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Deploy on a VPS

A VPS is a rented internet-connected server from a hosting provider.

This option is for people who want more independence than a managed platform, while still using hosted infrastructure instead of their own hardware.

Who should choose this?

Choose a VPS if:

  • you want more control over where the suite runs
  • you want the option to change hosting providers later
  • you are comfortable following technical setup steps

Tradeoffs

Compared with Railway:

  • setup is more manual
  • you manage more of the server and deployment details
  • the learning curve is higher

In return, you get:

  • more hosting flexibility
  • less platform lock-in
  • a clearer path to long-term independence

Privacy and ownership angle

Using a VPS still means your data lives on hardware owned by a hosting provider, but the relationship is much closer to renting server space than signing up for a consumer software ecosystem.

That matters because:

  • you choose the host instead of being locked into one app company
  • your suite remains your own deployed stack
  • you can change providers later if pricing or terms stop fitting you
  • your data is not being handed to a bundled consumer platform whose business depends on keeping you inside its ecosystem

In other words, the infrastructure is rented, but the suite is still yours.

Current guide

This is the current documented and maintained self-managed path in the repository.

Use the VPS/local Docker Compose setup described in:

What you will need

  • A VPS from a provider of your choice
  • Docker and Docker Compose
  • Comfort editing environment values and running command-line setup steps

Optional advanced email setup

If you already understand what an SMTP server is and have one available, the VPS stack can optionally reuse one shared SMTP configuration for compatible apps such as Seafile and Vaultwarden.

This is not required for the suite itself to work. It is simply an advanced extra for features like password reset emails, verification emails, and some share-link notifications.

The full technical setup belongs in the dedicated SMTP guide:

Typical flow

At a high level, the VPS flow is:

  1. Clone the repository.
  2. Initialize the environment files.
  3. Review your suite-manager values.
  4. Run validation checks.
  5. Start the stack with Docker Compose.
  6. Open Suite Manager and finish onboarding.

For the exact hands-on steps, start with the current How to get started guide and the technical deployment notes in deploy/vps/README.md.