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Pixelfed + Docker Prerequisites ​

If anything is confusing, unclear, missing, or maybe even wrong on this page, then please let us know by submitting a bug report ❤️

This guide will help you install and run Pixelfed on your server using Docker Compose.

Recommendations and requirements for hardware and software needed to run Pixelfed using Docker Compose.

You should have some experience with Linux (e.g., Ubuntu or Debian), SSH, and lightweight server administration.

Server ​

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) or Dedicated Server (also known as root server) you can SSH into, for example:

Hardware ​

Hardware requirements depend on the number of users you have (or plan to have) and how active they are.

A safe starter/small instance hardware for ~25 users and below are:

  • CPU/vCPU 2 cores.
  • RAM 2-4 GB As your instance grows, memory requirements will increase for the database.
  • Storage 20-50 GB HDD is fine, but ideally, SSD or NVMe, especially for the database.
  • Network 100 Mbit/s or faster.

Software ​

Required software to be installed on your server

Network ​

  • Port 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) ports forwarded to the server.
    • Example for Ubuntu using ufw for port 80: ufw allow 80
    • Example for Ubuntu using ufw for port 443: ufw allow 443

Domain and DNS ​

  • A Domain (or subdomain) is needed for the Pixelfed server (for example, pixelfed.social or pixelfed.mydomain.com)
  • Having the required A/CNAME DNS records for your domain (above) pointing to your server.
    • Typically, an A record for the root (sometimes shown as @) record for mydomain.com
    • Possibly an A record for www. subdomain.

SMTP provider (Optional) ​

What is this?

An E-mail/SMTP provider is used for sending e-mails to your users, such as e-mail confirmation and notifications.

WARNING

If you don't plan to use an e-mail/SMTP provider, then make sure to set ENFORCE_EMAIL_VERIFICATION="false" in your .env file!

There are many providers out there with wildly different pricing structures, features, and reliability.

It's beyond the scope of this document to detail which provider to pick or how to correctly configure them. Still, some providers that are known to be working well - with generous free tiers and affordable packages - are included for your convince (in no particular order) below:

  • Simple Email Service (SES) by Amazon Web Services (AWS) is pay-as-you-go with a cost of $0.10/1000 emails.
  • Brevo (formerly SendInBlue) has a Free Tier with 300 e-mails/day.
  • Postmark has a Free Tier with 100 e-mails/month.
  • Forward Email has a $3/mo/domain plan with both sending and receiving included.
  • Mailtrap has a 1000 e-mails/month free tier (their E-mail Sending product, not the E-mail Testing one).

Object Storage (Optional) ​

What is this?

An Object Storage provider stores all media content remotely rather than locally on your server. It's often cheaper to use an Object Storage service than to have media files stored directly on the HDD, especially for medium to large data volumes.

TIP

This is entirely optional - by default, Pixelfed will store all uploads (videos, images, etc.) directly on your servers' storage.

Object storage is a technology that stores and manages data in an unstructured format called objects. Modern organizations create and analyze large volumes of unstructured data such as photos, videos, e-mail, web pages, sensor data, and audio files.

-- What is object storage? by Amazon Web Services

It's beyond the scope of this document to detail which provider to pick or how to correctly configure them. Still, some providers that are known to be working well - with generous free tiers and affordable packages - are included for your convince (in no particular order) below: