How to Host a Django App on Heroku

bash

pip install gunicorn
pip install django-heroku
pip freeze > requirements.txt

# login to your heroku
heroku login

# create new app if one doesn't yet exist
heroku create

# create a new postgres database for your app
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev

# migrate your database to the heroku app
heroku run python manage.py migrate

# before you do this, make sure to add your SECRET_KEY to your env variables in your heroku app settings
git add .
git commit -m "Ready to heroku this sucker in the face."
git push heroku master

Procfile

web: gunicorn project_name.wsgi

settings.py

import django_heroku

# All the way at the bottom of the file
# ...

django_heroku.settings(locals())

how about specifying the python runtime version?

It has to be Python 3.x, since it's a setup for Django 2.0 (as mentioned in the article) which only uses Python 3.x

Still, it's probably useful to add a runtime.txt as mentioned here.

I understand that by default, a Heroku app is available at its Heroku domain, which has the form [name of app].herokuapp.com

How about pointing the app to a custom domain?

migrate your database to the heroku app

heroku run python manage.py migrate

migrations should be the last step as it wont find manage.py file before pushing it to git

Nice gist, however, I found some issues, first one is that Heroku throws an error when running
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev
What I found is that it is not needed as Heroku by itself creates a Postgres DB when pushing the project.
Also I find it odd that you make migrations before you commit and push your code. Before you commit and push there is no manage.py file on Heroku's dynos.
Doing that first and then migrating is what worked for me.

Updated:

pip install gunicorn
pip install django-heroku
pip freeze > requirements.txt

-> login to your heroku
heroku login

-> initiate git
git init

-> create new app if one doesn't yet exist
heroku create appname

-> create a new postgres database for your app
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev

-> before you do this, make sure to add your SECRET_KEY to your env variables in your heroku app settings
git add .
git commit -m "Ready to heroku this sucker in the face."
git push heroku master

-> migrate your database to the heroku app
heroku run python manage.py migrate --app appname

I did deploy a bunch of projects on heroku. I think this is the real approach.