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Ghost with Docker Compose

Ghost: beautiful, modern publishing with email newsletters and paid subscriptions built-in. In the project's words: ghost.org front page checked 2026-09-25

Add Ghost to the builder to use your own domain, get its passwords generated in your browser, and combine it with other apps in one file.

What Ghost needs

Only figures Ghost's own documentation publishes, each linked to the page it is on. Where the project gives no number, this page does not invent one.

ResourceMinimumRecommended
RAM1 GBnot stated
From the Ubuntu install guide ('a server with at least 1GB memory'). The Docker guide, which also runs MySQL, gives a 2GB/1CPU DigitalOcean droplet as its example server. Source: Ghost docs: How to install Ghost on Ubuntu (prerequisites: at least 1GB memory) checked 2026-09-25
CPUNot published by the project
No minimum is published; the Docker guide names a 2GB/1CPU droplet only as an example. Source: Ghost docs: How To Install Ghost With Docker (the Ghost and MySQL services, .env settings) checked 2026-09-25
DiskNot published by the project

On top of this, Caddy (the reverse proxy in the file) is a single small container. Ghost itself runs as 2 containers: ghost, ghost-db.

docker-compose.yml

This is exactly what the builder writes for Ghost alone on example.org: the official definition with its published ports removed and Caddy added in front. Every ${VARIABLE} is defined in the .env below.

# docker-compose.yml built at dankhost.com for: Ghost
# Each app block is its official compose definition. Only the names were prefixed with
# the app slug (services, containers, volumes, bind folders, .env variables) so any set of
# apps can share one file; other differences are listed under "Changed:" in each block.
# Only Caddy publishes ports. Secrets live in .env next to this file.

services:
  # ---- Caddy: the one reverse proxy, HTTPS certificates from Let's Encrypt ----
  # Source: https://caddyserver.com/docs/running (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Source: https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden/wiki/Using-Docker-Compose (checked 2026-09-23)
  # Caddyfile goes in ./caddy/Caddyfile. Fixed address 172.30.0.2 so apps can trust it exactly.
  caddy:
    image: "caddy:2"
    container_name: "caddy"
    restart: "unless-stopped"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
      - "443:443/udp"
    volumes:
      - "./caddy:/etc/caddy"
      - "caddy-data:/data"
      - "caddy-config:/config"
    networks:
      proxy:
        ipv4_address: "172.30.0.2"

  # ---- Ghost (blog.example.org) ----
  # Source: https://docs.ghost.org/install/docker (checked 2026-09-25)
  # Source: https://github.com/TryGhost/ghost-docker/blob/main/compose.yml (checked 2026-09-25)
  # Source: https://github.com/TryGhost/ghost-docker/blob/main/caddy/Caddyfile.example (checked 2026-09-25)
  # Changed: Only the ghost and db services are kept. Ghost's own Caddy service is replaced by the builder's proxy, and the optional analytics (Tinybird) and ActivityPub services, which sit behind Compose profiles, are left out.
  #          The Caddy site block is ghost-docker's: 'reverse_proxy ghost:2368' and its optional 'encode gzip'. Its logging, security-header and ActivityPub/analytics snippets are not copied.
  #          Content and MySQL data go to ./data/ghost and ./data/mysql, the documented defaults of UPLOAD_LOCATION and MYSQL_DATA_LOCATION. The ./mysql-init mount and MYSQL_MULTIPLE_DATABASES, which only create the ActivityPub database, are left out, as are env_file (Ghost settings are listed explicitly), admin__url and the tinybird__ settings.
  #          DATABASE_ROOT_PASSWORD and DATABASE_PASSWORD are generated (the docs: openssl rand -hex 32). DATABASE_USER keeps its default, ghost. The mail__ settings come from the documented .env's SMTP section and read your SMTP values from .env.
  #          Removed expose: 3306 from db; containers on the same network reach each other without it.
  ghost:
    image: "ghost:6-alpine"
    container_name: "ghost"
    restart: "always"
    environment:
      NODE_ENV: "production"
      url: "https://blog.example.org"
      database__client: "mysql"
      database__connection__host: "db"
      database__connection__user: "ghost"
      database__connection__password: "${GHOST_DATABASE_PASSWORD}"
      database__connection__database: "ghost"
      mail__transport: "SMTP"
      mail__options__host: "${GHOST_SMTP_HOST}"
      mail__options__port: "${GHOST_SMTP_PORT}"
      mail__options__secure: "true"
      mail__options__auth__user: "${GHOST_SMTP_USER}"
      mail__options__auth__pass: "${GHOST_SMTP_PASSWORD}"
      mail__from: "${GHOST_MAIL_FROM}"
    volumes:
      - "./ghost/data/ghost:/var/lib/ghost/content"
    depends_on:
      ghost-db:
        condition: "service_healthy"
    networks:
      proxy: {}
      ghost-backend: {}
  ghost-db:
    image: "mysql:8.0.44@sha256:f37951fc3753a6a22d6c7bf6978c5e5fefcf6f31814d98c582524f98eae52b21"
    container_name: "ghost-db"
    restart: "always"
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: "${GHOST_DATABASE_ROOT_PASSWORD}"
      MYSQL_USER: "ghost"
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: "${GHOST_DATABASE_PASSWORD}"
      MYSQL_DATABASE: "ghost"
    volumes:
      - "./ghost/data/mysql:/var/lib/mysql"
    healthcheck:
      test: "mysqladmin ping -p$$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD -h 127.0.0.1"
      interval: "1s"
      start_period: "30s"
      start_interval: "10s"
      retries: 120
    networks:
      ghost-backend:
        aliases:
          - "db"

networks:
  # Pinned so the trusted-proxy address given to each app (172.30.0.2) is exact.
  # If "docker compose up" reports "Pool overlaps", change 172.30.0 here, in Caddy's
  # ipv4_address and in every trusted-proxy value to a free 172.x.0 range.
  proxy:
    ipam:
      config:
        - subnet: "172.30.0.0/24"
          ip_range: "172.30.0.128/25"
          gateway: "172.30.0.1"
  ghost-backend:
    internal: true

volumes:
  caddy-data:
  caddy-config:

Caddyfile save as caddy/Caddyfile

Caddy gets and renews the HTTPS certificate for blog.example.org by itself once the DNS record points at your server and ports 80 and 443 reach it.

# Caddyfile built at dankhost.com. Save it as ./caddy/Caddyfile next to docker-compose.yml.
# Caddy gets and renews a Let's Encrypt certificate for each name below by itself,
# once the DNS records point at this server and ports 80 and 443 reach it.

# Ghost
blog.example.org {
	encode gzip
	reverse_proxy ghost:2368
}

.env

The secrets are left blank here on purpose: a password printed on a public page is the same for everyone who copies it. The builder fills them with random letters and digits made in your browser.

# .env for Ghost, from dankhost.com/app/ghost/. Fill the blank secrets before starting.
# Keep this file private (chmod 600).

# Ghost
# 64 random letters and digits: the builder fills this in your browser
GHOST_DATABASE_ROOT_PASSWORD=
# 64 random letters and digits: the builder fills this in your browser
GHOST_DATABASE_PASSWORD=
GHOST_SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.org
GHOST_SMTP_PORT=465
GHOST_SMTP_USER=change-me@example.org
GHOST_SMTP_PASSWORD=change-me
GHOST_MAIL_FROM=change-me@example.org

Changes from the official file

Besides prefixing every service, container, volume, folder and variable with ghost (so any set of apps can share one file), these are all the differences from what the project documents:

Notes for Ghost behind the proxy

How to run it

  1. At your DNS provider, add an A record named blog on your domain pointing at the server's public IP address, and forward TCP 80, TCP 443 and UDP 443 to it.
  2. Save the three files in one folder: docker-compose.yml and .env side by side, the Caddyfile at ./caddy/Caddyfile. Replace example.org with your domain in the Caddyfile, the compose file and the .env, or let the builder do it.
  3. Fill the blank GHOST_DATABASE_ROOT_PASSWORD, GHOST_DATABASE_PASSWORD in .env. The builder generates them; on the server, tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 </dev/urandom | head -c 32 prints 32 random letters and digits. Then chmod 600 .env.
  4. Start it: 
    docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f caddy   # watch the certificate arrive
  5. Open the new address (blog. plus your domain) in a browser and follow the notes above.

Back it up

Ghost's Docker guide publishes no backup procedure. Everything is in two folders: ./data/ghost is Ghost's content directory (images, themes, files) and ./data/mysql is the MySQL database, which is saved with mysqldump the way the official mysql image documents it.

Below is the BACKUP.md the builder writes next to the compose file above: which of its folders and volumes hold data, the dump command the project documents, rewritten for this file's service names, what to copy with which container stopped, and a restore check. Pick more apps in the builder and it covers them all in one file.

# BACKUP.md built at dankhost.com for: Ghost

What to copy from the docker-compose.yml built with this file, the database dump each project documents (rewritten for the service names in that file), what to copy with which container stopped, and how to check the result. Run every command in the folder that holds docker-compose.yml.

The folders are owned by the containers' users: put sudo in front of tar if it says "Permission denied". Named volumes live under /var/lib/docker/volumes, not next to the compose file, so they are copied through a throwaway ubuntu container (Docker's documented --volumes-from method). tar makes a full copy each run; for large folders an incremental tool (restic, borg, rsync) saves time and space.

Never run "docker compose down -v" on this file: it deletes the named volumes of every app in it.

## Before you start

    BACKUP=/mnt/backup/selfhost   # change this: a disk or machine other than this server's system disk
    mkdir -p "$BACKUP"

## Every time: the three stack files

    tar czf "$BACKUP/stack-files.tar.gz" docker-compose.yml .env caddy

.env holds the database passwords and secret keys the apps were set up with; keep this archive as private as the data.

## Caddy (the reverse proxy)

Caddy's docs: 'The data directory must not be treated as a cache.' It holds the TLS certificates and their private keys; without it Caddy has to ask Let's Encrypt for every certificate again.

- caddy-data (named volume, /data in caddy)
  BACK UP: TLS certificates, private keys, OCSP staples.
- caddy-config (named volume, /config in caddy)
  SKIP: the last active configuration, kept for 'caddy run --resume', which this setup does not use: it starts from the Caddyfile.
- ./caddy (/etc/caddy in caddy)
  IN stack-files.tar.gz: the Caddyfile, copied with the stack files above.

Copy (Caddy keeps serving while you copy):

    docker run --rm --volumes-from caddy -v "$BACKUP":/backup ubuntu tar cvf /backup/caddy-data.tar /data

Restore check:

    tar tf "$BACKUP/caddy-data.tar" > /dev/null && echo OK
    docker run --rm --volumes-from caddy -v "$BACKUP":/backup ubuntu bash -c "cd /data && tar xvf /backup/caddy-data.tar --strip 1"

Sources:
- Caddy docs: Conventions, Data directory: https://caddyserver.com/docs/conventions#data-directory (checked 2026-09-24)
- Docker docs: Volumes, Back up, restore, or migrate data volumes: https://docs.docker.com/engine/storage/volumes/#back-up-restore-or-migrate-data-volumes (checked 2026-09-24)

## Ghost

Ghost's Docker guide publishes no backup procedure. Everything is in two folders: ./data/ghost is Ghost's content directory (images, themes, files) and ./data/mysql is the MySQL database, which is saved with mysqldump the way the official mysql image documents it.

What this compose mounts:
- ./ghost/data/ghost (/var/lib/ghost/content in ghost)
  BACK UP: Ghost's content directory: uploaded images and files, themes, settings files.
- ./ghost/data/mysql (/var/lib/mysql in ghost-db)
  COVERED BY THE COMMAND BELOW: MySQL data files; copy them only with the database stopped.

1. Stop ghost. Stopping Ghost (not MySQL) keeps new posts and uploads from arriving between the dump and the copy.

    docker compose stop ghost

2. Database dump for ghost-db:

    docker compose exec -T ghost-db sh -c 'exec mysqldump --all-databases -uroot -p"$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD"' > "$BACKUP/ghost-all-databases.sql"

   The mysql image's own example (docker exec some-mysql sh -c 'exec mysqldump --all-databases -uroot -p"$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD"'), run with docker compose exec -T on this file's database service. The password comes from the container's environment, so it is never typed on the host.

3. Copy while ghost is stopped:

    tar czf "$BACKUP/ghost-data-ghost.tar.gz" ./ghost/data/ghost

4. Start it again:

    docker compose start ghost

Restore check:

    grep -c 'Dump completed' "$BACKUP/ghost-all-databases.sql"   # 1 means mysqldump finished
    tar tzf "$BACKUP/ghost-data-ghost.tar.gz" > /dev/null && echo OK

Put a copy back (with ghost stopped):

    tar xzf "$BACKUP/ghost-data-ghost.tar.gz"   # recreates ./ghost/data/ghost; move the old folder aside first

Put ./ghost/data/ghost back, then load the dump into the database (the mysql image's 'Restoring data from dump files'):

    docker compose up -d ghost-db
    docker compose exec -T ghost-db sh -c 'exec mysql -uroot -p"$MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD"' < "$BACKUP/ghost-all-databases.sql"
    docker compose up -d

Sources:
- Ghost docs: How To Install Ghost With Docker (the Ghost and MySQL services, .env settings): https://docs.ghost.org/install/docker (checked 2026-09-25)
- Docker Hub: official mysql image, 'Creating database dumps' and 'Restoring data from dump files': https://hub.docker.com/_/mysql (checked 2026-09-25)
- Docker docs: Volumes, Back up, restore, or migrate data volumes: https://docs.docker.com/engine/storage/volumes/#back-up-restore-or-migrate-data-volumes (checked 2026-09-25)

Sources

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