How to self-host Solidtime

Track hours against clients and projects, then bill from what you tracked. Cresdock runs it on a server you own, from a catalogue, with no Docker and no reverse proxy to configure.

What Cresdock does for you with Solidtime

• Its configuration is written before the container ever starts, so Solidtime comes up already set up rather than showing you a blank first-run form.

• Given its own web address, with its own login seeded in advance. Solidtime can't live under a shared path, and apps like this are reached by clients that don't carry a browser session — so it gets a real password rather than being left open.

• Solidtime needs a PostgreSQL database. Cresdock runs one privately for your account, on your own network, with the connection details handed to Solidtime automatically — you never see a connection string.

• Solidtime tracks the hours you work and bills from them, on its own — no other app here feeds it, and it feeds none of them.

Why run Solidtime yourself

Small tools are where a subscription is hardest to justify: a few pounds a month, times a dozen tools, for software that would run happily on a server you already pay for.

It is also how you retire Toggl or Harvest — one line in replacing cloud subscriptions, app by app.

What kind of server Solidtime needs

Modest, with one addition: Solidtime brings a database, which Cresdock runs privately for your account. Allow about 500 MB of memory for the pair, and remember the database's own files count against your storage.

Cresdock itself is undemanding — it runs on a small rented server, an old desktop or a mini PC, on Ubuntu or Debian. Everything it installs shares that machine, so the honest question is not "will this app run" but "how much am I going to put on here in total".

Where to run Solidtime

Solidtime runs wherever Cresdock runs, and the choice is about the machine, not the app:

• At home, on hardware you already own. A mini PC, an old desktop or a NAS that can run Debian. Cresdock works behind a home router with no port forwarding and no domain, so Solidtime is reachable on your own network first and from outside only if you choose.
• On a rented server. A small VPS is enough for most apps and is the usual answer when Solidtime should be reachable from anywhere. The setup guide covers the specs and the one-command install.
• Through a provider that runs Cresdock. Hosting companies deploy Cresdock workspaces for their customers, so Solidtime can come with a server you rent rather than one you set up — ask your provider, or see how providers offer it.

Installing Solidtime

1. Put Cresdock on a server

   One line on any Ubuntu or Debian machine — a rented VPS, a spare PC, a home server. It sets itself up.

2. Pick Solidtime from the catalogue

   Click Install. The panel pulls the image, writes the configuration, gets a certificate and starts it.

3. Open it from your dashboard

   Its address and any login details are on its card. Start, stop, update, roll back or remove it from the same place, any time.

What's left for you to do

Cresdock does not pretend to do the parts that are genuinely yours to decide. After it's running:

• Choose Register on the sign-in page. There is no account until you make one

• Register with the address shown on this card so you get the admin panel too

• No email? The confirmation link is in this app's Logs

• Add a client and a project, then start your first timer

What this replaces

Doing it by hand means writing something like this, then keeping it working:

services:
  solidtime:
    image: solidtime/solidtime:0.19.1
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - DB_HOST=db
      - DB_PASSWORD=<choose one>
    volumes:
      - ./solidtime/config:/config
    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=<the same one>
      - POSTGRES_DB=solidtime
    volumes:
      - ./pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data

And that is the easy half. Still to do:

• Install a reverse proxy and write a server block for it

• Get a TLS certificate and set up automatic renewal

• Create the folders above with the right ownership, or it will not start

• Create the database and role, and keep that password in step with the app's

• Point a DNS record at the server, because Solidtime cannot run under a shared path

• Repeat all of it for the next app, and again on every server rebuild

On Cresdock, Solidtime is one click and none of the above exists.

Looking for what Solidtime itself can do? That lives in its own documentation — this page is only about running it.

Pairs well with: Stirling PDF  ·  Tududi  ·  Sonarr

Before you start: where to rent a server  ·  what it needs to run  ·  Cresdock vs Cloudron