Is it possible to deploy NodeJS app without SSH access?

Question

According to that answer hosting that allows deploy NodeJS apps

will generally give you (at a minimum) shell access (via SSH) which you can use to run the Node.JS application

But is it possible to deploy NodeJS application without access to ssh? On my hosting plan, I have only FTP access and I was wandering if I can do that or should I change hosting provider?

Answer 1

If your app is fully static you can build it into static js files (ie npm run build in vue.js) and then it should work on ftp hosting. Note, however, that in this case if your usage is low you can use something like Google App Engine or Netlify and essentially get free hosting for your static app.

However, if your app involves some back-end operations, ie express.js then you need to be able to run node.js server itself and you need a VPS-based or container-based hosting.

Feel free to reach out to me via discord here and ask more questions - https://discord.gg/UTxjBf9juQ .