Self-Hosting

Migration Guide

v2.3

Formbricks v2.3 includes new color options for rating questions, improved multi-language functionality for Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), and various bug fixes and performance improvements.

Steps to Migrate

This guide is for users who are self-hosting Formbricks using our one-click setup. If you are using a different setup, you might adjust the commands accordingly.

To run all these steps, please navigate to the formbricks folder where your docker-compose.yml file is located.

1. Backup your Database: This is a crucial step. Please make sure to backup your database before proceeding with the upgrade. You can use the following command to backup your database:

docker exec formbricks-postgres-1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres -d formbricks > formbricks_pre_v2.3_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).dump

2. Pull the latest version of Formbricks:

docker compose pull

3. Stop the running Formbricks instance & remove the related containers:

docker compose down

4. Restarting the containers with the latest version of Formbricks:

docker compose up -d

5. Now let's migrate the data to the latest schema:

docker pull ghcr.io/formbricks/data-migrations:latest && \
docker run --rm \
  --network=formbricks_default \
  -e DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/formbricks?schema=public" \
  -e UPGRADE_TO_VERSION="v2.3" \
  ghcr.io/formbricks/data-migrations:latest

The above command will migrate your data to the latest schema. This is a crucial step to migrate your existing data to the new structure. Only if the script runs successful, changes are made to the database. The script can safely run multiple times.

6. That's it! Once the migration is complete, you can now access your Formbricks instance at the same URL as before.

Additional Updates

The feature to create short urls in Formbricks is now deprecated. Previously generated short urls will keep working for now but we recommend to use the long urls instead. Redirect support for short urls will be removed in a future release.

v2.2

Formbricks v2.2 introduces XM research presets into your products with a brand new product onboarding. Our objective is to make user research “obviously easy”, industry by industry. And we're starting with Software-as-a-Service and E-Commerce.

Steps to Migrate

This guide is for users who are self-hosting Formbricks using our one-click setup. If you are using a different setup, you might adjust the commands accordingly.

To run all these steps, please navigate to the formbricks folder where your docker-compose.yml file is located.

1. Backup your Database: This is a crucial step. Please make sure to backup your database before proceeding with the upgrade. You can use the following command to backup your database:

docker exec formbricks-postgres-1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres -d formbricks > formbricks_pre_v2.2_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).dump

2. Pull the latest version of Formbricks:

docker compose pull

3. Stop the running Formbricks instance & remove the related containers:

docker compose down

4. Restarting the containers with the latest version of Formbricks:

docker compose up -d

5. Now let's migrate the data to the latest schema:

docker pull ghcr.io/formbricks/data-migrations:latest && \
docker run --rm \
  --network=formbricks_default \
  -e DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/formbricks?schema=public" \
  -e UPGRADE_TO_VERSION="v2.2" \
  ghcr.io/formbricks/data-migrations:latest

The above command will migrate your data to the latest schema. This is a crucial step to migrate your existing data to the new structure. Only if the script runs successful, changes are made to the database. The script can safely run multiple times.

6. That's it! Once the migration is complete, you can now access your Formbricks instance at the same URL as before.

Changes in Environment Variables

• ONBOARDING_DISABLED is now deprecated since we replaced the user onboarding with a product onboarding that only runs when creating a new product.

v2.1

Formbricks v2.1 introduces more options for creating No-Code Actions and lays the foundation for easier self-hosting of Formbricks starting with an Onboarding for fresh instances.

Steps to Migrate

This guide is for users who are self-hosting Formbricks using our one-click setup. If you are using a different setup, you might adjust the commands accordingly.

To run all these steps, please navigate to the formbricks folder where your docker-compose.yml file is located.

1. Backup your Database: This is a crucial step. Please make sure to backup your database before proceeding with the upgrade. You can use the following command to backup your database:

docker exec formbricks-postgres-1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres -d formbricks > formbricks_pre_v2.1_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).dump

2. Pull the latest version of Formbricks:

docker compose pull

3. Stop the running Formbricks instance & remove the related containers:

docker compose down

4. Restarting the containers with the latest version of Formbricks:

docker compose up -d

5. Now let's migrate the data to the latest schema:

docker pull ghcr.io/formbricks/data-migrations:latest && \
docker run --rm \
  --network=formbricks_default \
  -e DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/formbricks?schema=public" \
  -e UPGRADE_TO_VERSION="v2.1" \
  ghcr.io/formbricks/data-migrations:latest

The above command will migrate your data to the latest schema. This is a crucial step to migrate your existing data to the new structure. Only if the script runs successful, changes are made to the database. The script can safely run multiple times.

6. That's it! Once the migration is complete, you can now access your Formbricks instance at the same URL as before.

Changes in Environment Variables

• SIGNUP_DISABLED is now deprecated since self-hosting instaces have signup disabled by default and new users can only be invited by the organization owner or admin.
• DEFAULT_TEAM_ID got renamed to DEFAULT_ORGANIZATION_ID
• DEFAULT_TEAM_ROLE got renamed to DEFAULT_ORGANIZATION_ROLE

v2.0

Formbricks v2.0 comes with huge features such as Multi-Language Surveys and Advanced Styling for Surveys. We have also shipped various optimisations, bug fixes & smaller fixes on the way to make your experience more seamless. This guide will help you migrate your existing Formbricks instance to v2.0 without any hassles or build errors.

Steps to Migrate

This guide is for users who are self-hosting Formbricks using our one-click setup. If you are using a different setup, you might adjust the commands accordingly.

To run all these steps, please navigate to the formbricks folder where your docker-compose.yml file is located.

1. Backup your Database: This is a crucial step. Please make sure to backup your database before proceeding with the upgrade. You can use the following command to backup your database:

docker exec formbricks-postgres-1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres -d formbricks > formbricks_pre_v2.0_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).dump

2. Pull the latest version of Formbricks:

docker compose pull

3. Stop the running Formbricks instance & remove the related containers:

docker compose down

4. Restarting the containers with the latest version of Formbricks:

docker compose up -d

5. Now let's migrate the data to the latest schema:

docker pull ghcr.io/formbricks/data-migrations:latest && \
docker run --rm \
  --network=formbricks_default \
  -e DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/formbricks?schema=public" \
  -e UPGRADE_TO_VERSION="v2.0" \
  ghcr.io/formbricks/data-migrations:latest

The above command will migrate your data to the latest schema. This is a crucial step to migrate your existing data to the new structure. Only if the script runs successful, changes are made to the database. The script can safely run multiple times.

6. That's it! Once the migration is complete, you can now access your Formbricks instance at the same URL as before.

App Surveys with @formbricks/js

From this upgrade, we now dynamically fetch the package from our API endpoint and updated the package entrypoints to support both app and website surveys so that you always have the latest version of the package (v2.0.0+).

Old approach: (v1.6.5)

import formbricks from "@formbricks/js";

formbricks.init({
  environmentId: "<environment-id>",
  apiHost: "<api-host>",
  userId: "<user-id>", // optional
});

New approach: (v2.0.0)

Website surveys:

import formbricks from "@formbricks/js/website";

formbricks.init({
  environmentId: "<environment-id>",
  apiHost: "<api-host>",
  // userId is not supported here
});

App surveys:

import formbricks from "@formbricks/js/app";

formbricks.init({
  environmentId: "<environment-id>",
  apiHost: "<api-host>",
  userId: "<user-id>", // required
});

v1.6

Formbricks v1.6 comes with a big new features like Advanced Targeting & Segmentation of your end-users along with on-the-fly triggers for surveys and a ton of stability improvements & features. This also involves a few changes in our environment variables. This guide will help you migrate your existing Formbricks instance to v1.6 without any hassles or build errors.

Steps to Migrate

This guide is for users who are self-hosting Formbricks using our one-click setup. If you are using a different setup, you might adjust the commands accordingly.

To run all these steps, please navigate to the formbricks folder where your docker-compose.yml file is located.

1. Backup your Database: This is a crucial step. Please make sure to backup your database before proceeding with the upgrade. You can use the following command to backup your database:

docker exec formbricks-quickstart-postgres-1 pg_dump -Fc -U postgres -d formbricks > formbricks_pre_v1.6_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).dump

2. Stop the running Formbricks instance & remove the related containers:

docker compose down

3. Restarting the containers will automatically pull the latest version of Formbricks:

docker compose up -d

4. Now let's migrate the data to the latest schema:

docker run --rm \
  --network=formbricks_default \
  -e DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/formbricks?schema=public" \
  -e UPGRADE_TO_VERSION="v1.6" \
  ghcr.io/formbricks/data-migrations:v1.6.1

The above command will migrate your data to the latest schema. This is a crucial step to migrate your existing data to the new structure. Only if the script runs successful, changes are made to the database. The script can safely run multiple times.

5. That's it! Once the migration is complete, you can now access your Formbricks instance at the same URL as before.

Restoring the database after a failed upgrade

docker exec -i formbricks-quickstart-postgres-1 pg_restore --clean -U postgres -v -d formbricks < formbricks_pre_v1.6_<timestamp_of_your_dump_file>.dump

App Surveys with @formbricks/js

If you are using the @formbricks/js package, please make sure to update it to version ~1.6.5 to use the latest features and improvements.

npm install @formbricks/js@~1.6.5

Deprecated Environment Variables

v1.2

Formbricks v1.2 ships a lot of features targeting our Link Surveys. We have also improved our security posture to be as robust as ever. However, it also comes with a few breaking changes specifically with the environment variables. This guide will help you migrate your existing Formbricks instance to v1.2 without any hassles or build errors.

New Environment Variables

Deprecated / Removed Environment Variables

v1.1

Formbricks v1.1 includes a lot of new features and improvements. However, it also comes with a few breaking changes specifically with the environment variables. This guide will help you migrate your existing Formbricks instance to v1.1 without losing any data.

Renamed Environment Variables

This was introduced because we got a lot of requests from our users for the ability to define some common environment variables at runtime itself i.e. without having to rebuild the image for the changes to take effect. This is now possible with v1.1. However, due to Next.JS best practices, we had to deprecate the prefix NEXTPUBLIC in the following environment variables:

Deprecated Environment Variables

• NEXT_PUBLIC_VERCEL_URL: Was used as Vercel URL (used instead of WEBAPP_URL), but from v1.1, you can just set the WEBAPP_URL environment variable to your Vercel URL.
• RAILWAY_STATIC_URL: Was used as Railway Static URL (used instead of WEBAPP_URL), but from v1.1, you can just set the WEBAPP_URL environment variable.
• RENDER_EXTERNAL_URL: Was used as an external URL to Render (used instead of WEBAPP_URL), but from v1.1, you can just set the WEBAPP_URL environment variable.
• HEROKU_APP_NAME: Was used to build the App name on a Heroku hosted webapp, but from v1.1, you can just set the WEBAPP_URL environment variable.
• NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL: Was used for the same purpose as WEBAPP_URL, but from v1.1, you can just set the WEBAPP_URL environment variable.
• PRISMA_GENERATE_DATAPROXY: Was used to tell Prisma that it should generate the runtime for Dataproxy usage. But its officially deprecated now.

Helper Shell Script

For a seamless migration, below is a shell script for your self-hosted instance that will automatically update your environment variables to be compliant with the new naming conventions.

Docker & Single Script Setup

Now that these variables can be defined at runtime, you can append them inside your x-environment in the docker-compose.yml itself. For a more detailed guide on these environment variables, please refer to the Important Runtime Variables section.

version: "3.3"
x-environment: &environment
  environment:
    # The url of your Formbricks instance used in the admin panel
    WEBAPP_URL:

    # Required for next-auth. Should be the same as WEBAPP_URL
    NEXTAUTH_URL:

    # PostgreSQL DB for Formbricks to connect to
    DATABASE_URL: "postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/formbricks?schema=public"

    # NextJS Auth
    # @see: https://next-auth.js.org/configuration/options#nextauth_secret
    # You can use: `openssl rand -hex 32` to generate one
    NEXTAUTH_SECRET:

    # PostgreSQL password
    POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres

    # Email Configuration
    MAIL_FROM:
    SMTP_HOST:
    SMTP_PORT:
    SMTP_SECURE_ENABLED:
    SMTP_USER:
    SMTP_PASSWORD:

    # Uncomment the below and set it to 1 to disable Email Verification for new signups
    # EMAIL_VERIFICATION_DISABLED:

    # Uncomment the below and set it to 1 to disable Password Reset
    # PASSWORD_RESET_DISABLED:

    # Uncomment the below and set it to 1 to disable Signups
    # SIGNUP_DISABLED:

    # Uncomment the below and set it to 1 to disable loging in with email
    # EMAIL_AUTH_DISABLED:

    # Uncomment the below and set it to 1 to disable Invites
    # INVITE_DISABLED:

    # Uncomment the below and set a value to have your own Privacy Page URL on the signup & login page
    # PRIVACY_URL:

    # Uncomment the below and set a value to have your own Terms Page URL on the auth and the surveys page
    # TERMS_URL:

    # Uncomment the below and set a value to have your own Imprint Page URL on the auth and the surveys page
    # IMPRINT_URL:

    # Uncomment the below and set to 1 if you want to enable GitHub OAuth
    # GITHUB_AUTH_ENABLED:
    # GITHUB_ID:
    # GITHUB_SECRET:

    # Uncomment the below and set to 1 if you want to enable Google OAuth
    # GOOGLE_AUTH_ENABLED:
    # GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID:
    # GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET:

Did we miss something? Are you still facing issues migrating your app? Join our Discord! We'd be happy to help!