How to host NEXTJS app in hestia panel

Make sure your server already has node and npm installed before starting._

Step 1: Point Your Domain to the Server

Add an A record in your DNS settings:

Type: A
Host: @
Value: YOUR_SERVER_IP

Step 2: Create the Domain in Hestia

Go to Hestia > Web > Add domain, then enable all SSL-related fields.

Your web root will look like this:

/home/nirmal/web/test.com/

Step 3: SSH into the Server

ssh root@your-server-ip

Step 4: Go to public_html

cd /home/nirmal/web/test.com/public_html

Step 5: Clone Your Next.js Repo

git clone <your-repo> .
cd my-site

Step 6: Install, Build, and Start with PM2

npm install
npm run build
pm2 start npm --name next-app -- start

At this point, the app runs on:

http://127.0.0.1:3000

Step 7: The Error I Hit

When I visited the domain, I got:

Cannot serve directory /home/nirmal/web/test.com/public_html/: No matching DirectoryIndex (index.html,index.cgi,index.pl,index.php,index.xhtml,index.htm) found, and server-generated directory index forbidden by Options directive

Apache tried to serve static files from public_html, so it failed.

Step 8: Fix It with an Apache Reverse Proxy

Do not edit the default *.ssl.conf or other default config files.
Create a custom file to forward traffic to your Next.js app on port 3000:

nano /home/nirmal/conf/web/test.com/apache2.ssl.conf_custom

Add:

ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:3000/
ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:3000/

When i visited the site i got 500 error, when I checked logs which resides here:

tail -n 50 /var/log/apache2/domains/test.com.error.log

I saw this:

[Thu Apr 02 05:54:38.221879 2026] [proxy:warn] [pid 2246621:tid 2246666] [client 103.166.100.206:0] AH01144: No protocol handler was valid for the URL / (scheme 'http'). If you are using a DSO version of mod_proxy, make sure the proxy submodules are included in the configuration using LoadModule. [Thu Apr 02 05:54:38.221933 2026] [proxy:warn] [pid 2246621:tid 2246666] [client 103.166.100.206:0] AH01144: No protocol handler was valid for the URL /error/50x.html (scheme 'http'). If you are using a DSO version of mod_proxy, make sure the proxy submodules are included in the configuration using LoadModule.

Isn't it concerning?

Apache is trying to proxy requests to your Node.js backend, but it does not have the required protocol handler enabled to talk HTTP to that backend.

In short: Apache knows it should proxy, but it does not know how to proxy HTTP yet.

Step 9: Enable Required Apache Modules

a2enmod proxy
a2enmod proxy_http
a2enmod headers
systemctl restart apache2

• proxy lets Apache forward requests.
• proxy_http adds HTTP proxy support (this fixes the AH01144 500 issue).
• headers helps Apache handle request headers correctly for app backends.

Without these modules, reverse proxying will not work.

Step 10: Restart Everything

systemctl restart apache2
systemctl restart nginx
pm2 restart all

Why I Did Not Touch Nginx Config?

ss -tulnp | grep -E ':80|:443|:8443'

Architecture:

Browser -> Nginx (443) -> Apache (8443) -> Next.js (3000)

Nginx forwards traffic.
Apache decides routing and proxy behavior.

So once Apache was configured correctly, the site worked.

Happy coding!