Deploying Next.js to Kubernetes: A practical guide with a complete DevOps Pipeline
This post continues the hellok8s-* series, following my previous exploration of deploying a Django applications to Kubernetes. While the technology stack differs, the core DevOps principles and deployment challenges remain remarkably similar across frameworks.
As modern web applications grow in complexity, the gap between development tutorials and production-ready deployments becomes increasingly challenging. Most Next.js guides stop at npm run dev, but production applications require containerization, orchestration, secrets management, CI/CD pipelines, and reproducible development environments. Today, I want to share insights from hellok8s-nextjs, a comprehensive project template that demonstrates how to bridge this gap with battle-tested DevOps practices.
The Challenge: From Tutorial to Production
First, let's address the elephant in the room: Vercel exists, and it's excellent. For many Next.js applications, Vercel provides the easiest deployment experience with zero configuration, automatic scaling, and seamless integration with the Next.js ecosystem. If Vercel meets your needs, use it - it's a fantastic platform that handles most of the complexity I'm about to discuss.
However, real-world enterprise requirements often demand self-hosted solutions for a variety of reasons:
Compliance requirements (HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI DSS) that require data to remain within specific geographic boundaries or private networks.
Cost optimization for high-traffic applications where predictable infrastructure costs matter.
Integration with existing infrastructure and legacy systems that can't be easily migrated.
Custom security policies that require full control over the deployment environment.
Air-gapped environments or on-premises deployments where external platforms aren't viable.
Multi-cloud strategies that require vendor independence.
When these constraints apply, scaling from a local development server to a production Kubernetes deployment involves numerous considerations that most tutorials don't address. How do you ensure consistent environments across team members? How do you manage secrets securely? How do you achieve zero-downtime deployments with proper rollback capabilities?
After implementing these patterns across multiple technology stacks and organizations, I've distilled these proven practices into hellok8s-nextjs, a production-ready template that demonstrates the complete DevOps lifecycle for modern Next.js applications. These patterns have proven successful for teams ranging from small startups to enterprise organizations managing hundreds of developers.
