How to install Invoice Ninja on a Cloud VPS

Invoice Ninja is a free invoicing platform for freelancers and businesses: quotes, invoices, payments, expenses and client portals.

The self-hosted version removes per-user subscriptions: you pay only for the server, no matter how many teammates use the app.

One-click install on cloudlinux.ro

The fastest way: Invoice Ninja installs automatically at the first boot of a new server.

1. Create a Cloud VPS from the control panel.
2. In the configuration step, pick Invoice Ninja from the app catalog.
3. Start the server. The install runs in the background for a few minutes and its status shows on the server page.
4. Access details and generated passwords are saved on the server in /root/app-credentials.txt. The app will be available on port 80.

Manual install on any Ubuntu server

If you prefer doing it yourself, below is the exact script our automatic install runs. Execute it as root on a fresh Ubuntu server (24.04 recommended). It stops at the first error, and when it finishes you will find the access details in /root/app-credentials.txt.

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
DB_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 24 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-20)
IN_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 24 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-16)
APP_KEY=$(docker run --rm invoiceninja/invoiceninja-octane:latest php artisan key:generate --show 2>/dev/null | tail -n1)
IP=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
docker network create ninja
docker volume create ninja_db
docker volume create ninja_data
docker run -d --name ninja-db --restart=always --network ninja \
  -e MYSQL_DATABASE=ninja -e MYSQL_USER=ninja -e MYSQL_PASSWORD="$DB_PASS" -e MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=1 \
  -v ninja_db:/var/lib/mysql mysql:8
sleep 20
docker run -d --name invoiceninja --restart=always --network ninja -p 80:8000 \
  -e APP_URL="http://${IP}" -e APP_KEY="$APP_KEY" \
  -e DB_HOST=ninja-db -e DB_DATABASE=ninja -e DB_USERNAME=ninja -e DB_PASSWORD="$DB_PASS" \
  -e IN_USER_EMAIL="[email protected]" -e IN_PASSWORD="$IN_PASS" \
  -v ninja_data:/var/www/html/storage invoiceninja/invoiceninja-octane:latest
printf 'Invoice Ninja: http://%s\nUtilizator: [email protected]\nParola: %s\n' "$IP" "$IN_PASS" > /root/app-credentials.txt

You can also save this script as a recipe in your account and reuse it on any new server.