Self-hosting

These docs are written for subscriber.dev cloud. If you’d rather run the open source community edition yourself, it’s free and has no limits. Emails end with a small “Powered by subscriber.dev” line. It’s licensed under AGPL-3.0.

What you’ll run

Service	Purpose
`web`	Sign-in, unsubscribe pages and the website
`api`	REST API, MCP server and background jobs
`postgres`	Database
`redis`	Job queue for workflow steps and broadcasts

Run it with Docker Compose

git clone https://github.com/kanbn/subscriber.dev.git
cd subscriber.dev
cp .env.example .env

Fill in .env, then start everything:

docker compose up -d

The web container runs database migrations when it starts. GET /health on the API returns 200 when it can reach Postgres and Redis, and 503 when it can’t. Docker Compose uses it as the API’s healthcheck, and you can point an uptime monitor at it.

Configuration

These settings go in .env.

Variable	Required	Description
`NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_URL`	Yes	Public URL of the web app
`NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL`	Yes	Public URL of the API
`MCP_URL`	No	Public URL of the MCP server, if it’s on its own host (e.g. `https://mcp.acme.com`). Defaults to the API URL plus `/mcp`. Set it on the API and the web app
`BETTER_AUTH_SECRET`	Yes	Random secret for sessions. Generate with `openssl rand -base64 32`
`EMAIL_UNSUBSCRIBE_SECRET`	Yes	Random secret that signs unsubscribe links
`INTEGRATIONS_ENCRYPTION_KEY`	Yes	Encrypts provider credentials at rest. Generate with `openssl rand -base64 32`
`POSTGRES_PASSWORD`	With Compose	Password for the bundled Postgres
`POSTGRES_URL`	With your own database	Connection string for an external Postgres
`REDIS_HOST`, `REDIS_PASSWORD`	Yes	Redis connection
`S3_ENDPOINT`, `S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID`, `S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	For image uploads	Any S3-compatible storage, such as Cloudflare R2 or MinIO
`S3_REGION`	No	The bucket’s region. Defaults to `us-east-1`, which works for R2 and MinIO
`ASSETS_BUCKET`, `ASSETS_URL`	For image uploads	The bucket to upload to, and the public URL it’s served from. Without these, uploads are turned off and you can still use image links
`SMTP_HOST`, `SMTP_PORT`, `SMTP_USER`, `SMTP_PASSWORD`, `EMAIL_FROM`	For sign-in	Sends sign-in links. This is separate from the providers your workflows send through
`GITHUB_CLIENT_ID`, `GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET`	No	Enables GitHub sign-in

Point the CLI and MCP at your server

subscriber login --base-url https://api.yourdomain.com --app-url https://yourdomain.com

The browser opens your web app to sign in. The first time, you get an email link, sent with the SMTP_ settings above, or you can sign in with GitHub if you set it up. That creates your account. Then create a workspace, which comes with a Production environment:

subscriber workspaces create "Acme"

For MCP, use https://api.yourdomain.com/mcp as the server URL.

Upgrade

git pull
docker compose up -d --build

Database migrations run when the web container starts.

Back up

Everything lives in Postgres. To take a backup:

docker compose exec postgres pg_dump -U subscriber subscriber_db > backup.sql

To restore it into an empty database:

docker compose exec -T postgres psql -U subscriber subscriber_db < backup.sql

Redis only holds the job queue. Losing it can drop steps that were waiting to run, but no data.

Business license

A self-hosted Business license removes subscriber.dev branding and includes priority support. Enterprise licenses cover AGPL exemptions. Email sales@subscriber.dev.

Get started

Tools

Guides

Integrations

API reference

Self-hosting

What you’ll run

Run it with Docker Compose

Configuration

Point the CLI and MCP at your server

Upgrade

Back up

Business license

​What you’ll run

​Run it with Docker Compose

​Configuration

​Point the CLI and MCP at your server

​Upgrade

​Back up

​Business license

What you’ll run

Run it with Docker Compose

Configuration

Point the CLI and MCP at your server

Upgrade

Back up

Business license