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Publish websites

Different ways to publish the Expo web app with third-party services.

A web app created using Expo can be served locally for testing out the production behavior. Once the testing phase checks out, you can choose from a variety of third-party services to host it.

Create a build

Creating a build of the project is the first step to publishing a web app. Whether you want to serve it locally or host it on a third-party service, you'll need to export all JavaScript and assets of a project. This is known as a static bundle. It can be exported by running the following command:

Run the universal export command to compile the project for web:

Terminal

- npx expo export -p web

The resulting project files are located in the dist directory. Any files inside the public directory are also copied to the dist directory.

Run the webpack export command to compile the project for web:

Terminal

- npx expo export:web

The resulting project files are in the web-build directory. Any files inside the web directory are also copied to the web-build directory.

If you make changes to your project, you'll need to rebuild it for production. Don't edit the web-build directory directly.

Tip: If you want to serve your site in a subfolder, add its path to your package.json as shown below:
package.json
{
  "homepage": "/path/to/subfolder"
}

Serve locally

Use Serve CLI to quickly test locally how your website will be hosted in production. Run the following command to serve the static bundle:

If you're using static rendering, then you can serve the static bundle with the following command:

Terminal

- npx serve dist

Otherwise, use the --single flag to redirect all requests to the single dist/index.html file.

Terminal

- npx serve dist --single

Open http://localhost:5000 to see your project in action. This method is HTTP only, so permissions, camera, location, and many other secure features won't work.

Run the following command to serve the single-page application:

Terminal

- npx serve web-build --single

Open http://localhost:5000 to see your project in action. This method is HTTP only, so permissions, camera, location, and many other things won't work.

Hosting on third-party services

Netlify

Netlify is a mostly-unopinionated platform for deploying web apps. This has the highest compatibility with Expo web apps as it makes few assumptions about the framework.

Manual deployment with the Netlify CDN

Install the Netlify CLI by running the following command:

Terminal

- npm install -g netlify-cli

Configure redirects for single-page applications.

If your app uses static rendering, then you can skip this step.

expo.web.output: 'single' generates a single-page application. It means there's only one dist/index.html file to which all requests must be redirected. This can be done in Netlify by creating a ./public/_redirects file and redirecting all requests to /index.html.

public/_redirects

/*    /index.html   200

If you modify this file, you must rebuild your project with npx expo export -p web to have it safely copied into the dist directory.

If your app implements any navigation, you'll need to configure Netlify to redirect requests to the single web-build/index.html file. This can be done in Netlify by creating a ./public/_redirects file and redirecting all requests to /index.html.

Navigate inside the web-build directory and run the following command to create _redirects file with follwing rule:

web/_redirects

/*    /index.html   200

If you modify this file, you must rebuild your project with npx expo export:web to have it safely copied into the web-build directory.

Deploy the web build folder by running the following command:

Terminal

- netlify deploy --dir dist

Terminal

- netlify deploy --dir web-build

You'll see a URL that you can use to view your project online.

Continuous delivery

Netlify can also build and deploy when you push to git or open a new pull request:

Start a new Netlify project.
Pick your Git hosting service and select your repository.
Click Build your site.

Vercel

Vercel has a single-command deployment flow.

Install the Vercel CLI.

Terminal

- npm install -g vercel@latest

Configure redirects for single-page applications.

Create a vercel.json file at the root of your app and add the following configuration:

vercel.json

{
  "buildCommand": "expo export -p web",
  "outputDirectory": "dist",
  "devCommand": "expo",
  "cleanUrls": true,
  "framework": null,
  "rewrites": [
    {
      "source": "/:path*",
      "destination": "/"
    }
  ]
}

If your app uses static rendering, then you may want to add additional dynamic route configuration.

Create a vercel.json file at the root of your app and add the following:

vercel.json

{
  "buildCommand": "expo export:web",
  "outputDirectory": "web-build",
  "devCommand": "expo",
  "cleanUrls": true,
  "framework": null,
  "rewrites": [
    {
      "source": "/:path*",
      "destination": "/"
    }
  ]
}

Deploy the website.

Terminal

- vercel

You'll now see a URL that you can use to view your project online. Paste that URL into your browser when the build is complete, and you'll see your deployed app.

AWS Amplify Console

The AWS Amplify Console provides a Git-based workflow for continuously deploying and hosting full-stack serverless web apps. Amplify deploys your PWA from a repository instead of from your computer. In this guide, we'll use a GitHub repository. Before starting, create a new repo on GitHub.

Add the amplify-explicit.yml file to the root of your repository. Ensure you have removed the generated dist directory from the .gitignore file and committed those changes.

Push your local Expo project to a GitHub repository. If you haven't pushed to GitHub yet, follow GitHub's guide to add an existing project to GitHub.

Login to the Amplify Console and select an existing app or create a new app. Grant Amplify permission to read from your GitHub account or the organization that owns your repo.

Add your repo, select the branch, and select Connecting a monorepo? to enter the path to your app's dist directory and choose Next.

The Amplify Console will detect the amplify.yml file in your project. Select Allow AWS Amplify to automatically deploy all files hosted in your project root directory and choose Next.

Review your settings and choose Save and deploy. Your app will now be deployed to a https://branchname.xxxxxx.amplifyapp.com URL. You can now visit your web app, deploy another branch, or add a unified backend environment across your Expo mobile and web apps.

Follow the steps in the Learn how to get the most out of Amplify Hosting drop-down to Add a custom domain with a free SSL certificate and more information.

GitHub Pages

GitHub Pages allows you to publish a website directly from a GitHub repository.

Expo Router websites do not support deployment to GitHub Pages yet.

Start by initializing a new git repository in your project. If this is already done, skip this step.

If not then you'll want to run the following command in your project's root directory:

Terminal

- git init

Add the GitHub repository as a remote in your local git repository.

Terminal

- git remote add origin https://github.com/username/expo-gh-pages.git

Running the above command makes git know to which repository you want to push your source code. It also makes the gh-pages package (installed in the next step) know where you want to deploy your app.

Install the gh-pages package as a dev-dependency in your project:

Terminal

- yarn add -D gh-pages

Configure your project's package.json for web hosting. Start by adding a homepage property. Set its value to the string http://{username on GitHub}.github.io/{repo-name}.

For example, if a GitHub username is called dev and the GitHub repository is expo-gh-pages, the following will be the value of the homepage property:

package.json

{
  "homepage": "http://dev.github.io/expo-gh-pages"
}

In the same file, modify the scripts property by adding predeploy and deploy properties. Each has its own value as shown:

package.json

"scripts": {
 %%placeholder-start%%... %%placeholder-end%%
  "deploy": "gh-pages -d web-build",
  "predeploy": "expo export:web"
}

To generate a production build of your app, and deploy it to GitHub Pages, run the following command:

Terminal

- yarn deploy

Your web app is now available at the URL you set as homepage in your package.json.

When you publish code to your repository, for example: gh-pages, it will create and push the code to a branch in your repo. This branch will have your build code, however, not your development source code.

Firebase hosting

Firebase Hosting is production-grade web content hosting for web projects.

Create a firebase project with the Firebase Console and install the Firebase CLI by following these instructions.

Using the CLI, login to your Firebase account by running the command:

Terminal

- firebase login

Then, initialize your firebase project to host by running the command:

Terminal

- firebase init

The settings will depend on how you built your Expo website:

When asked about the public path, make sure to specify the dist directory.
When prompted Configure as a single-page app (rewrite all urls to /index.html), only select Yes if you used web.output: "single" (default). Otherwise, select No.

When asked about the public path, make sure to specify the web-build directory. Also, when prompted Configure as a single-page app (rewrite all urls to /index.html), select Yes.

In the existing scripts property of package.json, add predeploy and deploy properties. Each has the following values:

package.json

"scripts": {
  %%placeholder-start%%... %%placeholder-end%%
  "predeploy": "expo export -p web",
  "deploy-hosting": "npm run predeploy && firebase deploy --only hosting",
}

package.json

"scripts": {
  %%placeholder-start%%... %%placeholder-end%%
  "predeploy": "expo export:web",
  "deploy-hosting": "npm run predeploy && firebase deploy --only hosting",
}

To deploy, run the following command:

Terminal

- npm run deploy-hosting

Open the URL from the console output to check your deployment, for example: https://project-name.firebaseapp.com.

In case you want to change the header for hosting add the following config for hosting section in firebase.json:

firebase.json

  "hosting": [
    {
      %%placeholder-start%%... %%placeholder-end%%
      "headers": [
        {
          "source": "/**",
          "headers": [
            {
              "key": "Cache-Control",
              "value": "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "source": "**/*.@(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|svg|webp|js|css|eot|otf|ttf|ttc|woff|woff2|font.css)",
          "headers": [
            {
              "key": "Cache-Control",
              "value": "max-age=604800"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
    }
  ]