Self-Hosting

Advanced Setup

Quickly set up and start using Formbricks without getting into the technicalities of the build process. You'll be using an image that we've already built for you. The pre-built image is ready-to-run, and it only requires minimal configuration on your part. This approach is perfect for getting a functional instance of Formbricks up and running with minimal hassle. It's as easy as downloading the Docker image and firing up the container.

This is ideal for those who are testing Formbricks or want to run it with minimal to no modifications. For this we use the public Docker image and a simple docker-compose file.

Requirements

Ensure docker & docker compose are installed on your server/system. Both are typically included with Docker utilities, like Docker Desktop and Rancher Desktop.

docker compose without the hyphen is now the primary method of using docker-compose, according to the Docker documentation.

Create a New Directory for Formbricks

Open a terminal and create a new directory for Formbricks, then navigate into this new directory:

Create and cd into the new directory

mkdir formbricks-quickstart && cd formbricks-quickstart

Download the Docker-Compose File

Download the docker-compose file directly from the Formbricks repository:

Download docker compose file

curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/formbricks/formbricks/main/docker/docker-compose.yml

Generate NextAuth Secret

Next, you need to generate a NextAuth secret. This will be used for session signing and encryption. The sed command below generates a random string using openssl, then replaces the NEXTAUTH_SECRET: placeholder in the docker-compose.yml file with this generated secret:

Generate NextAuth Secret

sed -i "/NEXTAUTH_SECRET:$/s/NEXTAUTH_SECRET:.*/NEXTAUTH_SECRET: $(openssl rand -hex 32)/" docker-compose.yml

Generate Encryption Key

Next, you need to generate an Encryption Key. This will be used for authenticating and verifying 2 Factor Authentication. The sed command below generates a random string using openssl, then replaces the ENCRYPTION_KEY: placeholder in the docker-compose.yml file with this generated secret:

Generate Encryption Key

sed -i "/ENCRYPTION_KEY:$/s/ENCRYPTION_KEY:.*/ENCRYPTION_KEY: $(openssl rand -hex 32)/" docker-compose.yml

Start the Docker Setup

You're now ready to start the Formbricks Docker setup. The following command will start Formbricks together with a postgreSQL database using Docker Compose:

Launch Docker Instance

 docker compose up -d

The -d flag will run the containers in detached mode, meaning they'll run in the background.

Visit Formbricks in Your Browser

After starting the Docker setup, visit http://localhost:3000 in your browser to interact with the Formbricks application. The first time you access this page, you'll be greeted by a setup wizard. Follow the prompts to define your first user and get started.

Updating Formbricks

Stop the Formbricks stack

Stop the docker instance

docker compose down

Pull the latest changes

Pull the changes into docker

docker compose pull

Update env vars as necessary in the docker-compose file.
Re-start the Formbricks stack

Relaunch the Docker Instance

docker compose up -d

Debugging

If you encounter any issues, you can check the logs of the container with:

Look into docker logs

docker compose logs -f

In an ideal case, you should see something like this:

Docker Build Underway

[+] Running 9/16
⠹ formbricks 15 layers [⣿⣤⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀] 29.78MB/47.76MB Pulling                                                           13.3s
✔ 7264a8db6415 Already exists                                                                                                 0.0s
⠋ 751194035c36 Downloading    [===============================>                   ]  29.78MB/47.76...                         8.1s
✔ eff5dce73b38 Download complete                                                                                              1.7s
✔ c8ce5be43019 Download complete                                                                                              1.2s
✔ a2f33c630af5 Download complete                                                                                              5.1s
✔ e3b64e437860 Download complete                                                                                              3.3s
✔ a6551ac5f976 Download complete                                                                                              4.9s
✔ 4f4fb700ef54 Download complete                                                                                              6.0s
✔ 22163889e16b Download complete                                                                                              6.7s
✔ dc647bb9eb13 Download complete                                                                                              7.8s
⠋ 49c2ad494720 Waiting                                                                                                        8.1s
⠋ 5c797a842dcb Waiting                                                                                                        8.1s
⠋ 1f231213db04 Waiting                                                                                                        8.1s
⠋ e407294bdcda Waiting                                                                                                        8.1s
⠋ 6fd8358dca47 Pulling fs layer                                                                                               8.1s

[+] Running 2/2
✔ Container formbricks-quickstart-postgres-1    Created                                                                       0.0s
✔ Container formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  Created                                                                       0.0s

And at the tail of the output, you should see something like this:

Docker Build Completed

formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  | All migrations have been successfully applied.
formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  |
formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  | - info Loaded env from /home/nextjs/apps/web/.env
formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  | Listening on port 3000 url: http://<random-string>:3000

You can close the logs again with CTRL + C.

Customizing the Build Time variables

To edit any of the variables that start with NEXT_PUBLIC_, you need to rebuild the Formbricks Docker Image!

Important Run-time Variables

These variables can be provided at the runtime i.e. in your docker-compose file.

Variable	Description	Required	Default
WEBAPP_URL	Base URL of the site.	required	`http://localhost:3000`
DATABASE_URL	Database URL with credentials.	required	`postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/formbricks?schema=public`
NEXTAUTH_SECRET	Secret for NextAuth, used for session signing and encryption.	required	(Generated by the user)
NEXTAUTH_URL	Location of the auth server. By default, this is the Formbricks docker instance itself.	required	`http://localhost:3000`
PRIVACY_URL	URL for privacy policy.	optional
TERMS_URL	URL for terms of service.	optional
IMPRINT_URL	URL for imprint.	optional
SIGNUP_DISABLED	Disables the ability for new users to create an account if set to `1`.	optional
PASSWORD_RESET_DISABLED	Disables password reset functionality if set to `1`.	optional
EMAIL_VERIFICATION_DISABLED	Disables email verification if set to `1`.	optional
INVITE_DISABLED	Disables the ability for invited users to create an account if set to `1`.	optional
MAIL_FROM	Email address to send emails from.	optional (required if email services are to be enabled)
SMTP_HOST	Host URL of your SMTP server.	optional (required if email services are to be enabled)
SMTP_PORT	Host Port of your SMTP server.	optional (required if email services are to be enabled)
SMTP_USER	Username for your SMTP Server.	optional (required if email services are to be enabled)
SMTP_PASSWORD	Password for your SMTP Server.	optional (required if email services are to be enabled)
SMTP_SECURE_ENABLED	SMTP secure connection. For using TLS, set to `1` else to `0`.	optional (required if email services are to be enabled)
GITHUB_AUTH_ENABLED	Enables GitHub login if set to `1`.	optional
GOOGLE_AUTH_ENABLED	Enables Google login if set to `1`.	optional
GITHUB_ID	Client ID for GitHub.	optional (required if GitHub auth is enabled)
GITHUB_SECRET	Secret for GitHub.	optional (required if GitHub auth is enabled)
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID	Client ID for Google.	optional (required if Google auth is enabled)
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET	Secret for Google.	optional (required if Google auth is enabled)
CRON_SECRET	API Secret for running cron jobs.	optional
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY	Secret key for Stripe integration.	optional
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET	Webhook secret for Stripe integration.	optional
TELEMETRY_DISABLED	Disables telemetry if set to `1`.	optional
INSTANCE_ID	Instance ID for Formbricks Cloud to be sent to Telemetry.	optional
INTERNAL_SECRET	Internal Secret (Currently we overwrite the value with a random value).	optional
DEFAULT_BRAND_COLOR	Default brand color for your app (Can be overwritten from the UI as well).	optional	`#64748b`
DEFAULT_TEAM_ID	Automatically assign new users to a specific team when joining	optional
DEFAULT_TEAM_ROLE	Role of the user in the default team.	optional	`admin`
ONBOARDING_DISABLED	Disables onboarding for new users if set to `1`	optional

Build-time Variables

These variables must be provided at the time of the docker build and would require rebuilding the image.

Variable	Description	Required
NEXT_PUBLIC_FORMBRICKS_API_HOST	Host for the Formbricks API.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_FORMBRICKS_ENVIRONMENT_ID	If you already have a preset environment ID of the environment.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_FORMBRICKS_ONBOARDING_SURVEY_ID	If you already have an onboarding survey ID to show new users.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_API_KEY	API key for PostHog analytics.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_API_HOST	Host for PostHog analytics.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_SENTRY_DSN	DSN for Sentry error tracking.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_DOCSEARCH_APP_ID	ID of the DocSearch application.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_DOCSEARCH_API_KEY	API key of the DocSearch application.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_DOCSEARCH_INDEX_NAME	Name of the DocSearch index.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_FORMBRICKS_COM_ENVIRONMENT_ID	Environment ID for Formbricks (if you already have one)	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_FORMBRICKS_COM_DOCS_FEEDBACK_SURVEY_ID	Survey ID for the feedback survey on the docs site.	optional
NEXT_PUBLIC_FORMBRICKS_COM_API_HOST	Host for the Formbricks API.	optional

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