How to install Paperless-ngx on a Cloud VPS

Paperless-ngx scans, OCRs, indexes and archives your documents so you can find any paper in seconds, self-hosted and private.

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: Paperless-ngx 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 Paperless-ngx 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 8000.

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
IP=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
DB_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 24 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-20)
SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 48 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-50)
ADMIN_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 24 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-16)
mkdir -p /opt/paperless && cd /opt/paperless
cat > docker-compose.yml <<EOF
services:
  broker:
    image: docker.io/library/redis:7
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - redisdata:/data
  db:
    image: docker.io/library/postgres:17
    restart: always
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: paperless
      POSTGRES_USER: paperless
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASS}"
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
  webserver:
    image: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx:latest
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - db
      - broker
      - gotenberg
      - tika
    ports:
      - '8000:8000'
    volumes:
      - data:/usr/src/paperless/data
      - media:/usr/src/paperless/media
      - ./export:/usr/src/paperless/export
      - ./consume:/usr/src/paperless/consume
    environment:
      PAPERLESS_REDIS: redis://broker:6379
      PAPERLESS_DBHOST: db
      PAPERLESS_DBUSER: paperless
      PAPERLESS_DBPASS: "${DB_PASS}"
      PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY: "${SECRET_KEY}"
      PAPERLESS_URL: "http://${IP}:8000"
      PAPERLESS_TIME_ZONE: Europe/Bucharest
      PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE: ron+eng
      PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGES: ron eng
      PAPERLESS_TIKA_ENABLED: 1
      PAPERLESS_TIKA_GOTENBERG_ENDPOINT: http://gotenberg:3000
      PAPERLESS_TIKA_ENDPOINT: http://tika:9998
      PAPERLESS_ADMIN_USER: admin
      PAPERLESS_ADMIN_PASSWORD: "${ADMIN_PASS}"
  gotenberg:
    image: docker.io/gotenberg/gotenberg:8
    restart: always
    command:
      - "gotenberg"
      - "--chromium-disable-javascript=true"
      - "--chromium-allow-list=file:///tmp/.*"
  tika:
    image: docker.io/apache/tika:latest
    restart: always
volumes:
  redisdata:
  pgdata:
  data:
  media:
EOF
docker compose up -d
printf 'Paperless-ngx: http://%s:8000\nUtilizator: admin\nParola: %s\nPrima pornire dureaza cateva minute (migrari + pachete OCR). Documentele plasate in /opt/paperless/consume sunt importate automat.\n' "$IP" "$ADMIN_PASS" > /root/app-credentials.txt

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