Step-by-Step Guide: Deploy a Spring Boot App to Heroku via Dashboard and CLI

Heroku is a cloud platform that supports multiple programming languages and offers a free tier with five services, allowing simple application deployment via GitHub or the Heroku CLI and providing a free domain.

Deploying via the Heroku Dashboard

The example project is located at https://github.com/huiqiangyang/demo.git. To run the app, create a Procfile with the following content, which specifies the process type and start command:

web: java $JAVA_OPTS -jar target/*.jar --server.port=$PORT

Steps:

Create a new Heroku app.

Select "GitHub Deploy" and connect the repository, choosing the branch to deploy.

Enable automatic deploys on code changes.

Start the deployment; the build logs show that the JAR is uploaded and the app starts within seconds.

Access the running application at https://hui-hello.herokuapp.com/.

Deploying via the Heroku CLI (Mac environment)

Install the CLI, log in, clone the app repository, and push the code:

# Install Heroku CLI
brew install heroku

# Log in to Heroku
heroku login

# Clone the app repository
heroku git:clone -a hui-hello
cd hui-hello

# Add, commit, and push changes
git add .
git commit -am "make it better"
git push heroku master

# View real‑time logs
heroku logs -t -a hui-hello

# Open the deployed app in a browser
heroku open -a hui-hello

These commands install the CLI, authenticate the user, retrieve the app code, and push it to Heroku, after which the application can be monitored via logs and accessed through the provided URL.