Production

This guide covers the fastest safe path to getting AI SaaS Template into production on Heroku. The goal is to establish a clean deployment baseline first, then connect the services that make the app launch-ready: database, cache, storage, email, billing, and your domain.

Before You Deploy

Make sure you already have:

  • a project that runs locally
  • a Heroku account
  • the Heroku CLI installed
  • a Git remote for your project
  • an AWS S3 bucket if you chose AWS-backed static and media storage

1. Create the Heroku app

Log in and create the app:

heroku login
heroku create interviewdb

Heroku will assign a temporary hostname such as interviewdb-abc123456efg.herokuapp.com. Keep that value nearby because you will use it in DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS until your custom domain is live.

2. Provision PostgreSQL and Redis

Create the required add-ons:

heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:essential-0
heroku addons:create heroku-redis:mini

Heroku automatically injects DATABASE_URL and REDIS_URL after those add-ons are provisioned.

Heroku retired the old free and mini PostgreSQL plans. Use an essential-* plan for new projects.

If you want managed backups, schedule them as well:

heroku pg:backups schedule --at '02:00 US/Pacific' DATABASE_URL

3. Set the required config vars

Run the following commands and replace the placeholder values with your real project values:

heroku config:set WEB_CONCURRENCY=3
heroku config:set DJANGO_DEBUG=False
heroku config:set PYTHONHASHSEED=random
heroku config:set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=config.settings.production
heroku config:set DJANGO_SECRET_KEY="$(openssl rand -base64 64)"
heroku config:set DJANGO_ADMIN_URL="john_wick/"
heroku config:set DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS="interviewdb-abc123456efg.herokuapp.com,interviewdb.com,www.interviewdb.com"

What these settings do:

  • DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE ensures the Heroku release phase and web dynos use production settings.
  • DJANGO_SECRET_KEY gives Django a strong production-only signing key.
  • DJANGO_ADMIN_URL moves the admin off the default /admin/ path. Include the trailing slash.
  • DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS whitelists the Heroku hostname and your custom domains.

4. Configure S3 storage

The production settings expect S3 credentials when you use the AWS storage option. Set them on Heroku:

heroku config:set DJANGO_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your-access-key-id"
heroku config:set DJANGO_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your-secret-access-key"
heroku config:set DJANGO_AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME="your-bucket-name"

Optional but often useful:

heroku config:set DJANGO_AWS_S3_REGION_NAME="us-east-1"
heroku config:set DJANGO_AWS_S3_CUSTOM_DOMAIN="cdn.example.com"

The default StaticS3Storage class uses public-read for static files. Your bucket policy and public access settings must allow the static assets to be served publicly, or you need to customize the storage setup before launch.

5. Configure Mailgun

Once your Mailgun domain is verified, set the required Mailgun variables:

heroku config:set MAILGUN_API_KEY="your-mailgun-api-key"
heroku config:set MAILGUN_DOMAIN="interviewdb.com"

If your Mailgun account is in the EU region, also set:

heroku config:set MAILGUN_API_URL="https://api.eu.mailgun.net/v3"

Use the dedicated Mailgun guide for the DNS setup.

6. Deploy the code

Two common deployment paths work well:

Option A: GitHub automatic deploys

Connect the repository in the Heroku dashboard under Deploy, then enable automatic deploys for your default branch.

Option B: Heroku Git

git push heroku main

Use whichever deployment flow matches how you manage the project. GitHub automatic deploys are usually the smoother long-term option once the app is connected.

7. Create the first admin user

After the first successful deploy, create a superuser:

heroku run python manage.py createsuperuser

8. Smoke test the production app

Open the app:

heroku open

If something looks wrong, tail the logs:

heroku logs --tail

Your first checks should be:

  • the homepage loads
  • CSS and images load correctly from S3
  • the custom admin URL works
  • user registration email works after Mailgun is configured
  • pricing and Stripe routes load after Stripe is configured

What To Do Next