listmonk/docs/docs/content/installation.md

Installation

listmonk requires Postgres ⩾ 12.

See the "Tutorials" section at the bottom for detailed guides.

Binary

• Download the latest release and extract the listmonk binary.
• ./listmonk --new-config to generate config.toml. Then, edit the file.
• ./listmonk --install to install the tables in the Postgres DB.
• Run ./listmonk and visit http://localhost:9000.

Docker

The latest image is available on DockerHub at listmonk/listmonk:latest

!!! note

Listmonk's docs and scripts use `docker compose`, which is compatible with the latest version of docker. If you installed docker and docker-compose from your Linux distribution, you probably have an older version and will need to use the `docker-compose` command instead, or you'll need to update docker manually. [More info](https://gist.github.com/MaximilianKohler/e5158fcfe6de80a9069926a67afcae11#docker-update).

Use the sample docker-compose.yml to run listmonk and Postgres DB with docker compose as follows:

Demo

Easy Docker install

mkdir listmonk-demo && cd listmonk-demo
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/knadh/listmonk/master/install-demo.sh)"

Manual Docker install

wget -O docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/knadh/listmonk/master/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d demo-db demo-app

!!! warning

The demo does not persist Postgres after the containers are removed. **DO NOT** use this demo setup in production.

Production

Easy Docker install

This setup is recommended if you want to quickly setup listmonk in production.

mkdir listmonk && cd listmonk
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/knadh/listmonk/master/install-prod.sh)"

The above shell script performs the following actions:

• Downloads docker-compose.yml and generates a config.toml.
• Runs a Postgres container and installs the database schema.
• Runs the listmonk container.

!!! note

It's recommended to examine the contents of the shell script, before running in your environment.

Manual Docker install

The following workflow is recommended to setup listmonk manually using docker compose. You are encouraged to customise the contents of docker-compose.yml to your needs. The overall setup looks like:

• docker compose up db to run the Postgres DB.
• docker compose run --rm app ./listmonk --install to setup the DB (or --upgrade to upgrade an existing DB).
• Copy config.toml.sample to your directory and make the following changes:
  • app.address => 0.0.0.0:9000 (Port forwarding on Docker will work only if the app is advertising on all interfaces.)
  • db.host => listmonk_db (Container Name of the DB container)
• Run docker compose up app and visit http://localhost:9000.

Mounting a custom config.toml

To mount a local config.toml file, add the following section to docker-compose.yml:

  app:
    <<: *app-defaults
    depends_on:
      - db
    volumes:
    - ./path/on/your/host/config.toml:/listmonk/config.toml

!!! note

Some common changes done inside `config.toml` for Docker based setups:

- Change `app.address` to `0.0.0.0:9000`.
- Change `db.host` to `listmonk_db`.

Here's a sample config.toml you can use:

[app]
address = "0.0.0.0:9000"
admin_username = "listmonk"
admin_password = "listmonk"

# Database.
[db]
host = "listmonk_db"
port = 5432
user = "listmonk"
password = "listmonk"
database = "listmonk"
ssl_mode = "disable"
max_open = 25
max_idle = 25
max_lifetime = "300s"

Mount the local config.toml inside the container at listmonk/config.toml.

!!! tip

- See [configuring with environment variables](configuration.md) for variables like `app.admin_password` and `db.password`
- Ensure that both `app` and `db` containers are in running. If the containers are not running, restart them `docker compose restart app db`.
- Refer to [this tutorial](https://yasoob.me/posts/setting-up-listmonk-opensource-newsletter-mailing/) for setting up a production instance with Docker + Nginx + LetsEncrypt SSL.

!!! info

The example `docker-compose.yml` file works with Docker Engine 24.0.5+ and Docker Compose version v2.20.2+.

Changing the port

To change the port for listmonk:

• Ensure no other container of listmonk app is running. You can check with docker ps | grep listmonk.
• Change L11 to custom-port:9000 Eg: 3876:9000. This will expose the port 3876 on your local network to the container's network interface on port 9000.
• For NGINX setup, if you're running NGINX on your local machine, you can proxy_pass to the <MACHINE_IP>:3876. You can also run NGINX as a docker container within the listmonk's container (for that you need to add a service nginx in the docker-compose.yml). If you do that, then proxy_pass will be set to http://app:9000. Docker's network will resolve the DNS for app and directly speak to port 9000 (which the app is exposing within its own network).
  

Compiling from source

To compile the latest unreleased version (master branch):

1. Make sure go, nodejs, and yarn are installed on your system.
2. git clone git@github.com:knadh/listmonk.git
3. cd listmonk && make dist. This will generate the listmonk binary.

Release candidate (RC)

The master branch with bleeding edge changes is periodically built and published as listmonk/listmonk:rc on DockerHub. To run the latest pre-release version, replace all instances of listmonk/listmonk:latest with listmonk/listmonk:rc in the docker-compose.yml file and follow the Docker installation steps above. While it is generally safe to run release candidate versions, they may have issues that only get resolved in a general release.

3rd party hosting

Tutorials

• Informal step-by-step on how to get started with Listmonk using Railway
• Complete Listmonk setup guide. Step-by-step tutorial for installation and all basic functions. Amazon EC2 & SES
• Step-by-step guide on how to install and set up Listmonk on a server (rameerez, AWS Lightsail & docker)
• Binary install on Ubuntu 22.04 as a service
• Binary install on Ubuntu 18.04 as a service (Apache & Plesk)
• Binary and docker on linux (techviewleo)
• Binary install on your PC. Discussions of limitations: [1][2].
• Install Listmonk with Docker on Rocky Linux 8 (nginx, Let's Encrypt SSL)
• Docker with nginx reverse proxy, certbot SSL, and Gmail SMTP
• Install Listmonk on Self-hosting with Pre-Configured AMI Package at AWS by Single Click
• Tutorial for deploying on Fly.io -- Currently not working