How I Set Up a VPS on Hetzner Cloud to Host Self-Hosted Apps with Docker + Portainer

Over the past few years, I’ve gradually moved many of my tools and services away from SaaS subscriptions and into self-hosted environments. Whether it’s knowledge bases, helpdesk software, automation tools, or even app prototypes — I now run most of them on my own VPS. This post walks you through how I set up a clean, secure, and scalable VPS on Hetzner Cloud , ready to host Dockerized applications and manage them easily via Portainer.

📦 Why Hetzner?

Hetzner is one of the best-kept secrets for developers and entrepreneurs who need affordable, powerful cloud servers. Their pricing is excellent, the performance is solid, and their dashboard is clean and simple. I use it to spin up lightweight production environments, staging servers, and internal tools.

🛠️ What We’ll Set Up

• A clean Ubuntu server on Hetzner
• Secure server configuration: SSH, firewall, non-root user
• Docker + Docker Compose installation
• Portainer for easy container management via GUI
• Nginx Proxy Manager for HTTPS and domain-based routing
• Future-ready setup for multiple apps

1. 🔧 Provisioning a New VPS on Hetzner

1. Create an Account: console.hetzner.cloud
2. Create a New Project and add an SSH key.

3. Create a Server:

   • Image: Ubuntu 24.04
   • Type: CX22 or higher (CX31 for heavier apps)
   • Location: closest to your users

4. Choose SSH key login only. Avoid password-based logins.

2. 🔐 Initial Security Setup

SSH into your server as root:

ssh root@your.server.ip

Now secure the basics:

🧑‍💻 Create a non-root user

adduser tariq
usermod -aG sudo tariq'

🔐 Harden SSH

Edit the config:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Make sure the following are set:

PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no

Then reload SSH:

sudo systemctl reload sshd

🔥 Set up basic firewall

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

3. 🐳 Install Docker + Docker Compose

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | \
sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) \
  signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

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

Enable Docker:

sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo usermod -aG docker tariq

Logout and log back in to apply group changes.

4. 📦 Install Portainer (Optional but Recommended)

docker volume create portainer_data

docker run -d \
  -p 9000:9000 -p 9443:9443 \
  --name=portainer \
  --restart=always \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v portainer_data:/data \
  portainer/portainer-ce:latest

Then visit: https://your.server.ip:9443 to finish setup.

5. 🌐 Set Up Domain + HTTPS with Nginx Proxy Manager

docker volume create npm_data
docker volume create npm_letsencrypt

docker run -d \
  --name npm \
  -p 80:80 -p 81:81 -p 443:443 \
  -v npm_data:/data \
  -v npm_letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt \
  --restart always \
  jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:latest

Access NPM admin at http://your.server.ip:81. Default login:

• Email: admin@example.com
• Password: changeme
  

You can now add your domains, configure HTTPS, and reverse proxy traffic to your apps running in Docker.

🧱 Folder Structure and GitOps (Optional)

I recommend organizing your apps like this:

/opt/apps/
  ├── app1/
  │ └── docker-compose.yml
  ├── app2/
  │ └── docker-compose.yml

Version-control this folder using Git (private repo), and maintain infrastructure as code.

🔄 Next Steps

Once the server is up and secure with Docker, Portainer, and NPM, you’re ready to deploy your stack:

• 🧾 Zammad for helpdesk
• 🧠 Outline for internal docs
• 🤖 n8n for automation
• 🧰 Custom Rails or Node apps

💡 Final Thoughts

Running your own infrastructure isn’t as intimidating as it seems — and the flexibility, cost savings, and control are totally worth it. Whether you’re a startup founder, indie hacker, or just like to tinker, a Hetzner VPS with Docker is a powerful foundation for anything you want to self-host.

Let me know what you’re self-hosting — and feel free to reach out if you’re curious about how I run mine behind the scenes.