The easiest way to get started with Typebot is with [the official managed service in the Cloud](https://app.typebot.io). You'll have high availability, backups, security, and maintenance all managed for you by me, Baptiste, Typebot's founder.
The cloud version can save a substantial amount of developer time and resources. For most sites this ends up being the best value option and the revenue goes to funding the maintenance and further development of Typebot. So you’ll be supporting open source software and getting a great service!
You need a server with Docker installed. If your server doesn't come with Docker pre-installed, you can follow [their docs](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/#server) to install it.
The compose file has placeholders for the required parameters. To set the parameters you'll first need a random 32-character secret key which will be used to encrypt sensitive data. Here is a simple way to generate one:
- Replace `<your-encryption-secret>` with the generated secret.
- Replace `<your-builder-url>` with the public URL of the builder (i.e. `https://typebot.domain.com:8080`).
- Replace `<your-viewer-url>` with the public URL of the viewer (i.e. `https://typebot.domain.com:8081`).
- Replace `<your-admin-email>` with the email address of the administrator.
- Configure at least one authentication provider (Email, Google, GitHub, Facebook or GitLab). More info here: [Configuration](https://docs.typebot.io/self-hosting/configuration).
By default the compose file will pull the latest stable Typebot images: `baptistearno/typebot-builder:latest` and `baptistearno/typebot-viewer:latest`. You can decide to replace `latest` with a specific version or with `main` to get the latest modifications. You can find all the existing tags [here](https://hub.docker.com/r/baptistearno/typebot-builder/tags)
Once you've added your configuration to the compose file, you're ready to start up the server:
```sh
docker-compose up -d
```
When you run this command it does the following:
- Create a database
- Run the migrations
- Start the builder on port 8080
- Start the viewer on port 8081
You can now navigate to `http://typebot.domain.com:8080` and see the login screen. Login with the admin email to have access to a Team plan workspace automatically.
Typebot server itself does not perform SSL termination. It only runs on unencrypted HTTP. If you want to run on HTTPS you also need to set up a reverse proxy in front of the server. See below instructions.
### Update Typebot
Typebot is updated regularly, but it is up to you to apply these updates on your server. By virtue of using Docker, these updates are safe and easy to apply.
The self-hosted version is somewhat of a LTS, only getting the changes after they have been battle tested on the hosted version. If you want features as soon as they are available, consider becoming a hosted customer.
## Optional extras
### Reverse proxy
By default, Typebot runs on unencrypted HTTP on ports 8080 for the builder and 8081 for the viewer. We recommend running it on HTTPS behind a reverse proxy of some sort. You may or may not already be running a reverse proxy on your host, let's look at both options:
#### No existing reverse proxy
If your DNS is managed by a service that offers a proxy option with automatic SSL management, feel free to use that. For example, you could use Cloudflare as a reverse proxy in front of Typebot.
Alternatively, you can run your Caddy server as a reverse proxy. This way your SSL certificate will be stored on the host machine and managed by Let's Encrypt. The Caddy server will expose port 443, terminate SSL traffic and proxy the requests to your Typebot server.
You can merge this compose file with the first one. Make sure that `NEXTAUTH_URL` is set to `https://typebot.domain.com` and `NEXT_PUBLIC_VIEWER_URL` is set to `https://bot.domain.com`.
When running the compose file, it should automatically enable SSL on your server and you should be able to navigate to:
I highly recommend using an external SMTP service. There are tons of options out there, including [SendInBlue](https://www.sendinblue.com/), [Mailgun](https://www.mailgun.com/) and [SendGrid](https://sendgrid.com/). It will avoid severe headaches 😅. Then, you will only need to add the required [SMTP configuration variables](/self-hosting/configuration/builder#email-auth-notifications).
If, however, you don't want to, you can instantiate an SMTP server in the docker-compose file.
```yml
version: '3.3'
services:
mail:
image: bytemark/smtp
restart: always
typebot-builder:
environment:
- SMTP_HOST=mail
- NEXT_PUBLIC_SMTP_FROM=notifications@typebot.domain.com # change to your domain name
typebot-viewer:
- SMTP_HOST=mail
- NEXT_PUBLIC_SMTP_FROM=notifications@typebot.domain.com # change to your domain name
```
You will probably need to make sure that `typebot.domain.com` has a valid SPF record and that your server IP has a rDNS set up.
You can merge this compose file with the main one.
### S3 storage
If you don't already have an S3 storage available, you could include it in your docker-compose file:
```yml
version: '3.3'
services:
minio:
image: minio/minio
command: server /data
ports:
- '9000:9000'
environment:
MINIO_ROOT_USER: minio
MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD: minio123
volumes:
- s3_data:/data
# This service just makes sure a bucket with the right policies is created
If you're self-hosting Typebot, [sponsoring me](https://github.com/sponsors/baptisteArno) is a great way to give back to the community and to contribute to the long-term sustainability of the project.
<SponsorButton />
Thank you for supporting independent creators of Free Open Source Software!
:::
:::note
This doc has been inspired by [Plausible docs](https://plausible.io/docs). They have a similar self-hosting solutions, and their documentation is 🔥.
