The image is pre-built and requires minimal setup—just download it and start the container.

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Requirements

Make sure Docker and Docker Compose are installed on your system. These are usually included in tools like Docker Desktop and Rancher Desktop.

docker compose without the hyphen is now the primary method of using docker-compose, according to the Docker documentation.

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Start

  • Create a New Directory for Formbricks

Open a terminal and run the following commands to create and enter a new directory for Formbricks:

mkdir formbricks-quickstart && cd formbricks-quickstart
  • Download the Docker-Compose File

Get the docker-compose file from the Formbricks repository by running:

curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/formbricks/formbricks/main/docker/docker-compose.yml
  • Generate NextAuth Secret

You need a NextAuth secret for session signing and encryption. Run the command below to generate a random string using openssl and automatically insert it into the docker-compose.yml file:

sed -i "/NEXTAUTH_SECRET:$/s/NEXTAUTH_SECRET:.*/NEXTAUTH_SECRET: $(openssl rand -hex 32)/" docker-compose.yml
  • Generate Encryption Key

Next, you need to generate an Encryption Key. This will be used for authenticating and verifying 2 Factor Authentication. The sed command below generates a random string using openssl, then replaces the ENCRYPTION_KEY: placeholder in the docker-compose.yml file with this generated secret:

sed -i "/ENCRYPTION_KEY:$/s/ENCRYPTION_KEY:.*/ENCRYPTION_KEY: $(openssl rand -hex 32)/" docker-compose.yml
  • Generate Cron Secret

You require a Cron secret to secure API access for running cron jobs. Run the command below to generate a random string using openssl and automatically insert it into the docker-compose.yml file:

sed -i "/CRON_SECRET:$/s/CRON_SECRET:.*/CRON_SECRET: $(openssl rand -hex 32)/" docker-compose.yml
  • Start the Docker Setup

Now, you’re ready to run Formbricks with Docker. Use the command below to start Formbricks along with a PostgreSQL database using Docker Compose:

 docker compose up -d

The -d flag runs the containers in the background, so they keep running even after you close the terminal.

  • Open Formbricks in Your Browser

Once the setup is running, open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to access Formbricks. The first time you visit, you’ll see a setup wizard. Follow the steps to create your first user and start using Formbricks.

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Update

Please take a look at our migration guide for version specific steps to update Formbricks.

  • Pull the latest Formbricks image
docker compose pull
  • Stop the Formbricks stack
docker compose down
  • Re-start the Formbricks stack with the updated image
docker compose up -d

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Debug

If you encounter any issues, you can check the logs of the container with this command:

docker compose logs -f

In an ideal case, you should see this:

[+] Running 9/16
⠹ formbricks 15 layers [⣿⣤⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀] 29.78MB/47.76MB Pulling                                                           13.3s
✔ 7264a8db6415 Already exists                                                                                                 0.0s
⠋ 751194035c36 Downloading    [===============================>                   ]  29.78MB/47.76...                         8.1s
✔ eff5dce73b38 Download complete                                                                                              1.7s
✔ c8ce5be43019 Download complete                                                                                              1.2s
✔ a2f33c630af5 Download complete                                                                                              5.1s
✔ e3b64e437860 Download complete                                                                                              3.3s
✔ a6551ac5f976 Download complete                                                                                              4.9s
✔ 4f4fb700ef54 Download complete                                                                                              6.0s
✔ 22163889e16b Download complete                                                                                              6.7s
✔ dc647bb9eb13 Download complete                                                                                              7.8s
⠋ 49c2ad494720 Waiting                                                                                                        8.1s
⠋ 5c797a842dcb Waiting                                                                                                        8.1s
⠋ 1f231213db04 Waiting                                                                                                        8.1s
⠋ e407294bdcda Waiting                                                                                                        8.1s
⠋ 6fd8358dca47 Pulling fs layer                                                                                               8.1s

[+] Running 2/2
✔ Container formbricks-quickstart-postgres-1    Created                                                                       0.0s
✔ Container formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  Created                                                                       0.0s

And at the tail of the output, you should see this:

formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  | All migrations have been successfully applied.
formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  |
formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  | - info Loaded env from /home/nextjs/apps/web/.env
formbricks-quickstart-formbricks-1  | Listening on port 3000 url: http://<random-string>:3000

You can close the logs again by hitting CTRL + C.

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Customizing environment variables

To edit any of the available environment variables, check out our Configure section!

If you have any questions or require help, feel free to reach out to us on GitHub Discussions. 😃

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