Self-hosting

💡

OpenPanel is not stable yet. If you still want to self-host you can go ahead. Bear in mind that new changes might give a little headache to keep up with.

This is a simple guide how to get started with OpenPanel on your own VPS.

Instructions

Prerequisites

VPS of any kind (only tested on Ubuntu 24.04)
- 🙋‍♂️ This should work on any system if you have pre-installed docker, node and pnpm
Clerk.com (opens in a new tab) account (they have a free tier)

Quickstart

git clone https://github.com/Openpanel-dev/openpanel && cd openpanel/self-hosting && ./setup
# After setup is complete run `./start` to start OpenPanel

Clone

Clone the repository to your VPS

git clone https://github.com/Openpanel-dev/openpanel.git

Run the setup script

The setup script will do 3 things

Install node (if you accept)
Install docker (if you accept)
Execute a node script that will ask some questions about your setup
After this is done you'll need to point a webhook inside Clerk (https://your-domain.com/api/webhook/clerk (opens in a new tab))

Setup takes 1-2 minutes depending on your VPS

cd openpanel/self-hosting
./setup

⚠️ If the ./setup script fails to run, you can do it manually.

Install docker
Install node
Install pnpm
Run the npx jiti ./quiz.ts script inside the self-hosting folder

Start 🚀

Run the ./start script located inside the self-hosting folder

./start

Clerk.com

💡

Some might wonder why we use Clerk.com for authentication. The main reason for this is that Clerk have great support for iOS and Android apps. We're in the process of building an iOS app and we want to have a seamless experience for our users.

next-auth is great, but lacks good support for mobile apps.

You'll need to create an account at Clerk.com (opens in a new tab) and create a new project. You'll need the 3 keys that Clerk provides you with.

Publishable key pk_live_xxx
Secret key sk_live_xxx
Signing secret "whsec_xxx"

Webhooks

You'll also need to add a webhook to your domain. We listen on some events from Clerk to keep our database in sync.

URL

Path: /api/webhook/clerk
Example: https://your-domain.com/api/webhook/clerk

Events we listen to

organizationMembership.created
user.created
organizationMembership.deleted
user.updated
user.deleted

Good to know

Always use correct api url

When self-hosting you'll need to provide your api url when initializing the SDK.

The path should be /api and the domain should be your domain.

index.html

<script>
  window.op = window.op||function(...args){(window.op.q=window.op.q||[]).push(args);};
  window.op('init', {
    apiUrl: 'https://your-domain.com/api',
    clientId: 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID',
    trackScreenViews: true,
    trackOutgoingLinks: true,
    trackAttributes: true,
  });
</script>
<script src="https://openpanel.dev/op1.js" defer async></script>

op.ts

import { OpenPanel } from '@openpanel/sdk';
 
const op = new OpenPanel({
  apiUrl: 'https://your-domain.com/api',
  clientId: 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID',
  trackScreenViews: true,
  trackOutgoingLinks: true,
  trackAttributes: true,
});

Beta to v1