.

sudo npm install -g pm2
pm2 start npm --name paperclip -- start
pm2 startup
pm2 save

DigitalOcean vs Hostinger for Paperclip

DigitalOcean Droplets and Hostinger KVM VPS are very similar setups at slightly different price points. DigitalOcean starts at $6/mo vs Hostinger's ~$3–4/mo on their sale pricing. Both require the same level of server management. We recommend Hostinger for the budget advantage if you're choosing purely on cost.

Ready to deploy?

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