Deploy a VersaTiles Server Behind Nginx (Docker)

This guide explains how to run a VersaTiles server behind an Nginx reverse‑proxy using Docker.
The setup lets you serve map tiles under your own domain with HTTPS and caching.

TIP

If you only need a quick local test server, see Run a VersaTiles server locally instead.

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Prerequisites

Requirement	Notes
Docker 20.10 or newer	Make sure the daemon is running.
A domain name	Configure an A/AAAA record that points to the host where Docker is running.
Port 80 / 443 open	Needed for HTTP‑01 ACME validation and HTTPS traffic.

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Image Overview

The image versatiles-nginx combines:

Component	Purpose
VersaTiles	Tile server.
Nginx	Reverse‑proxy, HTTP/2, caching.
Certbot	Automatic Let’s Encrypt certificates & renewal.
Helper scripts	Pull missing tile data / front‑ends and wire everything together.

Key features

• Serves map data over HTTPS with automatic certificate renewal.
• Caches and compresses requests - up to ~5 000 req/s per core.
• Fetches front‑end bundles and tile archives on first run.

Usage

Example:

docker run -d --name versatiles \
  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 \
  -v "$(pwd)/data:/data" \
  -e DOMAIN=maps.example.com \
  -e EMAIL=admin@example.com \
  -e FRONTEND=standard \
  -e TILE_SOURCES=osm.versatiles \
  -e BBOX="9.5,46.3,17.2,49.1" \
  versatiles/versatiles-nginx:latest

See the versatiles-nginx/README.md

You can also use our "Setup Server" tool to generate a Bash command.