How to Deploy PocketBase on Ubuntu 24.04 VPS: Lightweight Open-Source Firebase Alternative

The Rise of Single-Binary Backends (PocketBase)

Commercial Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) platforms like Google Firebase charge unpredictable fees that scale with database read/write volume. PocketBase is an open-source, single-binary Go backend featuring an embedded SQLite database with WAL mode, real-time WebSockets, file storage, and full OAuth2 authentication that runs smoothly on even the smallest cloud VPS.

Step 1: Downloading and Installing PocketBase Binary

# Download latest release
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/pocketbase && cd /var/www/pocketbase
wget https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/releases/download/v0.22.20/pocketbase_0.22.20_linux_amd64.zip
sudo apt install -y unzip && unzip pocketbase_*.zip
rm pocketbase_*.zip
chmod +x pocketbase

Step 2: Configuring Systemd Service for Auto-Restart

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/pocketbase.service

[Unit]
Description=PocketBase Backend Service
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=root
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/pocketbase
ExecStart=/var/www/pocketbase/pocketbase serve --http="127.0.0.1:8090"
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now pocketbase.service

Route port 8090 through Nginx with Let's Encrypt SSL. Access the admin UI at https://pb.yourdomain.com/_/ to begin managing data collections and user authentications.