There are many ways to start a dev server for Node.js applications. Unfortunately this makes thing complicated to choose and configure it (such as for updating on file edits and hot-reloading the browser).

Here are some to get you started.

If you use React or Vue or similar, you might find there’s a pattern to use a server that comes with the existing package’s CLI.

HTTP-Server

From gist.

$ npm install http-server -g
$ http-server -a localhost

Sirv

$ npm i --save-dev sirv
$ sirv build --port 8080 --cors --single

Nodemon

The Node demon.

This is a web server with hot reloading (restart app on file changes). I don’t know if it also refreshes frontend.

  • package.json 
      {
    "scripts": {
      "start": "nodemon server.js"
    }
  }

$ npm i nodemon

Express

This requires setting up a script in your repo.

  • server.js 
      const express = require("express");
  const path = require("path");

  const app = express();

  app.use("/static", express.static(path.resolve(__dirname, "frontend", "static")));

  app.get("/*", (req, res) => {
      res.sendFile(path.resolve(__dirname, "frontend", "index.html"));
  });

  app.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000, () => console.log("Server running..."));
  • package.json 
      {
    "scripts" {
      "start": "node server.js"
    }
  }

Run with:

$ npm start