Open the server Apps tab
Select your VPS, open the Apps tab, and start a new app deployment. Keep sensitive server details hidden before capturing or sharing screenshots.


Invoicing, quotes, and payment management
Add your server credentials to Server Compass
Choose from our template library
Fill in settings and click Deploy
Use the Invoice Ninja template in Server Compass to deploy a self-hosted invoicing and billing platform with MySQL-backed web application on your VPS, then verify the Invoice Ninja web UI in a browser.
Select your VPS, open the Apps tab, and start a new app deployment. Keep sensitive server details hidden before capturing or sharing screenshots.

Click New App and choose the template deployment path so Server Compass can load the built-in catalog.

Use the template picker search to find Invoice Ninja in the Server Compass template catalog.

Choose the Invoice Ninja template. Server Compass fills the Invoice Ninja app, Nginx web server, and MySQL database services.

Confirm the app name and compose services. In this run, the app was named invoice-ninja-demo and used host port 8080.

Review the generated environment values, confirm the port is available, and click Deploy Now.

Keep the deployment modal open while Server Compass uploads the compose file, pulls the Invoice Ninja image, starts the container, and verifies the stack.

After deployment finishes, return to the Apps tab and confirm the Invoice Ninja app is marked Running with its application URL available.

Open the application URL in a browser. The Invoice Ninja web UI confirms the site is reachable.

The Invoice Ninja web UI loaded successfully in a browser.
It deploys Invoice Ninja with an Nginx web front end and MySQL database storage.
The tutorial used host port 8080, which maps to the Invoice Ninja Nginx web service on container port 80.
The tutorial verifies the clean Invoice Ninja web UI because company settings, email delivery, invoice numbering, and payment configuration depend on the production server.
No. The deployment guide should live on the Invoice Ninja template detail page and be linked from the reusable template deployment docs page.
Prefer the command line? Follow this step-by-step guide to deploy Invoice Ninja manually on your VPS.
Begin by establishing a secure connection to your server through the terminal.
# Access your VPS
ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP
# With SSH key authentication
ssh -i ~/.ssh/your-private-key root@YOUR_SERVER_IPFirst time? Ensure Docker is installed first: curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
Create a dedicated folder for your application files.
# Create and navigate to project directory
mkdir -p ~/apps/invoice-ninja
cd ~/apps/invoice-ninjaCreate the following docker-compose.yml in your project directory:
services:
web:
image: nginx:alpine
ports:
- "8080:80"
volumes:
- invoiceninja_public:/var/www/app/public:ro
- invoiceninja_storage:/var/www/app/storage:ro
depends_on:
- invoiceninja
command: |
/bin/sh -c "cat > /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf <<'EOF'
server {
listen 80;
server_name _;
root /var/www/app/public;
index index.php index.html;
client_max_body_size 100m;
location / {
try_files $$uri $$uri/ /index.php?$$query_string;
}
location ~ \.php$$ {
try_files $$uri =404;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$$;
fastcgi_pass invoiceninja:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $$document_root$$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $$fastcgi_path_info;
}
location ~ /\. {
deny all;
}
}
EOF
nginx -g 'daemon off;'"
restart: unless-stopped
invoiceninja:
image: invoiceninja/invoiceninja-debian:latest
environment:
- APP_URL=<your-app-url>
- APP_KEY=<your-app-key>
- APP_ENV=production
- APP_DEBUG=false
- [email protected]
- IN_PASSWORD=<your-in-password>
- DB_HOST=db
- DB_DATABASE=ninja
- DB_USERNAME=ninja
- DB_PASSWORD=<your-db-password>
- REQUIRE_HTTPS=false
volumes:
- invoiceninja_public:/var/www/app/public
- invoiceninja_storage:/var/www/app/storage
restart: unless-stopped
depends_on:
db:
condition: service_healthy
db:
image: mysql:8.0
environment:
- MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=<your-db-root-password>
- MYSQL_DATABASE=ninja
- MYSQL_USER=ninja
- MYSQL_PASSWORD=<your-db-password>
volumes:
- mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
restart: unless-stopped
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD-SHELL", "mysqladmin ping -h localhost -u root -p$$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD || exit 1"]
interval: 10s
timeout: 5s
retries: 5
start_period: 30s
volumes:
invoiceninja_public:
invoiceninja_storage:
mysql_data:
PORTHost port(default: 8080)APP_URLFull application URL with http:// (auto-populated)APP_KEYLaravel app key (auto-generated)IN_PASSWORDInitial admin passwordDB_PASSWORDDB passwordRun Docker Compose to launch your application.
# Launch the stack
docker compose up -d
# Verify container status
docker compose ps
# Follow the logs
docker compose logs --followConfigure UFW to allow traffic to your application.
# Allow the application port through firewall
sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp
sudo ufw reload
# Access your app at:
# http://your-server-ip:8080Deploy Invoice Ninja with a beautiful UI instead. No SSH, no YAML editing, no terminal commands. Just click, configure, and deploy in under 3 minutes.
After deploying Invoice Ninja with Server Compass, complete these steps to finish setup
Create admin account
Configure company settings
Need help? Check out our documentation for detailed guides.
Common questions about self-hosting Invoice Ninja
Simply download Server Compass, connect to your VPS, and select Invoice Ninja from the templates list. Fill in the required configuration and click Deploy. The entire process takes under 3 minutes.
Invoice Ninja requires a minimum of 512MB RAM. We recommend a VPS with at least 1024MB RAM for optimal performance. Any modern Linux server with Docker support will work.
Yes! Server Compass provides volume mapping that allows you to import existing data. You can also use standard Invoice Ninja backup and restore procedures.
Server Compass makes updates easy. Simply click the Update button in your deployment dashboard, and the latest Invoice Ninja image will be pulled and deployed with zero downtime.
Invoice Ninja is open-source software. You only pay for your VPS hosting (typically $5-20/month) and optionally Server Compass ($29 one-time). No subscription fees or per-seat pricing.
Download Server Compass and deploy Invoice Ninja to your VPS in under 3 minutes. No Docker expertise required.
Download Server Compass