How to Self-Host PocketBase

A step-by-step guide to deploying PocketBase on your own server.

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Prerequisites

• A server or VPS (Ubuntu/Debian recommended)
• SSH access to the server
• Basic familiarity with the terminal

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1. Download PocketBase

Visit pocketbase.io/docs and download the appropriate zip file for your system architecture:

• AMD/x64 — for most cloud VPS instances
• ARM64 — for ARM-based servers (e.g., Oracle Cloud free tier, Raspberry Pi)

# Example for Linux AMD64
wget https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/releases/download/v0.x.x/pocketbase_0.x.x_linux_amd64.zip
unzip pocketbase_0.x.x_linux_amd64.zip -d /home/pocketbase

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2. Run PocketBase

./pocketbase serve

By default it runs on http://localhost:8090. The admin UI is available at http://localhost:8090/_/.

If port 8090 is accessible from your browser, you can create a superuser directly through the UI on first launch.

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3. Create a Superuser (CLI)

If you can't access the UI, create a superuser via the command line:

./pocketbase superuser upsert [email protected] yourpassword

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4. Run on a Custom Domain

You can bind PocketBase to a custom domain with automatic HTTPS (via Let's Encrypt):

./pocketbase serve pb.example.com

Make sure your DNS A record points to the server's IP address.

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5. Run as a Systemd Service

Create a service file so PocketBase starts automatically and restarts on failure.

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

Paste the following:

[Unit]
Description=PocketBase
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=pocketbase
WorkingDirectory=/home/pocketbase
ExecStart=/home/pocketbase/pocketbase serve --http=0.0.0.0:80
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
LimitNOFILE=4096
StandardOutput=append:/home/pocketbase/pb.log
StandardError=append:/home/pocketbase/pb.log

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl enable pocketbase
sudo systemctl start pocketbase
sudo systemctl status pocketbase

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6. Automated Backups to S3

Create a backup script that archives pb_data and uploads it to an S3 bucket using curl with AWS Signature V4.

sudo nano /home/pocketbase/backup.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

# --- Configuration ---
PB_DATA_DIR="/opt/pocketbase/pb_data"
BACKUP_DIR="/opt/pocketbase/backups"
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="YOUR_SECRET_KEY"
AWS_REGION="ap-south-1"
S3_BUCKET="your-backup-bucket"
S3_PREFIX="pocketbase"

# --- Script ---
TIMESTAMP="$(date +'%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S')"
HOSTNAME="$(hostname -s)"
ARCHIVE_NAME="pb_data_${HOSTNAME}_${TIMESTAMP}.tar.gz"
ARCHIVE_PATH="${BACKUP_DIR}/${ARCHIVE_NAME}"
OBJECT_KEY="${S3_PREFIX}/${ARCHIVE_NAME}"

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

tar -czf "$ARCHIVE_PATH" -C "$(dirname "$PB_DATA_DIR")" "$(basename "$PB_DATA_DIR")"

curl --fail --silent --show-error \
  --aws-sigv4 "aws:amz:${AWS_REGION}:s3" \
  --user "${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}:${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}" \
  -T "$ARCHIVE_PATH" \
  "https://${S3_BUCKET}.s3.${AWS_REGION}.amazonaws.com/${OBJECT_KEY}"

echo "✅ Uploaded to s3://${S3_BUCKET}/${OBJECT_KEY}"

Make it executable:

chmod +x /home/pocketbase/backup.sh

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7. Schedule Backups with Cron

Run the backup daily at midnight:

crontab -e

Add this line:

0 0 * * * /home/pocketbase/backup.sh

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Summary

Step	What it does
Download & unzip	Get the PocketBase binary
pocketbase serve	Start the server
superuser upsert	Create admin credentials
Custom domain	HTTPS with Let's Encrypt
Systemd service	Auto-start & crash recovery
Backup script	Archive pb_data → S3
Cron job	Automate daily backups

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Tip: For production, consider placing PocketBase behind a reverse proxy (Caddy or Nginx) for more control over TLS, rate limiting, and headers.