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How to Deploy Penpot: Docker Compose, Kubernetes, or Managed Hosting?

Penpot offers official Docker Compose and Kubernetes Helm deployment paths. Choose based on your team’s infrastructure, then plan persistent assets, dependencies, account access, and internet exposure.
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Penpot can be deployed with its official Docker Compose setup or official Kubernetes Helm chart. Docker Compose is a practical starting point if you already operate Docker; Kubernetes suits teams that manage a cluster and can provide reachable PostgreSQL and Valkey or compatible Redis. A managed dedicated instance is another route to investigate, but Penpot’s guide naming a provider is archived, so confirm its current availability and support before choosing it.

Choose a deployment route

Route Best fit What your team operates
Docker Compose Teams or administrators already comfortable running Docker on a server. Penpot’s application containers, their persistent data, upgrades, backups, public access, and user settings. The official Compose configuration includes PostgreSQL, Valkey, asset storage, and supporting services.
Kubernetes with the official Helm chart Teams already running Kubernetes and able to provide stateful dependencies. The Penpot chart and cluster integration, plus reachable PostgreSQL and Valkey or compatible Redis. These dependencies may be in-cluster, managed services, or hosted separately.
Managed dedicated hosting Teams seeking less direct infrastructure administration. A provider may handle tasks such as DNS, SMTP, backups, certificates, and upgrades. Penpot’s archived self-hosting guide names Elestio, but that is not confirmation of present-day availability or support.

Neither self-managed route removes operational responsibility: decide who owns upgrades, backups, database and asset storage, internet exposure, and account access. The archived Penpot guide also labels Podman, desktop apps, community Kubernetes deployment, and manual installation as unofficial or unsupported; check current support status before relying on those options. Penpot documentation repository

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What a deployment contains

Penpot’s current Compose configuration includes frontend, backend, admin-console, MCP, and exporter services. It connects the backend to PostgreSQL and Valkey, maps the frontend to host port 9001, and configures persistent asset storage. Its example defaults to filesystem-backed assets in a Docker volume and also shows S3-compatible storage as an alternative. These are repository configuration details, not guarantees that defaults will remain unchanged. Penpot Docker Compose configuration

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For Kubernetes, Penpot’s Helm guide describes PostgreSQL as the primary store for users, projects, and files, and recommends PostgreSQL v15 or higher. It also requires a reachable PostgreSQL instance. Valkey, or compatible Redis, supports caching, session management, and real-time communication; the guide says a standalone instance is sufficient and does not require cluster or replication mode. You can supply these services through in-cluster charts, managed cloud services, or separate Docker/VM hosts. The guide lists AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean as examples, not endorsements. Penpot Helm chart and deployment guide

Penpot’s archived architecture overview describes a static-web-server frontend communicating with a backend that persists application data in PostgreSQL. It identifies the frontend as ClojureScript using React and the backend as Clojure/JVM; treat these as conceptual orientation rather than a current implementation specification. Penpot architecture overview

Prepare the public address, data, and access policy

Set the address users will open

Configure Penpot’s public URI to match the real hostname and scheme users will use. The archived configuration guide documents PENPOT_PUBLIC_URI, while the Compose example uses a localhost default. Check the live configuration before copying variable names into a production deployment. Penpot configuration guide

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Make assets durable

Uploaded design assets must live in persistent storage rather than an ephemeral container layer. Compose currently uses a Docker volume for filesystem storage and shows S3-compatible storage as an alternative. The archived configuration guide also covers filesystem and S3 options, but its variables and behavior should be verified against current configuration before use.

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Choose who can create accounts

Decide whether anyone may register or whether registration should be disabled or limited to approved email domains. The latter controls are described in archived configuration documentation, so verify current settings and behavior. If invitations and verification depend on email for your workflow, configure SMTP and test delivery before opening access; archived documentation describes invitation emails and SMTP setup.

Protect secrets and internet-facing sessions

Do not deploy the placeholder secret shown in Compose or commit real secrets to source control. The configuration recommends generating a random 512-bit value encoded for the secret key; confirm the current expected format in the live deployment files.

The Penpot Compose file warns: “if you’re exposing Penpot to the internet, you should remove the flags ‘disable-secure-session-cookies’ and ‘disable-email-verification’”. Treat this as a required review of the example’s internet-exposure settings, not as a complete security checklist. The file also shows an example Traefik HTTPS configuration; using Traefik alone does not establish that a deployment is correctly secured. Penpot Docker Compose configuration

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Start with Docker Compose

The official Compose file is a useful starting point, but do not treat its branch defaults, image tags, or example security flags as permanent production settings. Review the live file and its accompanying deployment guidance before running it.

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  1. Prepare a Docker-capable host. Ensure you can administer Docker and persist volumes and backups on storage that will survive container replacement. The reviewed official sources do not establish minimum CPU, memory, disk, or team-size requirements.
  2. Obtain the official configuration. Use the Compose configuration in the Penpot repository. Review its services, ports, environment variables, volumes, and image tags rather than assuming defaults match your release or network design.
  3. Set deployment-specific values. Configure the actual public URI, replace placeholder secrets, choose persistent asset storage, and set registration, email-verification, and session-cookie behavior for your access model. Verify variable names and values in the current configuration.
  4. Decide how users will reach the frontend. The Compose example maps the frontend to host port 9001. Put the service behind an appropriately configured HTTPS endpoint if it will be internet-facing, and ensure the public URI agrees with that endpoint.
  5. Start and validate the stack. Follow the current repository’s Compose instructions, then verify that the frontend loads at the intended address, backend dependencies are healthy, and a test file’s assets remain available after a container restart.
  6. Plan ongoing operations. Back up PostgreSQL and asset storage, protect secrets, monitor service health, and use Penpot’s current release and upgrade guidance before changing image versions.
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Deploy to Kubernetes with Helm

  1. Confirm cluster and dependency readiness. Provide a reachable PostgreSQL instance (the Helm guide recommends v15 or higher) and Valkey or compatible Redis. Choose whether each runs in the cluster, on a separate host, or as a managed service.
  2. Review the official chart and values. Use the Penpot Helm repository for the chart instructions and current values. Set dependency connection details, the public address, secrets, persistent asset storage, and access policy for your environment.
  3. Deploy and test connectivity. Follow the repository’s current Helm instructions; confirm Penpot can reach both dependencies and that users can reach the configured public endpoint.
  4. Assign operational ownership. Decide who patches the chart and application, backs up the database and assets, restores them in a recovery test, and manages credentials and user access.

The Helm README’s default image tags were listed as 2.18.2 in the repository snapshot reviewed, while the Compose file on the develop branch defaulted to 2.18. These are snapshots, not current-release guarantees or compatible pinning advice. Check current release notes, container tags, chart values, and upgrade instructions together before selecting versions.

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What is not established by the official material

  • Hardware sizing: The reviewed official sources do not specify minimum server resources or a supported team size. Size infrastructure based on your workload and operational requirements rather than assuming a particular small computer will suffice.
  • Managed-provider status: The archived guide describes a managed route and provider responsibilities, but does not establish current availability, coverage, pricing, or support. Verify those directly before committing.
  • Archived setup details: Penpot’s self-hosting and configuration guides are in a documentation repository GitHub marks archived on March 7, 2025. Use them for orientation, then verify settings against current source configuration and deployment instructions. Penpot documentation repository

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