2026 edition, free updates included

Ship your first real web app. Not another todo list.

Zero to Deployed takes you from an empty folder to four deployed projects, with the testing, security and deploy habits real teams use every day.

Get the book, $29 Read a free chapter

14 chapters / 4 projects / 290 pages

~/projects

$ npx create-app link-shortener

Project ready in 2.1s

$ npm run db:migrate

6 tables created

$ npm test

48 tests passing

$ npm run deploy

Live at https://lnk.sh in 41s

sam.patel2nd ed.

$ npm run deploy

build complete

live in 41s

Zero to
Deployed

Build and ship your first full-stack web app

TypeScript
APIs
SQL databases
Authentication
Payments
Testing
Monitoring
CI pipelines

// what you will build

Four real projects, each one deployed

project_01Chapters 3 to 6

Link shortener

Routing, validation, a real database and your first deploy, all in one weekend.

API
Database

project_02Chapters 7 to 9

Team task board

Accounts, sessions and live updates that sync across every open tab.

Auth
Realtime

project_03Chapters 10 to 12

Paid newsletter

Payments, webhooks and email, plus the edge cases that bite in production.

Payments
Email

project_04Chapters 13 and 14

Production starter

Logging, tests, backups and a deploy pipeline you can reuse for every project.

Testing
DevOps

// table of contents

Browse the repo, chapter by chapter

Open a folder to see what is inside. Every chapter ends with working code and a short checklist before you move on.

zero-to-deployed/

part-1-foundations/

01-your-dev-environment.md18p
02-how-the-web-really-works.md22p
03-your-first-api.md24p
04-databases-without-fear.md26p

part-2-backend/

05-validation-and-errors.md18p
06-shipping-the-link-shortener.md20p
07-auth-and-sessions.md24p

part-3-frontend/

08-components-that-scale.md20p
09-realtime-updates.md18p
10-payments-and-webhooks.md22p
11-sending-email.md14p

part-4-production/

12-testing-what-matters.md20p
13-logging-and-monitoring.md18p
14-deploy-pipelines.md26p

// from chapter six

Code you can actually ship

Short, readable examples with the error handling left in, because that is where real apps break.

links.ts

1// chapter-06/src/routes/links.ts2export async function createLink(req: Request) {3  const { url } = await req.json()45  if (!isValidUrl(url)) {6    return Response.json({ error: 'Invalid URL' }, { status: 400 })7  }89  const slug = await generateSlug()10  await db.insert(links).values({ slug, url })1112  return Response.json({ slug }, { status: 201 })13}

// reader reviews

Merged into thousands of careers

I had done six tutorials and shipped nothing. Two weeks after starting this book, I had a paid newsletter with 40 subscribers.

Kai Nakamura

Junior developer

The chapter on webhooks alone saved me a week of debugging at work. We bought the team license the next day.

Grace Adeyemi

Engineering lead

Finally a book that treats deploying as part of building, not an afterthought in the appendix.

Lucas Ferreira

Indie hacker

$ whoami

sam.patel

$ cat experience.txt

12 years shipping software

3 startups, 1 acquisition

2,000+ students mentored

// about the author

Sam Patel

Sam taught himself to code at 26, then spent a decade building products at startups large and small. He wrote this book for the version of himself who knew enough to follow tutorials, but not enough to ship.

// pricing

Choose your edition

Ebook

The complete handbook, updated with every edition.

$29

14 chapters, 290 pages
PDF and EPUB files
Free updates for every edition

Select ebook

recommended

Ebook and source code

Read it, then run it. Every project, line by line.

$59

Everything in the ebook
Full source code for 4 projects
Starter templates
Private chat channel with readers

Select ebook and source code

Team license

For teams onboarding new developers.

$199

Up to 10 readers
Everything in ebook and source code
Invoice for your company

Select team license

// faq

Frequently asked

What do I need to know before starting?

Basic JavaScript. If you can write a function and a loop, you are ready. Everything else is explained as you go.

Which tools and versions does it use?

Current, widely used tools with long-term support. Every edition is updated when they change, and updates are free.

Is the source code open?

The ebook and source code edition includes private access to the full code for all four projects, chapter by chapter.

Can my company pay by invoice?

Yes. Choose the team license in the form below and mention your company details. You will get an invoice by email.

// get started

Your first deploy is one chapter away

Grab a free sample chapter, or pick an edition and we will email your secure payment link, or an invoice for teams.