Below is a complete beginner-friendly guide to deploy a React (UI) + Java (backend) app on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and point your GoDaddy domain (mywebsite.com) so that when someone visits your site, it loads from GCP.

Goal (what we’re building)

You already bought mywebsite.com on GoDaddy. You want:

React UI hosted on GCP
Java backend API hosted on GCP
Domain routing:
- https://mywebsite.com → React UI
- https://api.mywebsite.com → Java backend (recommended)
Secure HTTPS with Google-managed certificates
Production-ready and beginner-friendly

This guide uses Cloud Run (easiest modern way). It runs containers, scales automatically, and works great for Java.

What you need before starting

A GCP account + billing enabled
Your project created in GCP
GoDaddy access (DNS settings)
Installed tools on your machine:
- Google Cloud SDK (gcloud)
- Docker
- Node.js (for React build)
- Java + Maven/Gradle (for backend build)

Architecture options (choose one)

Option A (recommended): Cloud Run for backend + Cloud Storage/CDN for UI

UI is static (fast + cheap)
Backend is on Cloud Run
Best performance and standard setup

Option B: Cloud Run for both UI and backend

Simplest to understand (both are containers)
Slightly less optimized for static UI

I’ll explain Option A fully (best practice), and at the end I’ll include Option B quickly.

Part 1 — GCP project setup

1) Create/select a GCP project

In GCP Console:

Go to IAM & Admin → Manage resources
Create a project like: mywebsite-prod

2) Enable required APIs

Go to APIs & Services → Library and enable:

Cloud Run API
Artifact Registry API
Cloud Build API
Certificate Manager API (or “Cloud Managed Certificates” depending on UI)
Cloud DNS API (optional, not required if using GoDaddy DNS)
Cloud Storage API
(Optional but recommended) Cloud CDN, Load Balancing APIs

Part 2 — Deploy Java backend to Cloud Run

Cloud Run deploys containers, so we’ll containerize your Java backend.

3) Containerize your Java backend

In your Java backend project root, create a Dockerfile.

If you’re using Spring Boot (common)


# Build stage
FROM maven:3.9-eclipse-temurin-17 AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN mvn -DskipTests package

# Run stage
FROM eclipse-temurin:17-jre
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app/target/*.jar app.jar
EXPOSE 8080
ENTRYPOINT ["java","-jar","app.jar"]

Important: Cloud Run expects your app to listen on PORT (usually 8080), so in Spring Boot make sure it runs on 8080 (default is fine).

4) Create an Artifact Registry repo (once)

In Cloud Console:

Artifact Registry → Repositories → Create
Format: Docker
Name: mywebsite-repo
Region: pick one (ex: asia-south1 / us-central1)

5) Build and push image (easy way: Cloud Build)

Open terminal and run:


gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID
gcloud auth login
gcloud auth configure-docker

Build + push using Cloud Build:


gcloud builds submit --tag REGION-docker.pkg.dev/YOUR_PROJECT_ID/mywebsite-repo/mybackend:1.0 .

Example:
us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/mywebsite-prod/mywebsite-repo/mybackend:1.0

6) Deploy backend to Cloud Run


gcloud run deploy mybackend \
  --image REGION-docker.pkg.dev/YOUR_PROJECT_ID/mywebsite-repo/mybackend:1.0 \
  --region REGION \
  --platform managed \
  --allow-unauthenticated

After deploy, Cloud Run gives you a URL like:
https://mybackend-xxxxx-uc.a.run.app

Test:

Open it in browser
Or call a health endpoint like /actuator/health

7) Configure CORS (important for React calling backend)

If your UI will be mywebsite.com and API will be api.mywebsite.com, allow that origin.

Spring example (conceptually):

Allow origin: https://mywebsite.com
Allow methods: GET/POST/PUT/DELETE/OPTIONS

This step depends on your Java framework. Do it now so browser requests don’t fail.

Part 3 — Deploy React UI (static hosting on GCP)

React is best hosted as static files.

8) Build your React app

Inside your React project:


npm install
npm run build

This produces a build/ folder.

9) Create a Cloud Storage bucket for website hosting

Go to Cloud Storage → Buckets → Create

Name: mywebsite-ui-bucket (must be globally unique)
Location: same region or multi-region
Public access: we will handle properly via LB/CDN (recommended), but for simplest beginner approach you can make it public.

Simple beginner approach (public bucket hosting)

In the bucket:

Upload contents of build/ (not the folder itself—upload files inside it)
Configure website:
- index.html
- 404.html (or index.html for SPA routing)

SPA routing tip: React apps need unknown routes to return index.html (so /about works). We’ll handle that better with Load Balancer later.

Part 4 — Connect domain in GoDaddy (DNS) to GCP

You want mywebsite.com to go to GCP.

To support HTTPS and clean routing, best practice is:

Put a Global HTTPS Load Balancer in front
Attach:
- UI backend (Cloud Storage bucket)
- API backend (Cloud Run service)
Then map your domain to the Load Balancer IP

This sounds scary, but it’s the most “real production” setup.

10) Create a Load Balancer (UI + API under one domain)

What we want the load balancer to do

Requests to mywebsite.com/* → Cloud Storage (React UI)
Requests to api.mywebsite.com/* → Cloud Run (Java backend)
Google-managed SSL certificates for both

Steps (high-level)

In GCP Console:

Go to Network Services → Load balancing
Create HTTP(S) Load Balancer
Create Frontend
- HTTPS
- Add domains:
  - mywebsite.com
  - www.mywebsite.com
  - api.mywebsite.com
- Request Google-managed certificate
Create Backend
- Backend 1: Cloud Storage bucket (UI)
- Backend 2: Cloud Run service (API) using “Serverless NEG”
URL Maps / Routing:
- Host rule mywebsite.com → UI backend
- Host rule www.mywebsite.com → UI backend
- Host rule api.mywebsite.com → API backend
Reserve a static external IP for the LB (recommended)

After creation, GCP gives you an IP like: 34.xxx.xxx.xxx

11) Update GoDaddy DNS

Now go to GoDaddy → Domain → DNS

Add/Update records:

Root domain (`mywebsite.com`)

GoDaddy often supports an A record:

Type: A
Name: @
Value: <Load Balancer IP>
TTL: default

www subdomain (`www.mywebsite.com`)

Type: CNAME
Name: www
Value: mywebsite.com

API subdomain (`api.mywebsite.com`)

If using same LB IP (recommended with host-based routing):

Type: A
Name: api
Value: <Load Balancer IP>

12) Wait for DNS + SSL to become active

DNS can take minutes to hours to propagate.
SSL certificate provisioning may take some time too (commonly 15–60 minutes, sometimes longer).

Once active:

https://mywebsite.com loads React
https://api.mywebsite.com hits your backend

Part 5 — Connect React UI to Java API

13) Use environment variables in React

In React, create .env.production:


REACT_APP_API_BASE_URL=https://api.mywebsite.com

Then in code:


const API = process.env.REACT_APP_API_BASE_URL;
fetch(`${API}/your-endpoint`)

Rebuild:


npm run build

Re-upload build files to the bucket.

Part 6 — Recommended production improvements

14) Enable Cloud CDN for UI

If you front the bucket with Load Balancer, you can enable Cloud CDN for fast global caching.

15) Add backend environment config securely

Use Cloud Run environment variables:

DB connection string
secrets (prefer Secret Manager)

16) Logging + monitoring

Cloud Run logs automatically appear in:

Cloud Logging
Cloud Monitoring

Common beginner mistakes (and fixes)

1) React routes return 404

Fix: configure LB / bucket website to serve index.html for unknown paths (SPA fallback). The Load Balancer URL map can do this cleanly.

2) CORS errors

Fix: allow origin https://mywebsite.com in Java backend.

3) Backend works by URL but not by custom domain

Fix: ensure:

api.mywebsite.com DNS points to LB IP
LB host rule routes api.mywebsite.com to Cloud Run backend
SSL cert includes api.mywebsite.com

4) SSL stuck in “Provisioning”

Fix checklist:

DNS must already point correctly to LB IP
No conflicting records
Wait a bit; if still stuck, re-check domain ownership / DNS

Option B (simpler): Host both React and Java on Cloud Run

If you don’t want load balancers/buckets yet:

Make a single backend that serves React build too (Java serves static files)
Or deploy React separately as a container on Cloud Run

But: mapping a custom domain directly to Cloud Run is possible; however routing mywebsite.com and api.mywebsite.com becomes slightly less flexible than the LB approach.