Deploy Django on
PythonAnywhere

Run these commands in your local terminal (where your Django project folder is):

# Navigate to your project folder (the one with manage.py)
cd your-project-folder

# Create requirements.txt — this lists all your packages
pip freeze > requirements.txt

# Set up Git if you haven't already
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Ready to deploy"

# Push to GitHub (create a repo on github.com first)
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/your-project.git
git push -u origin main

• From your PythonAnywhere dashboard, click the "Consoles" tab at the top
• Click "Bash" to open a new terminal
• Type the command below to download your project from GitHub

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/your-project.git

After cloning, check the folder is there:

ls

You should see your project folder listed! 🎉

# Create a virtual environment (name it after your project)
mkvirtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python3.10 myproject-venv

# You'll see (myproject-venv) appear at the start — that means it's active!

# Navigate into your project folder
cd your-project-folder

# Install all your packages
pip install -r requirements.txt

To check what's installed, run: pip list — you should see Django in the list!

Part A — Create the Web App:

• Go to the Web tab in your PythonAnywhere dashboard
• Click "Add a new web app" → click Next
• Choose "Manual configuration" (NOT "Django" — that's only for new projects)
• Select Python 3.10 and click Next

Part B — Set the Virtualenv path:

On your web app page, find the Virtualenv section and type:

myproject-venv

PythonAnywhere will auto-complete it to the full path. Click OK ✓

Part C — Edit the WSGI file:

In the Code section of the Web tab, click on the WSGI configuration file link. It will open a file editor. Delete everything and paste this instead:

import os
import sys

# Replace 'yourusername' and 'your-project-folder' below
path = '/home/yourusername/your-project-folder'
if path not in sys.path:
    sys.path.insert(0, path)

# Replace 'yourprojectname' with the folder containing settings.py
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'yourprojectname.settings'

from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
application = get_wsgi_application()

Click the green Save button (top right of the file editor).

Part A — Update settings.py:

Open your project's settings.py file (using the Files tab in PythonAnywhere or your editor) and update these two lines:

# Find ALLOWED_HOSTS and update it:
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['yourusername.pythonanywhere.com']

# Find DEBUG and set it to False for production:
DEBUG = False

Part B — Run database migrations:

Go back to your Bash console (activate your venv first if needed) and run:

# Make sure you're in the project folder and venv is active
workon myproject-venv
cd your-project-folder

# Run migrations to set up your database
python manage.py migrate

# Collect static files (CSS, images, JS)
python manage.py collectstatic

• Go back to the Web tab in PythonAnywhere
• Click the big green "Reload" button at the top
• Wait a few seconds, then click your website link: yourusername.pythonanywhere.com
• 🎉 Your Django website is now LIVE on the internet!