Can I self-host Invoice Ninja on Ubuntu 24.04?

Yes. Invoice Ninja can be self-hosted on Ubuntu 24.04 using Docker Compose with MySQL, Redis, persistent storage, and a reverse proxy for HTTPS.

What VM size do I need for Invoice Ninja?

This tutorial is written for a Raff VM with 2 vCPU, 4 GB DDR5 RAM, and 40 GB NVMe storage. That is suitable for a small business test or lightweight internal deployment. Larger teams should monitor CPU, memory, database size, and storage usage.

Why does this tutorial use MySQL and Redis?

Invoice Ninja uses MySQL for application data and Redis for cache, queue, and session handling in this Docker Compose setup.

Why does this tutorial use Caddy with Invoice Ninja?

Caddy handles public web traffic and automatic HTTPS, while Invoice Ninja and its internal Nginx container stay on the private Docker network.

How do I back up Invoice Ninja?

Back up both the MySQL database and the Invoice Ninja storage volumes. This tutorial creates a compressed database dump and a compressed archive of the public and storage volumes, then verifies that both backup files are readable.

Can Invoice Ninja send invoices by email after this setup?

The tutorial starts with MAIL_MAILER=log for a safe first deployment. To send real invoices by email, configure SMTP settings in the .env file and restart the app containers.

Self-Host Invoice Ninja on Ubuntu 24.04

In this tutorial, you’ll self-host Invoice Ninja on a Raff Ubuntu 24.04 VM with Docker Compose, MySQL, Redis, Caddy automatic HTTPS, persistent storage, bootstrap user setup, and a first verified backup.

Invoice Ninja is a self-hosted invoicing platform for invoices, quotes, expenses, tasks, payments, clients, and recurring billing workflows. This tutorial deploys Invoice Ninja on Ubuntu 24.04 with Docker Compose, places it behind HTTPS, creates the first admin user, removes bootstrap credentials, and verifies the system before storing business data.

Raff Technologies runs over 10,000 VMs across its compute platform in Vint Hill, Virginia, on AMD EPYC hardware with NVMe storage.

Prerequisites:

A Raff Ubuntu 24.04 VM
SSH access with sudo privileges
A domain or subdomain pointing to your Raff VM, for example billing.example.com
Ports 80/tcp and 443/tcp open for HTTPS certificate issuance and web access

This tutorial was written for a Raff VM with 2 vCPU, 4 GB DDR5 RAM, 40 GB NVMe storage, running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Tested on Raff infrastructure by Aybars Altınyay, platform engineer and technical writer at Raff Technologies.

Step 1 — Update the Ubuntu server

Update the package index and install the base utilities used in this tutorial.

bashsudo apt update

sudo env DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive NEEDRESTART_MODE=a apt upgrade -y \
  -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confdef \
  -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold

sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release ufw dnsutils openssl

📌 Note: If Ubuntu still asks what to do with a modified /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, select keep the local version currently installed. This preserves the current SSH login configuration on the Raff VM.

Verify the server is running Ubuntu 24.04:

bashlsb_release -ds

Expected output:

textUbuntu 24.04 LTS

Minor point releases such as Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS are acceptable.

Step 2 — Install Docker and Docker Compose

Install Docker Engine and the Docker Compose plugin from Docker’s official Ubuntu repository.

bashsudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings

sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg \
  -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources > /dev/null <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}")
Components: stable
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Verify Docker and Docker Compose are installed:

bashsudo docker run --rm hello-world
docker compose version

Expected output includes:

textHello from Docker!
Docker Compose version v2.x.x

Step 3 — Configure DNS and firewall rules

Set your Invoice Ninja domain and verify it resolves to your Raff VM before starting Caddy.

bashread -rp "Invoice Ninja domain, for example billing.example.com: " INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN
read -rp "ACME email, for example admin@example.com: " ACME_EMAIL

dig +short "$INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN"

Expected output:

textyour.raff.vm.ip.address

📌 Note: Use your own domain or subdomain for production. Temporary wildcard DNS services such as sslip.io or nip.io can hit shared certificate rate limits and are only suitable for testing.

Enable the firewall and allow only SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS:

bashsudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw --force enable
sudo ufw status numbered

Expected output includes:

textStatus: active
[ 1] OpenSSH                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 2] 80/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 3] 443/tcp                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere

📌 Note: Invoice Ninja itself will not expose a public host port. Only Caddy listens publicly on ports 80 and 443.

Step 4 — Create the Invoice Ninja Compose stack

Create the deployment directory, Nginx configuration directory, and backup directory.

bashsudo mkdir -p /opt/invoice-ninja/{nginx,backups}
sudo chown -R "$USER":"$USER" /opt/invoice-ninja
cd /opt/invoice-ninja

Generate the application key and database credentials.

bashAPP_KEY="$(sudo docker run --rm invoiceninja/invoiceninja-debian:latest php artisan key:generate --show)"
DB_PASSWORD="$(openssl rand -hex 24)"
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD="$(openssl rand -hex 24)"
INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD="$(openssl rand -hex 16)"

printf "%s\n" "$INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD" > .initial_admin_password
chmod 600 .initial_admin_password

Create the .env file. Replace the admin email when prompted.

bashread -rp "Initial Invoice Ninja admin email, for example admin@example.com: " IN_USER_EMAIL

cat > .env <<EOF
APP_URL=https://${INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN}
APP_KEY=${APP_KEY}
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
REQUIRE_HTTPS=true
PHANTOMJS_PDF_GENERATION=false
PDF_GENERATOR=snappdf
TRUSTED_PROXIES='*'

CACHE_DRIVER=redis
QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis
SESSION_DRIVER=redis
REDIS_HOST=redis
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379

FILESYSTEM_DISK=debian_docker
DB_HOST=mysql
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=ninja
DB_USERNAME=ninja
DB_PASSWORD=${DB_PASSWORD}
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=${DB_ROOT_PASSWORD}
DB_CONNECTION=mysql

IN_USER_EMAIL=${IN_USER_EMAIL}
IN_PASSWORD=${INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD}

MAIL_MAILER=log
MAIL_HOST=smtp.example.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=null
MAIL_PASSWORD=null
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=${IN_USER_EMAIL}
MAIL_FROM_NAME='Invoice Ninja'

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=${DB_ROOT_PASSWORD}
MYSQL_USER=ninja
MYSQL_PASSWORD=${DB_PASSWORD}
MYSQL_DATABASE=ninja

IS_DOCKER=true
SCOUT_DRIVER=null

ACME_EMAIL=${ACME_EMAIL}
INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN=${INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN}
EOF

chmod 600 .env

⚠️ Warning: The .env file contains database credentials and the temporary bootstrap admin password. Keep it readable only by trusted administrators.

Create the Nginx configuration used by the Invoice Ninja web container.

bashcat > nginx/invoiceninja.conf <<'EOF'
client_max_body_size 20M;
client_body_buffer_size 20M;
server_tokens off;

fastcgi_buffers 32 16K;

gzip on;
gzip_comp_level 2;
gzip_min_length 1M;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_types *;
EOF

Create the Laravel Nginx site configuration.

bashcat > nginx/laravel.conf <<'EOF'
server {
  listen 80 default_server;
  server_name _;

  root /var/www/html/public;

  add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
  add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

  index index.php;
  charset utf-8;

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
  }

  location = /favicon.ico {
    access_log off;
    log_not_found off;
  }

  location = /robots.txt {
    access_log off;
    log_not_found off;
  }

  error_page 404 /index.php;

  location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass app:9000;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
  }

  location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
    deny all;
  }
}
EOF

Create the Docker Compose file.

bashcat > compose.yaml <<'EOF'
services:
  app:
    image: invoiceninja/invoiceninja-debian:latest
    container_name: invoice-ninja-app
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file:
      - ./.env
    volumes:
      - invoice_ninja_app_public:/var/www/html/public
      - invoice_ninja_app_storage:/var/www/html/storage
    depends_on:
      mysql:
        condition: service_healthy
      redis:
        condition: service_healthy
    networks:
      - invoice_ninja_net

  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    container_name: invoice-ninja-nginx
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./nginx:/etc/nginx/conf.d:ro
      - invoice_ninja_app_public:/var/www/html/public:ro
      - invoice_ninja_app_storage:/var/www/html/storage:ro
    depends_on:
      - app
    networks:
      - invoice_ninja_net

  mysql:
    image: mysql:8
    container_name: invoice-ninja-mysql
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: ${MYSQL_DATABASE}
      MYSQL_USER: ${MYSQL_USER}
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_PASSWORD}
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - invoice_ninja_mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "mysqladmin", "ping", "-h", "localhost", "-uninja", "-p${MYSQL_PASSWORD}"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 10
    networks:
      - invoice_ninja_net

  redis:
    image: redis:alpine
    container_name: invoice-ninja-redis
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - invoice_ninja_redis_data:/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "redis-cli", "ping"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 10
    networks:
      - invoice_ninja_net

  caddy:
    image: caddy:2
    container_name: invoice-ninja-caddy
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      - nginx
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    environment:
      INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN: ${INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN}
      ACME_EMAIL: ${ACME_EMAIL}
      LOG_FILE: /data/access.log
    volumes:
      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
      - invoice_ninja_caddy_data:/data
      - invoice_ninja_caddy_config:/config
    networks:
      - invoice_ninja_net

networks:
  invoice_ninja_net:
    driver: bridge

volumes:
  invoice_ninja_app_public:
    name: invoice_ninja_app_public
  invoice_ninja_app_storage:
    name: invoice_ninja_app_storage
  invoice_ninja_mysql_data:
    name: invoice_ninja_mysql_data
  invoice_ninja_redis_data:
    name: invoice_ninja_redis_data
  invoice_ninja_caddy_data:
    name: invoice_ninja_caddy_data
  invoice_ninja_caddy_config:
    name: invoice_ninja_caddy_config
EOF

Create the Caddy reverse proxy configuration.

bashcat > Caddyfile <<'EOF'
{
  email {$ACME_EMAIL}
}

{$INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN} {
  log {
    level INFO
    output file {$LOG_FILE} {
      roll_size 10MB
      roll_keep 10
    }
  }

  encode zstd gzip

  header {
    Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000"
    X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
    X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
    Referrer-Policy "no-referrer"
    -Server
  }

  reverse_proxy nginx:80
}
EOF

Validate the Compose configuration:

bashsudo docker compose config >/dev/null && echo "Compose config is valid"

Expected output:

textCompose config is valid

Step 5 — Start Invoice Ninja

Start the Invoice Ninja stack in detached mode.

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja
sudo docker compose up -d

Verify the containers are running:

bashsudo docker compose ps

Expected output includes:

textinvoice-ninja-app      app      Up
invoice-ninja-caddy    caddy    Up
invoice-ninja-mysql    mysql    Up
invoice-ninja-nginx    nginx    Up
invoice-ninja-redis    redis    Up

Verify MySQL and Redis are ready:

bashMYSQL_PASSWORD="$(grep '^MYSQL_PASSWORD=' /opt/invoice-ninja/.env | cut -d= -f2-)"

sudo docker compose exec -T mysql mysqladmin ping -h localhost -uninja -p"$MYSQL_PASSWORD"
sudo docker compose exec -T redis redis-cli ping

Expected output:

textmysqld is alive
PONG

Check the Caddy logs for certificate issuance:

bashsudo docker compose logs --tail=80 caddy

Expected output includes:

textcertificate obtained successfully

Verify Invoice Ninja loads over HTTPS:

bashINVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN="$(grep '^INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN=' /opt/invoice-ninja/.env | cut -d= -f2)"
curl -L -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code} %{url_effective}\n' "https://$INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN"

Expected output includes:

text200 https://billing.example.com

Step 6 — Log in to Invoice Ninja

Display the initial admin email and temporary password.

bashgrep '^IN_USER_EMAIL=' /opt/invoice-ninja/.env
sudo cat /opt/invoice-ninja/.initial_admin_password

Open the Invoice Ninja URL in your browser:

bashecho "https://$(grep '^INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN=' /opt/invoice-ninja/.env | cut -d= -f2)"

textEmail: value from IN_USER_EMAIL
Password: value from /opt/invoice-ninja/.initial_admin_password

⚠️ Warning: Change the initial admin password after the first successful login. Do not use generated test credentials for real business data.

Visible state check:

textThe browser shows the Invoice Ninja login page over HTTPS.
You can log in with the initial admin account.
The Invoice Ninja dashboard loads after login.

Invoice Ninja login page on Ubuntu 24.04 with HTTPS

After logging in, create one test client named Raff Test Client.

Visible state check:

textThe Clients page shows Raff Test Client.
The dashboard remains accessible over HTTPS.

Invoice Ninja dashboard after Docker Compose deployment on Ubuntu 24.04

Step 7 — Remove bootstrap credentials

After the first admin account works, remove the bootstrap admin variables from .env.

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

sed -i '/^IN_USER_EMAIL=/d;/^IN_PASSWORD=/d' .env

sudo docker compose restart app nginx

Verify the bootstrap variables are removed:

bashif ! grep -E '^(IN_USER_EMAIL|IN_PASSWORD)=' /opt/invoice-ninja/.env; then
  echo "Bootstrap credentials removed"
fi

Expected output:

textBootstrap credentials removed

Verify Invoice Ninja still loads:

bashINVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN="$(grep '^INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN=' /opt/invoice-ninja/.env | cut -d= -f2)"
curl -L -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code} %{url_effective}\n' "https://$INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN"

Expected output includes:

text200

Step 8 — Create the first backup

Create a first backup of the MySQL database and Invoice Ninja storage volumes before adding business data.

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

STAMP="$(date +%F-%H%M%S)"
DB_NAME="$(grep '^DB_DATABASE=' .env | cut -d= -f2-)"
DB_USER="$(grep '^DB_USERNAME=' .env | cut -d= -f2-)"
DB_PASSWORD="$(grep '^DB_PASSWORD=' .env | cut -d= -f2-)"

sudo docker compose exec -T mysql mysqldump -u"$DB_USER" -p"$DB_PASSWORD" "$DB_NAME" \
  | gzip > "backups/invoice-ninja-db-${STAMP}.sql.gz"

sudo docker run --rm \
  -v invoice_ninja_app_public:/app_public:ro \
  -v invoice_ninja_app_storage:/app_storage:ro \
  -v /opt/invoice-ninja/backups:/backup \
  alpine:3.20 \
  tar -czf "/backup/invoice-ninja-files-${STAMP}.tar.gz" -C / app_public app_storage

Verify both backup files exist and are readable:

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

LATEST_DB_BACKUP="$(ls -1t backups/invoice-ninja-db-*.sql.gz | head -n 1)"
LATEST_FILE_BACKUP="$(ls -1t backups/invoice-ninja-files-*.tar.gz | head -n 1)"

ls -lh "$LATEST_DB_BACKUP" "$LATEST_FILE_BACKUP"

gzip -t "$LATEST_DB_BACKUP" \
  && echo "Database backup archive is valid"

sudo tar -tzf "$LATEST_FILE_BACKUP" | head

Expected output includes:

textinvoice-ninja-db-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.sql.gz
invoice-ninja-files-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.tar.gz
Database backup archive is valid
app_public/
app_storage/

⚠️ Warning: Store Invoice Ninja backups off-server. Local backups are useful for quick recovery, but production backups should also exist outside the VM.

Step 9 — Verify the complete Invoice Ninja deployment

Verify HTTPS, container status, database readiness, Redis readiness, bootstrap credential removal, and backup files.

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN="$(grep '^INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN=' .env | cut -d= -f2)"
DB_PASSWORD="$(grep '^DB_PASSWORD=' .env | cut -d= -f2-)"

echo "Checking HTTPS:"
curl -L -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code} %{url_effective}\n' "https://$INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN"

echo "Checking containers:"
sudo docker compose ps

echo "Checking MySQL:"
sudo docker compose exec -T mysql mysqladmin ping -h localhost -uninja -p"$DB_PASSWORD"

echo "Checking Redis:"
sudo docker compose exec -T redis redis-cli ping

echo "Checking bootstrap credentials:"
if ! grep -E '^(IN_USER_EMAIL|IN_PASSWORD)=' .env; then
  echo "Bootstrap credentials removed"
fi

echo "Checking backups:"
ls -1 backups/invoice-ninja-db-*.sql.gz backups/invoice-ninja-files-*.tar.gz | tail -n 4

Expected output includes:

text200 https://billing.example.com
invoice-ninja-app      app      Up
invoice-ninja-caddy    caddy    Up
invoice-ninja-mysql    mysql    Up
invoice-ninja-nginx    nginx    Up
invoice-ninja-redis    redis    Up
mysqld is alive
PONG
Bootstrap credentials removed
backups/invoice-ninja-db-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.sql.gz
backups/invoice-ninja-files-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.tar.gz

Complete the browser verification:

text1. Open https://your-invoice-ninja-domain.
2. Log in with the admin account.
3. Confirm the Invoice Ninja dashboard loads.
4. Open Clients.
5. Confirm Raff Test Client is visible.
6. Refresh the page and confirm the dashboard still loads over HTTPS.

Invoice Ninja test client after successful deployment on Ubuntu 24.04

The Invoice Ninja deployment is complete when HTTPS works, the dashboard loads, MySQL is alive, Redis responds with PONG, bootstrap credentials are removed, backup files exist, and the test client remains visible after refresh.

Cleanup (Optional)

Use this section only if you want to remove Invoice Ninja from the Raff VM.

⚠️ Warning: The following commands permanently delete the Invoice Ninja containers, MySQL data volume, Redis data volume, application storage volumes, Caddy certificate storage, configuration files, backups, and uploaded business data. Back up anything you need before proceeding.

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

sudo docker compose down -v

sudo rm -rf /opt/invoice-ninja

Close the firewall ports if this VM no longer hosts public web services:

bashsudo ufw delete allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw delete allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw status numbered

Expected output no longer lists 80/tcp or 443/tcp rules.

Troubleshooting

HTTPS certificate issuance fails

Cause: The domain does not point to the Raff VM, ports 80/tcp and 443/tcp are blocked, or the certificate service cannot reach Caddy.

Fix:

bashINVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN="$(grep '^INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN=' /opt/invoice-ninja/.env | cut -d= -f2)"

dig +short "$INVOICE_NINJA_DOMAIN"
sudo ufw status numbered
cd /opt/invoice-ninja
sudo docker compose logs --tail=100 caddy

The DNS output must show the Raff VM public IP. The firewall output must allow 80/tcp and 443/tcp.

Invoice Ninja shows a 502 error

Cause: Caddy is running, but the Nginx or app container is not reachable on the Docker network.

Fix:

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

sudo docker compose ps
sudo docker compose logs --tail=100 nginx
sudo docker compose logs --tail=100 app
sudo docker compose restart app nginx caddy

Expected output from sudo docker compose ps shows invoice-ninja-app, invoice-ninja-nginx, and invoice-ninja-caddy as Up.

Cause: The initial admin user was already created, the password was changed in the UI, or the bootstrap variables were removed.

Fix:

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

grep '^APP_URL=' .env
sudo docker compose logs --tail=100 app

Use the password reset flow from the Invoice Ninja web interface, or restore from a known-good backup if this is a test deployment.

MySQL is unhealthy

Cause: The MySQL container is still initializing, the password values were changed after the volume was created, or the database volume is damaged.

Fix:

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

sudo docker compose ps
sudo docker compose logs --tail=100 mysql

DB_PASSWORD="$(grep '^DB_PASSWORD=' .env | cut -d= -f2-)"
sudo docker compose exec -T mysql mysqladmin ping -h localhost -uninja -p"$DB_PASSWORD"

Expected output:

textmysqld is alive

⚠️ Warning: Do not delete the MySQL volume to fix a password mismatch unless you intentionally want to erase all Invoice Ninja data.

Backup creation fails

Cause: The database credentials do not match the running MySQL container, or the backup directory is missing.

Fix:

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

ls -ld backups
grep '^DB_' .env
sudo docker compose ps
sudo docker compose exec -T mysql mysql -uninja -p"$(grep '^DB_PASSWORD=' .env | cut -d= -f2-)" -e "SHOW DATABASES;"

The database list must include:

textninja

Email notifications are not sending

Cause: The tutorial uses MAIL_MAILER=log for a safe first deployment, so outbound email is not configured.

Fix:

Edit /opt/invoice-ninja/.env and replace the mail settings with your SMTP provider’s values.

bashcd /opt/invoice-ninja

grep '^MAIL_' .env

After editing mail settings, restart the app:

bashsudo docker compose restart app nginx

Expected output from sudo docker compose ps shows the app and Nginx containers as Up.

Conclusion

You now have Invoice Ninja running on a Raff Ubuntu 24.04 VM with Docker Compose, MySQL, Redis, Caddy HTTPS, persistent volumes, bootstrap credentials removed, and a first verified backup created. If you haven’t deployed your Raff VM yet, you can spin one up in 60 seconds at rafftechnologies.com.

Next: How to Install Docker on Ubuntu 24.04
Related: Automate Server Backups with Cron and Rsync on Ubuntu 24.04
Guide: Cloud Server Backup Strategies

Self-Host Invoice Ninja on Ubuntu 24.04 with Docker Compose

Prerequisites

Step 1 — Update the Ubuntu server

Step 2 — Install Docker and Docker Compose

Step 3 — Configure DNS and firewall rules

Step 4 — Create the Invoice Ninja Compose stack

Step 5 — Start Invoice Ninja

Step 6 — Log in to Invoice Ninja

Step 7 — Remove bootstrap credentials

Step 8 — Create the first backup

Step 9 — Verify the complete Invoice Ninja deployment

Cleanup (Optional)

Troubleshooting

HTTPS certificate issuance fails

Invoice Ninja shows a 502 error

MySQL is unhealthy

Backup creation fails

Email notifications are not sending

Conclusion

Get notified when we publish new tutorials

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to get started?

Prerequisites

Step 1 — Update the Ubuntu server

Step 2 — Install Docker and Docker Compose

Step 3 — Configure DNS and firewall rules

Step 4 — Create the Invoice Ninja Compose stack

Step 5 — Start Invoice Ninja

Step 6 — Log in to Invoice Ninja

Step 7 — Remove bootstrap credentials

Step 8 — Create the first backup

Step 9 — Verify the complete Invoice Ninja deployment

Cleanup (Optional)

Troubleshooting

HTTPS certificate issuance fails

Invoice Ninja shows a 502 error

The login page does not accept the initial password

MySQL is unhealthy

Backup creation fails

Email notifications are not sending

Conclusion

Get notified when we publish new tutorials

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I self-host Invoice Ninja on Ubuntu 24.04?

What VM size do I need for Invoice Ninja?

Why does this tutorial use MySQL and Redis?

Why does this tutorial use Caddy with Invoice Ninja?

How do I back up Invoice Ninja?

Can Invoice Ninja send invoices by email after this setup?

Ready to get started?