Start Here — Self-Hosting from Zero¶

New to self-hosting? This page takes you from nothing to your first running service. Every other guide on this site assumes you've done the steps below — do them once and the whole site opens up.

Break things, start small, document everything.

Step 1 — Pick your hardware¶

You don't need a server rack. Any of these work:

Step 2 — Install Ubuntu Server¶

The guides on this site are written against Ubuntu Server LTS (Debian works nearly identically).

1. Download Ubuntu Server LTS
2. Flash it to a USB stick with balenaEtcher or Rufus
3. Boot from the USB and follow the installer — enable OpenSSH server when prompted
4. Once installed, connect from your main machine: ssh your-user@<server-ip>

Step 3 — Install Docker¶

Nearly every guide on this site deploys with Docker Compose. Install Docker using the official convenience script:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh

Then add your user to the docker group so you don't need sudo for every command:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and back in for the group change to take effect, then verify:

docker --version
docker compose version

Both commands should print version numbers. That's it — Docker Compose v2 ships with Docker.

Step 4 — Docker in five minutes¶

The handful of concepts that every guide on this site uses:

• Image — the application package, pulled from a registry (e.g. louislam/uptime-kuma)
• Container — a running instance of an image
• Volume — persistent storage. Containers are disposable; volumes are where your data survives. This is what you back up.
• Ports — 8080:80 means "host port 8080 → container port 80". You browse to the host port.
• Environment variables — per-container settings (passwords, timezones, URLs)
• Compose file — a docker-compose.yml describing all of the above, so your whole setup is one readable text file

The workflow is the same for everything you'll ever deploy:

mkdir ~/docker/<app> && cd ~/docker/<app>   # one folder per app
nano docker-compose.yml                      # paste the compose file from a guide
docker compose up -d                         # start it
docker compose logs -f                       # watch the logs (Ctrl+C to exit)

Step 5 — Your first container¶

Uptime Kuma is the perfect first deploy — a beautiful status/monitoring dashboard, one service, no database, instantly satisfying.

mkdir -p ~/docker/uptime-kuma && cd ~/docker/uptime-kuma

Create docker-compose.yml:

services:
  uptime-kuma:
    image: louislam/uptime-kuma:1
    container_name: uptime-kuma
    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/data
    ports:
      - 3001:3001
    restart: unless-stopped

Start it:

docker compose up -d

Open http://<server-ip>:3001, create your admin account, and add a monitor for a website you care about.

You are now self-hosting. 🎉

Step 6 — Where to go next¶

The golden rules¶

Stuck? Join the Discord — the community is friendly and someone has hit your error before.

If there is an issue with this guide or you wish to suggest changes, please raise an issue on GitHub.