Deploying Dokploy - Self-Hosted PaaS for Docker Applications on Ubuntu 24.04

Description and use

Dokploy is successfully installed on Ubuntu 24.04, a sample Docker app is deployed with automatic build via Nixpacks, a custom domain with Let’s Encrypt HTTPS is configured, a PostgreSQL database is provisioned, and the dashboard and app are accessible over secure HTTPS with real‑time monitoring.

Problem

Need a free, self‑hosted PaaS to deploy Docker apps, manage databases, and provide HTTPS without using commercial services like Heroku, Vercel or Netlify.

Outcome

Workflow

Update packages with sudo apt update
Run Dokploy installer: curl -sSL https://dokploy.com/install.sh | sudo sh
Add current user to Docker group: sudo usermod -aG docker $USER && newgrp docker
Verify services with docker service ls
Open http://SERVER_IP:3000 and register to access the dashboard
Create a new project and add an application
Configure source: GitHub provider, repository URL, branch main
Set build type to Nixpacks (or other) and deploy
Open firewall for HTTP/HTTPS: sudo ufw allow 80/tcp && sudo ufw allow 443/tcp && sudo ufw enable
Add custom domain in the app’s Domains tab, enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt
Verify DNS resolves to server IP using dig
Visit https://app.example.com to confirm Traefik issues certificate
Secure the Dokploy dashboard: Settings → Web Server, set domain, enable HTTPS, confirm access, then remove direct IP:port exposure with docker service update --publish-rm "published=3000,target=3000,mode=host" dokploy
Create a PostgreSQL database service, deploy it, and copy the Internal Connection URL to the app’s Environment variables
Redeploy the app
Monitor resources via the Monitoring tab

Evidence

Congratulations, Dokploy is installed! Wait 15 seconds for the server to start

Source

Traefik issues the certificate on first request and renews automatically before expiry

Source

Record date: 2026-09-09T23:01:01.164Z