# Deploy a Django app with PostgreSQL for free, with VS Code in the browser

You have a Django project and you want it online: its own address, a real PostgreSQL database, and somewhere to keep working on it. This walks through doing that on [Uppcoder](https://portal.uppcoder.com/developers) on the free plan, start to finish, with the database connected and the admin login working from the start.

Every step below was run on a fresh app while writing this, and the screenshots are from that run.

## What you get on the free plan

The free plan (Spark) gives you one app with one database: 2 GB of memory and 2 GB of disk, VS Code in the browser and a terminal in the same container, and an HTTPS address from the first minute. No card needed.

Update, 25 October 2026: the free plan has no time limit (if it is ever changed or ended, everyone on it is told by email at least 60 days before), and every app and database on Uppcoder, the free plan included, is backed up every night to a separate server.

## 1\. Sign up and take the free plan

Sign up at [portal.uppcoder.com](https://portal.uppcoder.com/developers) and **click the link in the confirmation email first**: the free plan starts only once your address is confirmed. Then go to **Billing → Available Plans → Spark → Start free**.

## 2\. Create the app: Django and PostgreSQL

**Stacks → + Create → Blank stack**, then type "django" in the search box on the right and pick **Django**. Search again for **PostgreSQL** and add it: it is connected to your Django app automatically.

![Searching the catalogue for Django](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/01-search-django.jpg align="center")

Give the app a name at the top (mine is `polls`). The yellow bar tells you what is still missing.

![The stack: Django as the main app, connected to PostgreSQL 16](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/02-stack-parts.jpg align="center")

Click **Django** to fill in an admin username, password and email. **VS Code, Terminal, Files and SSH** are ticked by default: they run in the same container as your app. Leave **Open to the internet** off for now; the app is then private to you until you switch it on.

Under **Database**, leave **Connect the app to PostgreSQL 16** ticked: Uppcoder then connects your app to the database for you (step 4). Untick it if you would rather develop on Django's default database first and connect it yourself later.

![Django's settings: the admin user, the tools that come with it, the database box and an optional Git repository](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/03-django-settings.jpg align="center")

Click **PostgreSQL 16** and give it a username and password. The database name is filled in for you.

![PostgreSQL's settings](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/04-postgres-settings.jpg align="center")

## 3\. Deploy

Press **Deploy**, check the summary, then **Confirm and deploy**. Mine was live in 33 seconds.

![What will be built](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/05-review.jpg align="center")

![Each part is started and checked](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/06-deploying.jpg align="center")

The stack page has everything in one place: the app's address (the arrow next to its name), VS Code, the Web Terminal, and the database.

![The stack page](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/07-stack-page.jpg align="center")

Open the address and you get Django's welcome page.

![Django is running](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/09-django-welcome.jpg align="center")

## 4\. Your app is already on PostgreSQL

With **Connect the app to PostgreSQL 16** ticked, Uppcoder finishes the setup about half a minute after the deploy: it installs the PostgreSQL driver (`psycopg`), points `DATABASES` in `mysite/settings.py` at the database, runs `migrate`, creates the admin user from the username and password you typed, and adds your app's own address to `CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS` so Django's forms work behind HTTPS.

Open **VS Code** from the stack page and you will find this in `mysite/settings.py`:

```python
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': os.environ['POSTGRES_DB'],
        'USER': os.environ['POSTGRES_USER'],
        'PASSWORD': os.environ['POSTGRES_PASSWORD'],
        'HOST': os.environ['POSTGRES_HOST'],
        'PORT': os.environ.get('POSTGRES_PORT', '5432'),
    }
}

CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = [os.environ['UPPCODER_SELF_URL']] if os.environ.get('UPPCODER_SELF_URL') else []
```

The values come from your app's environment, so no password sits in your code. The same details are under **Connection details** on the stack page (the password stays hidden until you click the eye):

![Connection details for the database](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/08-connection-details.jpg align="center")

Open `/admin/` on your app's address and sign in with the admin username and password you chose:

![The Django admin, signed in, running on PostgreSQL](https://portal.uppcoder.com/guides/django/10-admin.jpg align="center")

### If you unticked the box

Your app starts on Django's default database and the PostgreSQL driver is already installed, so connecting later takes two steps: put the `DATABASES` block above into `settings.py`, then in the **Web Terminal**:

```bash
pixi run -e web-django python manage.py migrate
pixi run -e web-django python manage.py createsuperuser --noinput
```

`createsuperuser --noinput` uses the admin username, password and email you typed when you created the app. The app reloads by itself when `settings.py` changes; if a typo stops it, fix the file and press **Restart** on the stack page.

## 5\. Bring your own code

On the stack page, Django's card has **No repository → Connect**: paste your repository's https address (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or any other git host), pick the branch, and add an access token if it is private. It is cloned into the app and the app restarts on it; **Pull** brings in new commits later. You can also paste the repository when you create the app, under **Source code**.

Uppcoder leaves your own code as it is, so give your project the same two settings as above (the `DATABASES` block and the `CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS` line; the variables are there for your app too), list `psycopg` in its dependencies, and run `migrate` once in the Web Terminal.

## 6\. Share it

When you want other people to see it, switch **Private** to **Public** at the top of the stack page. It changes at once, with no restart, and anyone with the link can open your app. VS Code, the terminal and your files always stay behind your login.

Prefer your own editor? The stack page also shows how to connect over SSH, from VS Code Remote, Cursor, JetBrains Gateway or Zed.

---

*Uppcoder runs Django and many other frameworks (FastAPI, py4web, Node, React, Vue, Next.js, Laravel, Rails, WordPress and more) the same way:* [*try it on the free plan*](https://portal.uppcoder.com/developers)*. Disclosure: I work on Uppcoder.*