Self-Hosting Guide: Deploy PocketBase as Your Backend

PocketBase is the simplest backend you can deploy — a single Go binary with a built-in database (SQLite), admin UI, auth, file storage, and real-time subscriptions. No Docker needed. Download, run, done.

Requirements

• VPS with 512 MB RAM minimum
• Domain name (e.g., api.yourdomain.com)
• 5+ GB disk

Step 1: Download and Run

# Download latest release
wget https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/releases/latest/download/pocketbase_0.25.0_linux_amd64.zip
unzip pocketbase_0.25.0_linux_amd64.zip

# Run
./pocketbase serve --http=0.0.0.0:8090

That's it. Admin UI at http://your-server:8090/_/, API at http://your-server:8090/api/.

Step 2: Reverse Proxy (Caddy)

# /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
api.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8090
}

sudo systemctl restart caddy

Step 3: Create Admin Account

1. Open https://api.yourdomain.com/_/
2. Create your admin account on first visit

Step 4: Create Collections (Tables)

In the admin UI:

1. Click New collection
2. Name it (e.g., posts)
3. Add fields:

Field	Type	Options
title	Text	Required, max 200
content	Editor	Rich text
published	Bool	Default false
author	Relation	→ users collection
image	File	Max 5MB, jpg/png/webp
tags	JSON	Array of strings

4. Configure API Rules (who can read/write):
   • List/Search: @request.auth.id != ""
   • View: "" (public)
   • Create: @request.auth.id != ""
   • Update: @request.auth.id = author.id
   • Delete: @request.auth.id = author.id

Step 5: Authentication

PocketBase includes built-in auth:

Email/password (default):

import PocketBase from 'pocketbase'

const pb = new PocketBase('https://api.yourdomain.com')

// Sign up
const user = await pb.collection('users').create({
  email: 'user@example.com',
  password: 'password123',
  passwordConfirm: 'password123',
  name: 'John Doe',
})

// Login
const auth = await pb.collection('users').authWithPassword(
  'user@example.com',
  'password123'
)
console.log(auth.token)

OAuth2 providers: Configure in Admin UI → Settings → Auth providers:

• Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Apple, Discord, GitLab, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify

// OAuth2 login
const auth = await pb.collection('users').authWithOAuth2({ provider: 'google' })

Step 6: Use the API

import PocketBase from 'pocketbase'

const pb = new PocketBase('https://api.yourdomain.com')

// Create
const post = await pb.collection('posts').create({
  title: 'My First Post',
  content: '<p>Hello world</p>',
  published: true,
})

// List with filters
const posts = await pb.collection('posts').getList(1, 20, {
  filter: 'published = true',
  sort: '-created',
  expand: 'author',
})

// Real-time subscriptions
pb.collection('posts').subscribe('*', (e) => {
  console.log(e.action) // 'create', 'update', 'delete'
  console.log(e.record)
})

// File upload
const formData = new FormData()
formData.append('title', 'Post with image')
formData.append('image', fileInput.files[0])
const post = await pb.collection('posts').create(formData)

// Get file URL
const imageUrl = pb.files.getURL(post, post.image)

Step 7: Set Up as a Systemd Service

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/pocketbase.service

[Unit]
Description=PocketBase
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=pocketbase
Group=pocketbase
WorkingDirectory=/opt/pocketbase
ExecStart=/opt/pocketbase/pocketbase serve --http=0.0.0.0:8090
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable pocketbase
sudo systemctl start pocketbase

Step 8: Configure SMTP

In Admin UI → Settings → Mail settings:

Setting	Value
Sender address	noreply@yourdomain.com
Sender name	My App
SMTP host	smtp.resend.com
SMTP port	587
Username	resend
Password	re_your_api_key

Required for email verification, password reset, and notifications.

Production Hardening

Backups:

# Copy the SQLite database (daily cron)
# PocketBase stores everything in pb_data/
cp /opt/pocketbase/pb_data/data.db /backups/pocketbase-$(date +%Y%m%d).db

# Or use PocketBase's backup API
curl -X POST 'https://api.yourdomain.com/api/backups' \
  -H 'Authorization: admin-token'

Updates:

# Download new version
wget https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/releases/latest/download/pocketbase_NEW_VERSION_linux_amd64.zip
unzip -o pocketbase_*_linux_amd64.zip -d /opt/pocketbase/

# Restart
sudo systemctl restart pocketbase
# PocketBase auto-migrates the database

Security:

• Restrict admin UI access by IP if possible
• Always use HTTPS (Caddy handles this)
• Set proper API rules on all collections
• Enable email verification for users

Performance:

• PocketBase handles 10K+ concurrent connections
• SQLite is surprisingly fast for reads
• For write-heavy apps at scale, consider PostgreSQL-based alternatives

Resource Usage

Users	RAM	CPU	Disk
1-100	128 MB	1 core	1 GB
100-1K	256 MB	1 core	5 GB
1K-10K	512 MB	2 cores	20 GB

PocketBase is the most lightweight backend you can deploy.

VPS Recommendations

Provider	Spec	Price
Hetzner	2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM	€4.50/month
DigitalOcean	1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM	$6/month
Linode	1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM	$5/month
Fly.io	1 vCPU, 256 MB	Free tier

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