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Self-host PLANKA

updated Sep 2026prices checked · Jul 2026Install verified on Ubuntu 26.04 · Sep 2026 · how we test
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Kanban board for teams and personal projects, with projects, boards, lists, cards, labels, due dates, attachments, comments and real-time updates. Source-available under the PLANKA Community License (a fair-use license): free for personal use, internal use within your own organization and non-profits, but hosting it for third parties for commercial gain needs a paid commercial license.

Key facts

LicensePLANKA Community License
StackJavaScript, React, Sails.js, PostgreSQL
Min RAM512 MB
Official imageyes
Measured idle RAM202 MB
Difficulty

What you need

  • Any VPS with at least 512 MB of RAM
  • A domain you control — most self-hosted setups need HTTPS in front of them
  • Under an hour if you've used Docker before
Where to host itaffiliate disclosure
Hetzner Cloudrun it on
From $23.59/mo · 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB · EU + US
Get Hetzner Cloud (opens in new tab)
Kamaterafree trial
From $4/mo · 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 20 GB · US + EU + Asia
Start free on Kamatera → (opens in new tab)
DigitalOceanalso works on
From $6/mo · 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB · US + EU + Asia
Deploy on DigitalOcean → (opens in new tab)

Paid link — we earn a commission if you shop through it.

Install

Run these commands on your server:

# PLANKA + PostgreSQL — the official docker-compose.yml, trimmed
mkdir -p planka && cd planka
# Generated signing key and first-admin password (read it back with: cat .env)
printf 'SECRET_KEY=%s\nADMIN_PASSWORD=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 64)" "$(openssl rand -hex 12)" > .env
cat > docker-compose.yml <<'EOF'
services:
  planka:
    image: ghcr.io/plankanban/planka:2.2.1
    restart: on-failure
    volumes: ["data:/app/data"]
    ports: ["3000:1337"]
    environment:
      BASE_URL: http://SERVER_IP:3000
      DATABASE_URL: postgresql://postgres@postgres/planka
      SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
      DEFAULT_ADMIN_EMAIL: admin@example.com
      DEFAULT_ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
      DEFAULT_ADMIN_NAME: Admin
      DEFAULT_ADMIN_USERNAME: admin
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: on-failure
    volumes: ["db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data"]
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: planka
      POSTGRES_HOST_AUTH_METHOD: trust
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres -d planka"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
volumes:
  data:
  db-data:
EOF
docker compose up -d   #  →  http://SERVER_IP:3000  (log in as admin@example.com with ADMIN_PASSWORD from .env)

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