SpiderFolio
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Self-hosting

Server requirements

The server, network, domain and services you need to host SpiderFolio, and how to prepare it before installing.

SpiderFolio runs on any Linux server with Docker. This guide helps you choose and prepare it before moving on to Install on your server.

Hardware

Resource Recommended
CPU and RAM 2 vCPUs and 4 GB for a company of up to about 200 people. Add 1 GB if you turn on Gotenberg (PDFs).
Disk SSD, from 40 GB: the system, Docker images and the database, plus the size of your files (if you keep them on local disk) and room for backups.

If you keep files in an S3 bucket (Storage), the server’s disk only needs the database and the backups.

Software

  • Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky… any distribution with Docker).

  • Docker Engine 24 or later and Docker Compose v2. Check with:

    docker --version
docker compose version

  • git to download the project and openssl to generate the secrets.

You don’t need to install Node or PostgreSQL: they come in the images.

Network and domain

  • A domain or subdomain (for example docs.your-company.com) with a DNS A record pointing to the server’s public IP (and AAAA if you use IPv6). Check it before starting:

    dig +short docs.your-company.com

  • Open ports: 22 (SSH, ideally only from your IPs), 80 and 443. Port 80 is needed for Let’s Encrypt to issue the certificate.

  • HTTPS: sessions use secure cookies, so without HTTPS you can only sign in from the server itself (localhost). See Proxy and HTTPS.

  • The database doesn’t need any open port.

External services

  • Email (SMTP) server, required: your company’s or a transactional service (Resend, Postmark, Amazon SES…). Check that your hosting provider doesn’t block outgoing ports 587 or 465.
  • S3 bucket, optional: AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, MinIO or another compatible service.
  • Anthropic account, optional: only if you turn on Bian, the AI assistant.

Prepare the server

Before loading real data:

  1. Create your own user with sudo and don’t work as root.
  2. SSH with keys only, no passwords.
  3. A firewall that only allows 22, 80 and 443.
  4. Automatic security updates for the system.
  5. Set deploy/.env permissions to 600.
  6. Schedule daily backups off the server and test a restore.

Basic monitoring

  • An external uptime monitor on https://your-domain/api/health: it returns {"status":"ok"} when the API and the database are working.
  • A disk alert at 80 % (df -h, docker system df).
  • From time to time, each company’s Audit log: spikes in failed sign-ins.

Next step

Install on your server.