Run Supabase on Your Own Server with Docker Compose

If you want full control over your backend, learning how to self host Supabase with Docker Compose on your own dedicated server is one of the best decisions you can make. You will get a private Postgres database, authentication, file storage, and a REST API, all running on your server, without sending your data to anyone else's cloud.

In this guide, you will learn everything from picking the right server to your first working API call.

Before you start, it helps to know what changes when you self-host Supabase:

The main thing is that there is no connection string shown in the Studio dashboard for self-hosted setups; you build it from your .env file.

To self host Supabase with Docker Compose, you need a dedicated server or VPS running Linux, Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 recommended. Here are the specs you need to run Supabase:

For a real production setup, go with the recommended specs. A 4 GB RAM server will run everything, but will feel slow under load. If you plan to use Logflare analytics, Realtime, or Edge Functions heavily, 8 GB+ is a much better starting point.

A dedicated server gives you consistent performance with no noisy neighbors, which matters a lot when running 12+ Docker containers at once. For stable infrastructure built for workloads like this, you can check the Dedicated Server Hosting Plans from PerLod.

First, you must connect your server via SSH, run the system update, and install the required tools:

Install Docker Engine:

Install Docker Compose plugin:

Verify the installations by checking the version:

Also, you need OpenSSL for generating secrets, which is usually pre-installed on Ubuntu:

The official Docker Compose setup lives inside the main Supabase repo. You can clone it and set up your project folder with the commands below:

Note: If you are running rootless Docker, open .env and set DOCKER_SOCKET_LOCATION to your socket path, for example, /run/user/1000/docker.sock. Otherwise, the Vector container will exit immediately.

When you self host Supabase with Docker Compose, the docker-compose.yml file includes the following services:

Note: All traffic from the outside goes through Kong on port 8000. You do not need to expose individual service ports to the internet.

You should remember that never start your self-hosted Supabase with the default example credentials. The .env.example file ships with placeholder values meant only to show the format.

Run the key generation script included in the repo:

Then run the second script to add the new API keys and asymmetric key pair:

These scripts automatically update your .env file with cryptographically secure values for:

• POSTGRES_PASSWORD: your database password.
• JWT_SECRET: signs and verifies all JWTs across services.
• SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY: safe to use in frontend code.
• SUPABASE_SECRET_KEY: server-side only, bypasses Row Level Security.
• SECRET_KEY_BASE: secures Realtime and Supavisor communications. Minimum 64 chars.
• VAULT_ENC_KEY: Supavisor encryption key. Must be exactly 32 chars.
• MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD: MinIO storage admin password.
• LOGFLARE_PUBLIC_ACCESS_TOKEN and LOGFLARE_PRIVATE_ACCESS_TOKEN.

Open the .env file and verify that none of these values are still the placeholder defaults before continuing:

At this point, you need to tell Supabase what public URL it will be reachable at. In your .env file, update these three variables:

If you have a domain name pointing to your server, use that instead of the raw IP. If you plan to set up HTTPS with a reverse proxy, use https:// and your domain here.

Then, set the Studio dashboard password, which protects access to the admin panel:

The password must include at least one letter. Do not use numbers only or special characters.

Tip: If you need a domain name for a clean production setup, PerLod's domain registration service makes it easy to grab one and point it at your server in minutes.

Supabase cannot send auth emails, like signup confirmation and password reset, without an SMTP server. In your .env file, fill in:

AWS SES, Mailgun, Resend, and Postmark all work well here. This is one of the biggest practical differences from the cloud version. On the Supabase cloud, a test SMTP server is included.

With your secrets and URLs configured, you can pull the latest Docker images with the command below:

Once the pulling is completed, start all services in detached mode:

This will take a minute or two on the first run while the database initializes. Check the status of all containers:

You should see all services showing the Up and Healthy status. If a container shows created but not Up, run the built-in test script:

Or explore logs for a specific service, for example:

For a self host Supabase with Docker Compose setup, you only need two ports open to the internet by default. Here we assume you use the UFW firewall:

Do not expose these ports externally; they should only be accessible internally between containers:

• 5432: PostgreSQL direct access.
• 6543: Supavisor transaction pooler.
• 3000: Studio, expose only via the API gateway or reverse proxy.

At this point, you can open your browser and go to:

You will be asked for a username and a password. Use the DASHBOARD_USERNAME and DASHBOARD_PASSWORD values you set in your .env file.

Once logged in, you will see the full Supabase Studio interface, the same dashboard you see on Supabase Cloud, but running entirely on your server. From here you can:

• Create and manage tables in the Table Editor.
• Write and test SQL in the SQL Editor.
• Manage authentication settings and users.
• Set up Row Level Security (RLS) policies.
• Browse storage buckets and files.
• Monitor Edge Function logs.

All APIs are available through the Kong gateway on port 8000. You can run these curl commands to verify everything works. Replace your-server-ip with your actual IP or domain, and your-publishable-key with the SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY from your .env file.

Test the REST API:

Test the Auth endpoint:

Test the Edge Functions runtime:

A successful response from any of these confirms that Kong is routing correctly and your API keys are valid. If you get a 401 Unauthorized, double-check that the API key header value exactly matches SUPABASE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY in your .env.

The self-hosted setup uses Supavisor as a connection pooler in front of Postgres. The connection string format is:

Session mode (port 5432):

Transaction mode (port 6543):

Find your POOLER_TENANT_ID and POSTGRES_PASSWORD in your .env file. The default tenant ID in the example file is your-tenant-id; change it to something meaningful before going live.

HTTP is fine for testing, but for production, you need HTTPS, especially if you use OAuth providers for social login. The recommended way is to put Nginx or Caddy in front of Kong.

Install Nginx and allow web traffic:

Create a new server block file for your Supabase domain:

Here is a minimal Nginx config for a single domain:

Important Note: Do not forget the client_max_body_size directive. Without it, file uploads to Supabase Storage will silently fail; the default Nginx limit is just 1 MB.

Enable the file, test the config, and reload Nginx:

Use Certbot to get a free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt:

After setting up HTTPS, update your .env file to use https://:

Then restart your services:

Supabase publishes tested Docker Compose releases once a month. To update:

Always check the self-hosted Supabase changelog before updating so you know if there are breaking changes or migration steps required.

In your frontend or backend app, you can use the Supabase JavaScript client the same way you would with the cloud version, just point it at your own server:

That's it. Every SDK method, including supabase.from(), supabase.auth.signUp(), supabase.storage.from(), works the same as it does against the hosted platform.

For teams who want to self host Supabase with Docker Compose in production, the server choice matters a lot. A few things to look for:

• Dedicated resources: Avoid shared CPU plans; Supabase runs 12+ containers and needs consistent performance.
• NVMe SSD storage: Postgres is I/O heavy; spinning disks will bottleneck you.
• Root SSH access: Required for Docker installation and firewall configuration.
• Scalable specs: Start at 4 GB RAM and 4 CPU cores, plan to upgrade as you grow.

If you are still looking for which server works best before going full dedicated, this guide on the best VPS for Supabase self-hosting covers the right specs and configurations in detail.

Self-hosting Supabase with Docker Compose gives you a private backend fully under your control on your own server. After setup, it works almost the same as the cloud version, but you keep full control of your data and costs. For reliable infrastructure, you can use PerLod Dedicated Server Hosting for your production Supabase server.