Blog
2026-08-31
How to deploy a Flask project for your college viva
Flask ships with its own development server, and the one thing to unlearn before a real deploy is using it: flask run is not meant to serve real traffic, even the traffic of one examiner opening the link during a viva.
Hosting is ₹99 a month on Nap, charged in rupees by UPI or card, with unused credit refundable under the refund policy. It sleeps after fifteen minutes idle and wakes on the next visit in about 300 milliseconds, which is worth remembering the moment before a panel opens your link.
Step by step
- Add gunicorn to requirements.txt alongside Flask. The build installs exactly what is listed there.
- Sign in to the dashboard with GitHub, press New app, name it, choose Nap, and paste the repository URL and branch.
- Set the start command to gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:$PORT app:app, replacing app:app with your module and Flask object.
- Open Database, add PostgreSQL if the project uses SQLAlchemy, and it arrives as DATABASE_URL.
- Open Environment for a SECRET_KEY or any API keys, read with os.environ, and leave FLASK_DEBUG off.
- Open the app a few minutes before the viva so it is already awake when the panel clicks the link.
- Take a backup from the Backups section the night before, and keep the previous build in Images in case a late change breaks something.
Every step above is a control that exists in the dashboard today. The docs go further: custom domains, backups, rolling back a bad deploy, and what to read when a build fails.
Ready to try it? Sign in with GitHub and put 30 days of DormHost credit in your balance, no card required. Hosting is ₹99 a month on Nap afterwards.