How to Self-Host NocoDB on Fly.io

You want to self-host apps for fun or privacy - but not the ‘running servers in your garage’ type of self-hosted. In 2022 we live in a Golden Era of low-cost VPCs and hosting providers, and there has never been a better time for people looking to offload the frustrating parts of self-hosting, while still operating on a shoe-string budget (or free!).

So you want to host your own NocoDB Airtable alternative ? Love it! Let’s get you rolling. This guide will set you up on Fly.io with a SQLite backend. NocoDB has so many uses cases, but one feature I want to call out is how handy it is that it comes with a built-in API for items right out of the gate. Can anyone say speedy MVPs?

😢 SQLite??? Is that even production ready??

You’d be surprised how much traffic you can support with SQLite - NomadList & RemoteOK both run on it and pull in significant revenue ($millions) and handle tons of traffic. Read more in Consider SQLite and how Michael Lynch uses SQLite + Litestream to never worry about backups .

Now let’s get your server running & get you back to whatever more important things you’re avoiding!

🛠️ Fly.io account setup

We need to take a quick detour to ensure you have an account with Fly.io .

• Install the flyctl CLI tool.

• Authenticate with flyctl auth signup (for newbies), or flyctl auth login (existing accounts).

  ⚠️ You will have to add credit card information to the account, so if that’s enough to keep you from using a free service 🤷- keep your usage to the free tier and you’ll have no issues.

🤸Deploying NocoDB to Fly.io

With account setup out of the way, we will have a running instance of NocoDB on the interwebs in just 4 quick CLI commands. For reference, the Docker instructions for NocoDB .

• Create a new directory & initialize the project.

   mkdir fly-nocodb/
  cd fly-nocodb
  flyctl launch --image=nocodb/nocodb:latest --no-deploy
  

• Create the volume for persistent storage.

  ℹ️ I set this to volume of 1 GB since I am deploying multiple apps on Fly, but the free tier supports up to 3GB for your account .

  flyctl volumes create nocodb_vol --size 1 -r ord
  

• Manually edit fly.toml: Update the mounts to use the new volume .

  [mounts]
      source="nocodb_vol"
      destination="/usr/app/data"
  

• (Optional) Manually edit fly.toml: update any relevant NoCODB production variables .

  I chose to disable telemetry and remove the initial loading screen, but you can also set variables to connect to AWS S3, change security settings, connect other database, and more.

  [env]
      NC_DISABLE_TELE = "true"
      NC_MIN = "true"
  

• 🪄 Deploy your new app - flyctl deploy.

  ...
  ....
  ==> Creating release
  --> release v2 created
  
  --> You can detach the terminal anytime without stopping the deployment
  ==> Monitoring deployment
  
   1 desired, 1 placed, 1 healthy, 0 unhealthy [health checks: 1 total, 1 passing]
  --> v0 deployed successfully
  

  You now have a live app running on Fly.io ! Not needed, but if you already forgot the URL (like me), anytime you can run flyctl info to check on your shiny new app.

  19:16:50:~/work/fly-nocodb: [0]▶ flyctl info
  App
    Name     = bold-bird-3731
    Owner    = personal
    Version  = 0
    Status   = running
    Hostname = bold-bird-3731.fly.dev
  
  Services
  PROTOCOL PORTS
  TCP      80 => 8080 [HTTP]
           443 => 8080 [TLS, HTTP]
  
  IP Adresses
  TYPE ADDRESS             REGION CREATED AT
  v4   37.16.5.93                 1m23s ago
  v6   2a09:8280:1::3:3873        1m23s ago
  

🌴NocoDB live on Fly.io

With a few commands and almost no thought required, I have a self-hosted Airtable alternative NocoDB live and ready for use. The sky is the limit from here.

Other quick options

Fly is not the only simple hosting provider out there - there’s a gluttony of choice, and you as the customer are winning! A few other options include:

• Railway - 1 Click Deploy
• Render
• Heroku - 1 Click Deploy
• Hostman