Setup Steps Overview
Here is the basic description of the process that you can follow to smoothly set up Filament. Details on how to set up each component are described in their dedicated sections.
Purchase Domain Names
You can assign multiple domains to the system, but at least one domain is mandatory. The domains that are pointing to the backend can be used for creating and redirecting short URLs.
Cloudflare offers the most affordable domain registration pricing with no hidden fees or inflated renewal costs. Free WHOIS privacy is included, and seamless integration with Cloudflare's DNS, CDN, and SSL services ensures top-tier security and performance. While other registrars like Namecheap and GoDaddy may advertise lower first-year prices, their renewal fees often increase significantly—sometimes by two to four times—in subsequent years. Learn more at the Cloudflare Domain Registrar.
CDN Setup (Content Delivery Network)
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is essential for this type of SaaS platform. Since URL shorteners create and process a high volume of requests (for both creation and redirection), there is always an increased threat of attacks. A CDN mitigates a lot of those risks.
Cloudflare offers a free CDN tier which is generally sufficient, but if you require more protection or advanced features, you can upgrade to their paid plans or choose a different CDN service provider.
File Service Setup
You can choose Cloudinary or Minio for storing media files like images. Minio is an AWS S3 compatible, open-source object storage server that you can self-host on your own infrastructure. Cloudinary, on the other hand, is a cloud-based platform for managing media assets. Cloudinary also has a free tier.
Database Setup
Filament uses MongoDB as its database. It's a NoSQL database. Integrating with MongoDB requires only the connection string. It's known for being super fast, high-performant, and affordable to operate. You can self-host your database in the cloud or use any managed database service provider like MongoDB Atlas.
Backend Setup
We are using Node.js with Express.js on the backend. Properly set up the environment variables to start the backend server.
Frontend Setup
We are using React and Next.js on the frontend. This also requires proper environment variables to run.