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When you publish a Replit App that uses a legacy Neon development database, you can create a separate production database from the Publishing pane. A production database keeps your live app data separate from the data you use while building.
This guide is for Replit Apps that still use Neon for the development database. If your app uses Helium, Replit’s current database infrastructure, production databases are created for you when needed during publishing.

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Before you start

Check whether your app still uses Neon for the development database:
  1. Open the Database tool in your Replit App.
  2. Open the Settings tab.
  3. Check the DATABASE_URL value.
Database settings showing the DATABASE_URL value
If the value contains neon.tech, your app is using a legacy Neon development database. If it contains helium, your app is using Helium. For more details, see Legacy Development Database.

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Create the production database

To create a production database while publishing:
  1. Open Publishing.
  2. Choose Publish. If your app is already published, choose Republish.
  3. Open Production database settings.
  4. Turn on Create production database.
  5. To copy your current development data into production, turn on Set up your production database with your current development data.
  6. Continue publishing your app.
Publish settings showing Create production database options
When you turn on Create production database, Replit creates a production database for your published app. By default, Replit prepares the production database schema from your development database. When you also turn on Set up your production database with your current development data, Replit initializes the production database with your development schema and data.
Only copy development data into production if that data is safe to use in your live app. Development data can include test accounts, sample records, or incomplete content.

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After publishing

After publishing finishes, your published app uses the production database. Your Workspace continues to use the development database, so future development changes do not directly modify live data.
Replit is also upgrading development databases from Neon to Helium. This upgrade only applies to development databases in most cases. If you create a production database before the upgrade, your published app keeps using that production database. To learn what changes during the upgrade, see Database Upgrade.
To view or manage the production database:
  1. Open the Database tool.
  2. Select Production from the database selector.
  3. Use the My data and Settings tabs to inspect data, connection details, and usage.