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Guide → Deploy the Roe app

Site Sync

How Roe publishes your site

Roe has two publishing concepts, and they do different jobs:

  • Deploy puts the Roe app itself on a host.
  • Site Sync publishes your site’s content to a host.

Deploy is about the application. Site Sync is about your website.

You have two ways to put your site online, and each one decides which hosts you can use:

  • Publish a static site — just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Every web host supports this.
  • Deploy the Roe app — run Roe on a host that supports Ruby on Rails. Many hosts do.

To publish a static site, see Guide → Publish a static site.

When to use a static site vs. deploy the Roe app

A static site has no server. That is its main advantage: because the browser never waits on a server to assemble a page, static sites load fast. Everything the page needs is already there as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Almost every web host offers static hosting, often at low cost.

The trade-off is that server-backed features don’t run on a static site. Members, Payments and Newsletters need a server, so they won’t work. The Store feature and Snipcart don’t need a server, so they will work.

Site Sync connects to your host and pushes your static site files. After the first push, it uploads only the files that changed since your last sync, so you never re-upload the whole site to publish a small edit. You can also download your whole site as a ZIP and upload it yourself.

Use a static site when:

  • you’re running a content-only website
  • you’re running a content site with a store
  • hosting cost matters

If you want Members, paid content, Payments, or Newsletters, deploy the Roe app instead.

When to deploy Roe as an app

Deploying the app unlocks Members, paid content, Payments, and Newsletters. It also lets you sign in to Roe from anywhere — your site is no longer tied to your own computer, so you can edit it from any device.

When you run Roe both locally and on a host, Site Sync keeps the two copies aligned. It will:

  • tell you when one side has changes the other doesn’t
  • give you a simple way to sync those changes so live and local match
  • back up an encrypted copy of your live (production) database to your local machine

Deploy the Roe app when:

  • you need the Members, Newsletter, or Payments features
  • you want to sign in to your live site and make edits

To deploy the app, see Guide → Deploy Roe.