diff --git a/Procfile b/Procfile
index 9e003b96d..19bdcf90d 100644
--- a/Procfile
+++ b/Procfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-web: npm start
+web: npm run start:heroku
 jobhandler: npm run prod-job-handler
 messagesender01: npm run prod-message-sender-01
 messagesender234: npm run prod-message-sender-234
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 68b25221f..bbd6b2c26 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
     "postinstall": "if [ \"$NODE_ENV\" = production ] ; then npm run prod-build && npm run prod-static-upload && npm run notify-slack; fi",
     "notify-slack": "if [ \"$SLACK_NOTIFY_URL\" != \"\" ] ; then echo notifying slack && curl -XPOST -d '{\"channel\": \"#spoke\", \"text\":\"'\"$(whoami) building spoke $(git log -1 --pretty=%h) for $AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME\"'\"}' $SLACK_NOTIFY_URL; fi",
     "start": "node ./build/server/server",
+    "start:heroku": "BASE_URL=$(node ./build/server/heroku/print-base-url) npm start",
     "dev-message-sender-01": "nodemon -e js,jsx -w ./src --exec ./dev-tools/babel-run -- ./src/workers/message-sender-01",
     "prod-message-sender-01": "./dev-tools/babel-run ./src/workers/message-sender-01.js",
     "dev-message-sender-234": "nodemon -e js,jsx -w ./src --exec ./dev-tools/babel-run -- ./src/workers/message-sender-234",
diff --git a/src/heroku/print-base-url.js b/src/heroku/print-base-url.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5b1f9329d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/heroku/print-base-url.js
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+if (process.env.BASE_URL) {
+  console.log(process.env.BASE_URL)
+} else if (process.env.HEROKU_APP_NAME) {
+  console.log(`https://${process.env.HEROKU_APP_NAME}.herokuapp.com`)
+} else {
+  throw new Error('Neither BASE_URL nor HEROKU_APP_NAME environment variables are present.')
+}
diff --git a/src/lib/parse-base-url.js b/src/lib/parse-base-url.js
deleted file mode 100644
index b56c2c456..000000000
--- a/src/lib/parse-base-url.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-export default function parseBaseURL() {
-  if (process.env.BASE_URL) {
-    return process.env.BASE_URL
-  } else if (process.env.HEROKU_APP_NAME) {
-    return `https://${process.env.HEROKU_APP_NAME}.herokuapp.com`
-  }
-  return ''
-}
diff --git a/src/server/auth-passport.js b/src/server/auth-passport.js
index 6c283431e..845a8b4e5 100644
--- a/src/server/auth-passport.js
+++ b/src/server/auth-passport.js
@@ -5,14 +5,13 @@ import { Strategy as LocalStrategy } from 'passport-local'
 import { userLoggedIn } from './models/cacheable_queries'
 import { User } from './models'
 import wrap from './wrap'
-import parseBaseURL from '../lib/parse-base-url'
 
 export function setupAuth0Passport() {
   const strategy = new Auth0Strategy({
     domain: process.env.AUTH0_DOMAIN,
     clientID: process.env.AUTH0_CLIENT_ID,
     clientSecret: process.env.AUTH0_CLIENT_SECRET,
-    callbackURL: `${parseBaseURL()}/login-callback`
+    callbackURL: `${process.env.BASE_URL}/login-callback`
   }, (accessToken, refreshToken, extraParams, profile, done) => done(null, profile)
   )
 
diff --git a/src/server/middleware/render-index.js b/src/server/middleware/render-index.js
index 81c8eff44..83a20e9d3 100644
--- a/src/server/middleware/render-index.js
+++ b/src/server/middleware/render-index.js
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-import parseBaseURL from '../../lib/parse-base-url'
-
 const rollbarScript = process.env.ROLLBAR_CLIENT_TOKEN ?
   `<script>
     var _rollbarConfig = {
@@ -67,7 +65,7 @@ export default function renderIndex(html, css, assetMap, store) {
       window.SUPPRESS_SELF_INVITE="${process.env.SUPPRESS_SELF_INVITE || ''}"
       window.NODE_ENV="${process.env.NODE_ENV}"
       window.PRIVACY_URL="${process.env.PRIVACY_URL || ''}"
-      window.BASE_URL="${parseBaseURL()}"
+      window.BASE_URL="${process.env.BASE_URL || ''}"
       window.NOT_IN_USA=${process.env.NOT_IN_USA || 0}
       window.ALLOW_SEND_ALL=${process.env.ALLOW_SEND_ALL || 0}
       window.BULK_SEND_CHUNK_SIZE=${process.env.BULK_SEND_CHUNK_SIZE || 0}