How it runs

The account has no root access and cPanel’s Node.js app setup is turned off. These five steps get a Next.js app online anyway.

1. Install Node in the home folder

   The official Linux build, unpacked into the account’s home folder.

   ~/node/bin/node -v   # v22.20.0

2. Build the app

   The source lives outside the web root, so nothing in it is public.

   cd ~/apps/test-next
   npm install
   npm run build

3. Start it on a local port

   Next.js listens on 127.0.0.1 only, so it can’t be reached directly.

   next start -H 127.0.0.1 -p 3100

4. Proxy the subdomain to it

   The subdomain’s .htaccess tells LiteSpeed to pass every request to that port.

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://127.0.0.1:3100/$1 [P,L]

5. Restart it if it stops

   A cron job checks the port every minute and starts the app again if nothing answers.

   * * * * * ~/apps/test-next/keepalive.sh

Limits

This is fine for demos and small sites. The account’s resource limits can stop the process, and the cron job brings it back within about a minute. For production, enable cPanel’s Node.js app setup in WHM or host the app on Vercel.