STC
Launch app

Self-host STC

Run the STC server yourself and every record of your selling stays on a machine you control. You still get the web app: point it at your server and it works exactly the same, it just talks to your database instead of mine.

All you need is a server with Docker and a domain name. The steps below cover the rest.

Your data, your machine

Every item, sale and expense lives in a database on hardware you control. Nobody else can read it.

Free forever

The server is open source under AGPLv3. No licence fee, no seat limits, no trial that runs out.

Same app

Point the STC web app at your own server and use the same screens as everyone else, with nothing to install.

Backups you hold

Backups and exports are encrypted with a key that only exists on your server.

What you need

  • A Linux server or VPS with Docker and Docker Compose
  • A domain or subdomain you can point at it
  • Ports 80 and 443 open, so Caddy can get a certificate

Set it up

  1. 1

    Point your domain at the server

    At whoever manages your domain (Cloudflare, Namecheap, your registrar), add an A record for stc.example.com pointing at your server's public IP address. If you use Cloudflare, set it to "DNS only" (grey cloud) so Caddy can get its certificate. Once it has had a few minutes, this should print your server's IP:

    # The record to add (some providers only want the part
# before your main domain in the Name box)
Type:  A
Name:  stc.example.com
Value: <your server's IP address>

# Then check it from anywhere
dig +short stc.example.com
  2. 2

    Get the code

    On the server, clone the STC server and move into it.

    git clone https://github.com/JakeFlanagan/STC-Backend-Flask.git
cd STC-Backend-Flask
  3. 3

    Tell Caddy your domain

    Caddy sits in front of STC and handles HTTPS, fetching and renewing the certificate for you. Its config, Caddyfile, ships with localhost as the site address. This swaps in your domain and shows you the result:

    sed -i 's/^localhost {/stc.example.com {/' Caddyfile
grep -n '^stc.example.com {' Caddyfile
  4. 4

    Start it

    Builds the server and starts it behind Caddy. The first run takes a minute or two.

    docker compose up -d --build
docker compose ps
  5. 5

    Check it answers

    From your own computer. If you see {"ok":true}, the server is up and the certificate worked.

    curl https://stc.example.com/api/v1/health
  6. 6

    Note the admin password

    An admin account is created on first start. Its password is printed once, here, and never again, so save it somewhere safe.

    docker compose logs app | grep "Admin created"
  7. 7

    Connect the app

    Open app.sole-traders.uk and tap the button with the gear under the login box. Type just your domain and press Test & Save, then create your account. The address is saved in your browser only, so nobody else's app is affected.

    stc.example.com

Good to know

Everything lives in one Docker volume, stc_data, including the keys your backups are encrypted with. Back that volume up somewhere else. Lose it and the encrypted backups can't be opened.

Password reset emails, error reporting and automatic off-site backups are all optional and covered in the README on GitHub. So is running more than one worker.

Source on GitHubDocker Hub