Can I host a Node.js or Python app on shared hosting?

How it works

cPanel’s Setup Node.js App and Setup Python App tools (CloudLinux) give each app its own separate environment:

1. Upload your code (Git over SSH, or the File Manager).
2. In cPanel, create the app: choose the Node.js or Python version, the app folder and the domain or subdomain, for example api.yourbusiness.co.tz.
3. Set the start file: app.js or server.js for Node.js; for Python, a WSGI entry point such as passenger_wsgi.py that imports your Flask or Django app.
4. Install dependencies with Run npm install / pip install -r requirements.txt (or over SSH).
5. Restart the app. It runs on your domain with free SSL.

The server starts and restarts the app for you, so there’s no PM2, Gunicorn or other process manager to look after.

Databases and files

Use the MySQL/MariaDB databases included with your plan for anything with several users. SQLite is fine for small, low-traffic apps. Uploaded files stay in your account storage, which is backed up daily.

Which plan?

SSH is included on every plan except Starter, and you’ll want it for npm, pip and Git, so start with Standard (TZS 91,960 a year) or higher. See Node.js and Python hosting.

When you need a VPS instead

• Background workers, queues or scheduled jobs running all the time (Celery, Bull).
• Your own process manager or start command, or several services talking to each other.
• Docker containers, Redis or a database server you configure yourself.
• High traffic or heavy CPU use.

A VPS or Docker VPS gives you full root access for all of that.