How to Self-Host Supabase on a VPS (Production Setup)

Supabase is fantastic until you are paying for it like a B2B platform.

Self-hosting is not free: you take on ops responsibility. But if you have stable usage and you want predictable cost, a VPS Supabase can make sense.

This guide shows a production-minded setup: HTTPS, persistent storage, and the things people forget (backups).

What you will have at the end

• Supabase running on your VPS
• a domain with HTTPS
• a folder layout you can back up
• a repeatable way to update the stack

Step 1: Prepare the server

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install Docker if needed:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

Step 2: Create a clean directory layout

mkdir -p ~/apps/supabase
cd ~/apps/supabase
mkdir -p volumes env

The goal is simple: your data and your config must be easy to find and back up.

Step 3: Create environment variables

Create env/supabase.env:

SITE_URL=https://supabase.your-domain.com
JWT_SECRET=change-me
ANON_KEY=change-me
SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=change-me

In practice you will generate proper secrets. Do not reuse example secrets.

Step 4: Use Docker Compose (your deployment primitive)

Supabase has multiple services. Docker Compose is the clean way to keep it manageable.

Create docker-compose.yml:

services:
  traefik:
    image: traefik:v2.11
    command:
      - --providers.docker=true
      - --providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false
      - --entrypoints.web.address=:80
      - --entrypoints.websecure.address=:443
      - --certificatesresolvers.letsencrypt.acme.tlschallenge=true
      - [email protected]
      - --certificatesresolvers.letsencrypt.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json
    ports:
      - 80:80
      - 443:443
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - letsencrypt:/letsencrypt
    restart: unless-stopped

  supabase:
    image: supabase/supabase:latest
    env_file:
      - env/supabase.env
    labels:
      - traefik.enable=true
      - traefik.http.routers.supabase.rule=Host(`supabase.your-domain.com`)
      - traefik.http.routers.supabase.entrypoints=websecure
      - traefik.http.routers.supabase.tls=true
      - traefik.http.routers.supabase.tls.certresolver=letsencrypt
      - traefik.http.services.supabase.loadbalancer.server.port=3000
    volumes:
      - ./volumes:/var/lib/supabase
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  letsencrypt:

This is a simplified representation. For a real production install, you will run the individual Supabase services (Postgres, Kong, Auth, Realtime, Storage) explicitly. The point of this tutorial is to make the deployment shape clear and maintainable.

Step 5: Deploy and verify

docker compose up -d
docker compose ps

Check Traefik logs for TLS success:

docker logs -f $(docker ps --filter name=traefik -q)

Step 6: Backups (do not skip this)

If you self-host a database and you do not back it up, you are not self-hosting. You are gambling.

At minimum:

• nightly volume snapshot (provider feature)
• nightly logical database dump (if you run Postgres directly)

Example (when you have a db container):

docker exec -t db pg_dumpall -c -U postgres > ~/backups/supabase.sql

Troubleshooting

TLS fails

• DNS A record wrong
• ports 80/443 blocked
• Traefik cannot write acme.json (volume permissions)

Everything works locally but not on the domain

• you routed the wrong hostname in Traefik labels
• you have multiple routers conflicting

Supabase feels slow

• your VPS is under-sized
• your disk is slow (common on low-end instances)
• you need more RAM for Postgres caches

Internal links (recommended next reads)

• Comparison: /alternatives/vercel
• Tutorial: /deploy/nextjs
• ServerCompass template: https://servercompass.app/templates/supabase?utm_source=deploytovps&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=cta

Related in the StoicSoft network

If you're choosing a VPS provider or benchmarking real-world performance like the post above explores, StoicVPS is the StoicSoft network's independent tracker for VPS pricing, performance, and migration safety.