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Documentation Index

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Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Dokploy provides first-class managed database support, allowing you to spin up fully containerised database servers directly inside your projects — no external cloud service required. Each database runs as a Docker service with a persistent volume, and connection credentials are automatically available as environment variables to other services in the same project.

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Supported Database Engines

PostgreSQL

The world’s most advanced open-source relational database. Supports any Docker Hub postgres image tag for version selection.

MySQL

The most widely deployed open-source relational database. Compatible with all mysql image tags.

MariaDB

A community-developed MySQL fork with additional storage engines and features.

MongoDB

A document-oriented NoSQL database designed for flexibility and horizontal scale.

Redis

An in-memory key-value store used for caching, sessions, pub/sub messaging, and queues.

libsql

A community open-contribution fork of SQLite designed to be used as a server, compatible with the Turso client libraries.

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Creating a Database

1

Open a project

Navigate to the project where you want the database to live. Databases and applications in the same project share a private Docker network, enabling connection by service name.
2

Add a database service

Click Add Service and select the database engine you need (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, or libsql).
3

Configure the database

Fill in:
  • Name — a human-readable label for the service.
  • Docker Image — the image tag to use, e.g. postgres:16, mysql:8.0, mongo:7. This is how you pin a specific version.
  • Database name, username, and password (where applicable).
4

Deploy

Click Create (or Deploy). Dokploy pulls the image, creates a named Docker volume for persistence, and starts the container. The service is immediately reachable by other containers in the project over the internal Docker network.

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Connecting to Your Application

Every database service automatically exposes its connection string as an environment variable that you can copy and paste into any application in the same project. 
# PostgreSQL connection string (available from the database's Connect tab)
POSTGRES_URL=postgres://dokploy:password@<appName>:5432/mydb

# MySQL
MYSQL_URL=mysql://dokploy:password@<appName>:3306/mydb

# MongoDB
MONGO_URL=mongodb://dokploy:password@<appName>:27017/mydb

# Redis
REDIS_URL=redis://:password@<appName>:6379
The <appName> hostname resolves automatically within the shared Docker network — no manual IP or hostname configuration is needed. Open the Connect tab on any database service to copy the ready-to-use connection strings.
Internal connections use Docker’s overlay network and never leave your server. You do not need to expose a database externally just to connect an application running on the same Dokploy instance.

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External Access

If you need to connect to a database from outside the server — for example, from a local database GUI like TablePlus or DBeaver — you can expose an external port.
1

Open the database service

Navigate to the database and open the General or Ports tab.
2

Set an external port

Enter an available host port in the External Port field. Dokploy checks whether the port is already in use before saving; if it is, you will see a conflict error naming the container that holds the port.
3

Connect remotely

Use <server-ip>:<external-port> in your database client with the credentials configured for the service.
Exposing a database port publicly makes it reachable from the internet. Always use a strong, unique password and restrict access with firewall rules (ufw or your cloud provider’s security groups) to trusted IP addresses only. Never expose database ports in production without additional network-level controls.

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Database Versions

Dokploy uses standard Docker Hub image tags for versioning. When creating or editing a database, set the Docker Image field to the desired tag: 
postgres:16          # PostgreSQL 16 (latest patch)
postgres:15.6        # PostgreSQL 15.6 (exact version)
mysql:8.0            # MySQL 8.0
mongo:7              # MongoDB 7
mariadb:11.3         # MariaDB 11.3
redis:7-alpine       # Redis 7 on Alpine Linux
To upgrade a database version, update the Docker Image field and click Rebuild. Always back up your data before upgrading between major versions.

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Environment Variables

Each database service has its own Environment Variables tab where you can inject additional environment variables directly into the database container. This is useful for setting database-specific tuning flags or enabling plugins supported by the official Docker image. 
# Example: tuning PostgreSQL via environment
POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS=--encoding=UTF8 --lc-collate=C

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Stopping and Restarting

From any database detail page you can:
ActionDescription
StopGracefully stops the running container while keeping the volume intact.
StartRestarts a previously stopped database container.
RebuildPulls the latest image matching the configured tag and recreates the container, preserving the volume data.

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Moving Databases

A database can be reassigned to a different project environment using the Move action (found in the service’s settings menu). Moving a database updates the environmentId association — the underlying Docker service and volume remain on the same server unchanged.

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