Nhost on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

A complete self hosted application backend on one VM

Nhost is an open source backend as a service, a self hosted alternative to Firebase and Supabase that gives developers a complete application backend out of the box: a PostgreSQL database exposed over an instant GraphQL API, user authentication, S3 compatible file storage, serverless functions and a polished management dashboard. The cloudimg image installs Nhost as a pinned single node Docker Compose stack and runs it as a systemd service, so a complete backend is online within minutes of launch.

What is included

The Nhost self host stack, every image pinned at build time so the appliance ships the exact release and never silently upgrades:

• PostgreSQL 16, the database, internal to the stack
• the Hasura GraphQL Engine v2.46.0 Community Edition, the instant GraphQL API and console, on port 8080
• the Nhost auth service 0.40.2, on port 4000, API served under the v1 prefix
• the Nhost storage service 0.7.2, on port 4001, backed by MinIO as the S3 object store
• the Nhost serverless functions runtime on Node.js 22, on port 4002
• the Nhost management dashboard 2.34.0, on port 80
• MailHog, an internal SMTP catcher for development email

Docker Engine and the Docker Compose plugin are installed from the official Docker package repository.

Built for production on Azure

All stateful data, the PostgreSQL database, the MinIO object store and the Hasura, auth and storage state, lives on a dedicated 40 GiB Azure data disk mounted at /var/lib/nhost, with Docker data root relocated there, independently resizable and re-provisioned with every VM. On the first boot of each VM a one shot service mints every per VM secret, the PostgreSQL password, the Hasura admin secret, the Hasura JWT signing key (an HS256 key regenerated per VM so tokens cannot be forged across deployments) and the MinIO access and secret keys, points the browser facing URLs and CORS at the VM, recreates the stack on a fresh empty database, and refuses to start if any secret still equals a published example literal. No shared or default secret and no preexisting data ships in the image.

Licensing and support

Every bundled component is open source and free to use: PostgreSQL, the Hasura GraphQL Engine Community Edition (Apache 2.0, not the proprietary enterprise edition), the Nhost auth, storage, functions and dashboard services, MinIO and MailHog. There is no per user or per project fee. The cloudimg charge covers packaging, security patching, image maintenance and 24/7 expert support. Recommended size: Standard_B4ms (4 vCPU / 16 GB RAM).