Deploy Homepage on Docker for an Organized Dashboard

Deploy Your Homepage with Docker 🐳

Let me tell you a story. A few years ago, I built a personal homepage to organize all my self-hosted apps, such as Plex, Radarr, and my calendar. I spent hours configuring Apache, tweaking permissions, and debugging CSS… only for everything to break after a system update. Sound familiar? That’s when I discovered Docker🐳, and my life changed.

Today, I’ll walk you through deploying a sleek, customizable dashboard called Homepage using Docker 🐳. No more dependency nightmares, no more "it works on my machine" moments—just a clean, reliable homepage that survives updates, reboots, and even coffee spills. Let’s dive in!

Why Docker? (Or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Containers)

Imagine moving to a new house. Instead of packing dishes, books, and furniture haphazardly, you seal each room’s contents into a labeled, unbreakable bubble. When you arrive, you pop the bubbles, and everything’s exactly where it should be. That’s Docker 🐳 in a nutshell.

Docker lets you package apps into containers—lightweight, self-contained environments that include everything needed to run: code, libraries, and even the operating system. Benefits?

• Consistency: Runs the same everywhere (your laptop, a server, the cloud).
• Isolation: If one app crashes, the others keep humming.
• Simplicity: No more “But it worked on Ubuntu!” fights.

For Homepage, Docker 🐳 means you can set it up in minutes, update it with one command, and forget about dependency headaches.

What’s a Homepage? (Your New Command Center)

Homepage is a minimalist, open-source dashboard designed to centralize all your self-hosted tools, bookmarks, and widgets. Think of it as a mission control for your digital life:

• Quick access to services like Jellyfin, Proxmox, or Nextcloud
• Weather widgets, RSS feeds, or system stats
• A clean, customizable UI (no CSS Ph.D. required)

I’ve tried dashboards like Heimdall and Organizr, but Homepage won me over with its YAML-based configuration (no databases!) and its dead-simple setup.

What You’ll Need?

1. Docker 🐳 installed: Docker Desktop for beginners (Windows/Mac) or Docker Engine for Linux you can follow my article 
2. A text editor: VS Code, Notepad++, or even Nano.
3. Basic terminal skills: You’ll type a few commands—no hacking required.
4. 15 minutes: Seriously, it’s that quick.

Step 1. The Docker 🐳 Compose File (Your Blueprint)

Docker🐳 Compose lets you define your app’s setup in a docker-compose.yml file. This file is like an IKEA manual: it tells Docker exactly how to build your container.

First, create a directory for your Homepage configuration:

mkdir -p ~/homepage && cd ~/homepage

Create a folder called homepage (or whatever you like) and open a new docker-compose.yml file. Here’s mine:

version: '3.8'

services:
  homepage:
    image: ghcr.io/gethomepage/homepage:latest
    container_name: homepage
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
    volumes:
      - ./config:/app/config
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
    restart: unless-stopped

Let’s break this down:

• image: This pulls Homepage’s latest version from GitHub’s container registry.
• ports: Maps port 3000 on your machine to the container’s port 3000.
• volumes:
  • ./config:/app/config Saves your config files to your host machine (so they survive container updates).
  • /var/run/docker.sock Lets Homepage monitor other Docker containers (cool, right?).
• restart: Auto-reboots the container if your server restarts.

Step 2. Configure Your Homepage

Homepage uses YAML files for configuration. YAML is like a to-do list for your computer—easy to read, but very picky about spacing.

Inside your homepage folder, create a config subfolder. Here’s where you’ll add:

• services.yaml: Links to your apps (Jellyfin, Home Lab Proxmox, Nextcloud, etc.)
• bookmarks.yaml: Your favourite websites
• widgets.yaml: Weather, system stats, etc.

Example services.yaml snippet:

- Entertainment:
  - Jellyfin:
        href: http://192.168.0.XXX:8096/
        description: My Jellyfin
        iocn : jellyfin.png

  - Netflix:
        href: https://www.netflix.com/in/
        description : Netflix
        icon : netflix.png


- Tech:
    - Csharp.com :
        href: https://www.csharp.com/members/sarthak-varshney
        description: Csharp.com

    - Tutorialslink.com :
        href: https://tutorialslink.com/member/SarthakVarshney/3600
        description: tutorialslink.com

    - MVP.alibabacloud.com :
        href: https://mvp.alibabacloud.com/mvp/detail/366
        icon: alibabacloud.png
        description: mvp.alibabacloud.com


- My Webpage:
  - Sarthakvarshney.in:
        href: https://sarthakvarshney.in
        description: Web Page 

- Proxmox:
  - Home Lab:
        href: http://lab.sarthakvarshney.in:8006
        icon: proxmox.png

  - OPNsense:
      icon: opnsense
      href: http://192.168.0.XXX
      username: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
      password: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
      description: Open-source firewall and routing

- Nextcloud:
  - Nextcloud :
        href: http://192.168.1.XXX:80
        icon: nextcloud.png
        description: Private cloud storage

Pro tip: The homepage’s documentation includes hundreds of built-in icons. Save your icons in config/icons!

Step 3. Launch with Docker Compose 🐳

Open a terminal in your homepage folder and run:

docker-compose up -d

The -d flag runs it in the background.

Visit http://localhost:3000, or http://your-ip-address:3000 and your homepage is live!

First launch gotchas

• If you see a blank page, check your YAML files for typos (I once spent 30 minutes debugging a missing colon).
• Permissions issues? Ensure the config folder is readable by Docker.

Personalizing Your Dashboard

Here’s where the fun begins. Let me share how I customized mine:

1. Themes: I edited settings.yaml to use a dark theme.
2. Docker Integration: Since I added docker.sock, Homepage auto-displays my running containers (like Portainer and Nginx).
3. Bookmarks: Added links to my GitHub and favourite recipe sites.

Common Pitfalls (And How to Avoid Them)

1. YAML Indentation: Use spaces, not tabs. A linter (like YAML Validator) helps.
2. Port Conflicts: If port 3000 is taken, change the first number (e.g., 8080:3000).
3. Updates: Run docker-compose pull && docker-compose up -d to update.

Why This Setup Rocks

• Backups: Your config folder is all you need to backup.
• Portability: Move it to a new server by copying the folder and running docker-compose up.
• Low Maintenance: Updates take seconds, and dependencies stay contained.

Conclusion

And that’s it—you’ve successfully deployed and customized Homepage on Docker🐳! With its easy setup, intuitive interface, and powerful widgets, Homepage can be a game-changer for organizing your services.

Whether you're self-hosting media servers, development tools, or cloud apps, Homepage serves as the perfect control center. Plus, since it's containerized, you can back it up, move it, or tweak it without affecting your system.

If you’re feeling adventurous, explore more customization options or integrate it with other Docker services 🐳.