How do I get Flask to run on port 80?

1- Stop other applications that are using port 80. 2- run application with port 80 :

if __name__ == '__main__':
      app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=80)

For externally visible server, where you don't use apache or other web server you just type

flask run --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80

So it's throwing up that error message because you have apache2 running on port 80.

If this is for development, I would just leave it as it is on port 5000.

If it's for production either:

Not Recommended

• Stop apache2 first;

Not recommended as it states in the documentation:

You can use the builtin server during development, but you should use a full deployment option for production applications. (Do not use the builtin development server in production.)

Recommended

• Proxy HTTP traffic through apache2 to Flask.

This way, apache2 can handle all your static files (which it's very good at - much better than the debug server built into Flask) and act as a reverse proxy for your dynamic content, passing those requests to Flask.

Here's a link to the official documentation about setting up Flask with Apache + mod_wsgi.

Edit 1 - Clarification for @Djack

Proxy HTTP traffic to Flask through apache2

When a request comes to the server on port 80 (HTTP) or port 443 (HTTPS) a web server like Apache or Nginx handles the connection of the request and works out what to do with it. In our case a request received should be configured to be passed through to Flask on the WSGI protocol and handled by the Python code. This is the "dynamic" part.

reverse proxy for dynamic content

There are a few advantages to configuring your web server like the above;

• SSL Termination - The web server will be optimized to handle HTTPS requests with only a little configuration. Don't "roll your own" in Python which is probably very insecure in comparison.
• Security - Opening a port to the internet requires careful consideration of security. Flask's development server is not designed for this and could have open bugs or security issues in comparison to a web server designed for this purpose. Note that a badly configured web server can also be insecure!
• Static File Handling - It is possible for the builtin Flask web server to handle static files however this is not recommended; Nginx/Apache are much more efficient at handling static files like images, CSS, Javascript files and will only pass "dynamic" requests (those where the content is often read from a database or the content changes) to be handled by the Python code.
• +more. This is bordering on scope for this question. If you want more info do some research into this area.

If you use the following to change the port or host:

if __name__ == '__main__':
  app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=80)

use the following code to start the server (my main entrance for flask is app.py):

python app.py

instead of using:

flask run