How to Dockerize Angular and Node.js Application

Updated August 2026 — full tutorial restored for this URL.

In this tutorial we Dockerize a typical stack: Angular SPA served by Nginx, and a Node.js API — wired together with Compose.

Project layout
Node API Dockerfile
Angular multi-stage + Nginx
docker-compose
API URL and CORS

1. Project layout

repo/
  api/          # Express (or Nest) app
  web/          # Angular app
  docker-compose.yml

2. Node API Dockerfile

FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --omit=dev
COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

3. Angular multi-stage + Nginx

FROM node:20-alpine AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build -- --configuration=production

FROM nginx:1.27-alpine
COPY nginx.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
COPY --from=build /app/dist/web/browser /usr/share/nginx/html
EXPOSE 80

Example nginx.conf proxying API calls:

server {
  listen 80;
  root /usr/share/nginx/html;
  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
  }
  location /api/ {
    proxy_pass http://api:3000/;
  }
}

4. docker-compose

services:
  api:
    build: ./api
    environment:
      PORT: 3000
  web:
    build: ./web
    ports: ["8080:80"]
    depends_on: [api]

5. API URL and CORS

Prefer same-origin /api via Nginx so the browser never needs CORS for local Compose. If the SPA calls the API directly, set CORS on Express and use an environment-specific environment.prod.ts API base URL.

Related: Connect Node.js to PostgreSQL.