Self hosting Docmost, an open-source alternative to Notion

Ever thought of privacy concerns while using 3rd party apps? If so, docmost is the best solution for you.

Docmost is an open-source alternative to Confluence and Notion, which you can self-host and all the data stays on your servers. It is build using React, Node.js and PostgreSQL.

Self hosting docmost may sound like a daunting task, but it's not that hard. In this guide, I will show you how to deploy docmost on your VPS and setting it up a custom domain.

Prerequisites

1. A VPS ofcourse.
2. A domain name.
3. Basic knowledge of Linux and Docker.

Tools that we will be using

1. Docker
2. Nginx (for reverse proxy)
3. Certbot (for SSL)

Step 1: Setting up the environment

1. SSH into your VPS. I am using a VPS with Ubuntu 20.04.

ssh user@your-vps-ip

2. Install Docker.

Set up Docker's apt repository.

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

Install the Docker packages.

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Verify that the Docker Engine installation is successful by running the hello-world image.

sudo docker run hello-world

You should see the following output:

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
 1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
 2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
    (arm64v8)
 3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
    executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
 4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
    to your terminal.

To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
 $ docker run -it ubuntu bash

Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
 https://hub.docker.com/

For more examples and ideas, visit:
 https://docs.docker.com/get-started/

3. Install Nginx

sudo apt install nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx

Step 2: Deploying Docmost

1. Create docker-compose.yml file with the following content.

services:
  docmost:
    image: docmost/docmost:latest
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis
    environment:
      APP_URL: "http://localhost:3000"
      APP_SECRET: "REPLACE_WITH_LONG_SECRET"
      DATABASE_URL: "postgresql://docmost:STRONG_DB_PASSWORD@db:5432/docmost?schema=public"
      REDIS_URL: "redis://redis:6379"
     MAIL_DRIVER: 'smtp'
      SMTP_HOST: 'REPLACE_WITH_SMTP_HOST'
      SMTP_PORT: 'REPLACE_WITH_SMTP_PORT'
      SMTP_USERNAME: 'REPLACE_WITH_SMTP_USERNAME'
      SMTP_PASSWORD: 'REPLACE_WITH_SMTP_PASSWORD'
      MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS: 'REPLACE_WITH_SMTP_EMAIL'
      MAIL_FROM_NAME: 'REPLACE_WITH_SMTP_NAME'
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - docmost:/app/data/storage

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: docmost
      POSTGRES_USER: docmost
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: STRONG_DB_PASSWORD
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  redis:
    image: redis:7.2-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - redis_data:/data

volumes:
  docmost:
  db_data:
  redis_data:

If you want to invite others to use this workspace, you will need to add SMTP variables to send invitation through emails. You can use Zoho to get free custom emails.

Make sure to update environment variables with your own values and take a look at supported variables.

2. Run the following command to run the container.

docker compose up --build -d

3. Visit http://your-vps-ip:3000 to see docmost running.

Step 3: Setting up custom domain with Nginx

1. Visit your domain registrar and add an A record pointing to your VPS IP.
2. Create a new Nginx configuration file.

touch /etc/nginx/sites-available/docmost

3. Add the following content to the file.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name <domain_name> www.<domain_name>;

    # Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
    location / {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name <domain_name> www.<domain_name>;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:<project_port>/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Make sure to replace <domain_name> with your domain name and <project_port> with the port on which docmost is running.

4. Create a symbolic link to the sites-enabled directory.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/docmost /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/docmost

5. Restart Nginx.

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 4: Setting up SSL with Certbot

1. Install Certbot.

sudo apt install python3-certbot-nginx -y

2. Obtain SSL certificate.

sudo certbot --nginx -d <domain_name> -d www.<domain_name>

3. Restart Nginx.

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Conclusion

You have successfully deployed docmost on your VPS and set up a custom domain with a free SSL certificate. You can now access docmost at https://your-domain.com.

Feel free to reach out to me on X or drop an Email if you have any questions or need help.

References

1. Docmost
2. Docker Documentation
3. Nginx Documentation
4. Certbot Documentation
5. Zoho Mail