Self-host Traefik

A cloud-native reverse proxy that auto-discovers your Docker containers via labels and provisions TLS for them automatically. More setup than a UI proxy, but unbeatable once your stack grows.

Key facts

What you need

• Any VPS with at least 256 MB of RAM
• A domain you control — most self-hosted setups need HTTPS in front of them
• About an afternoon — budget time for troubleshooting

Install with Docker Compose

Save this as compose.yml and run docker compose up -d:

copy# Traefik reads Docker labels — mount the docker socket read-only
# enable the docker provider + an ACME resolver in traefik.yml, then:
docker compose up -d  #  dashboard →  http://SERVER_IP:8080
# add labels to each app container to expose it via a host rule