How to install Stirling PDF on a Cloud VPS

Stirling PDF is a self-hosted web toolbox for PDFs: merge, split, convert, compress, sign and OCR, all processed on your own server.

Running the tool on your own server means unlimited use without sending data to external services.

One-click install on cloudlinux.ro

The fastest way: Stirling PDF 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 Stirling PDF 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
docker volume create stirling_data
docker run -d --name stirling-pdf --restart=always -p 80:8080 \
  -v stirling_data:/usr/share/tessdata stirlingtools/stirling-pdf:latest
IP=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
printf 'Stirling PDF: http://%s\nFara autentificare implicita, pentru login vezi variabilele SECURITY_ENABLELOGIN in documentatia Stirling PDF.\n' "$IP" > /root/app-credentials.txt

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