Dockerizing a Next.js Web Application using Docker Compose

This paper presents a methodology for Dockerizing a Next.js web application using Docker Compose to achieve consistent, reproducible, and portable development and deployment environments. Containerization with Docker encapsulates the Next.js application, its runtime (Node.js), and all dependencies into a single image, solving ”works on my machine” issues. Docker Compose then orchestrates multi-container applications, such as a Next.js web service and a database service (e.g., PostgreSQL or MongoDB), defining their build process, networks, and persistent volumes in a single docker-compose.yml file. Key practices, including multistage Docker builds for image size optimization and security, non-root user execution, and proper environment variable management, are discussed to ensure efficient production-ready images. The research concludes that Docker Compose significantly streamlines the local development and testing of a full-stack Next.js application and provides a flexible foundation for deployment on various cloud services like AWS ECS or DigitalOcean App Platform.