QuickStack Docs
QuickStack is a self-hosted PaaS: a web UI that deploys your containerized apps onto a k3s cluster, manages domains via Traefik, and provides backups, monitoring, and user access control on your own servers.
Under the hood: k3s · Traefik · Longhorn · BuildKit · registry
Start here
| Goal | Link |
|---|---|
| Install QuickStack on a fresh server | Installation tutorial |
| Deploy your first app from Git | First app from Git |
| Deploy a Docker image | First app from image |
| Expose an app on a domain with HTTPS | Expose an app |
How-to guides
Task-focused docs for daily operations:
- Deployments — redeploy · webhooks / auto-deploy
- Networking — custom domains · quickstack.me · internal networking · network policies · basic auth
- Storage — volumes · file mounts
- Observability — logs & terminal · health checks
- Databases — deploy databases · DB tools (DbGate, pgAdmin)
- Backups — overview · S3 targets · volume backups · database backups · system backups
- Admin — updates & maintenance · cluster monitoring · users & groups · 2FA · cluster nodes · password reset
Architecture in one paragraph
QuickStack installs as a single pod on a k3s master node. It stores its state in a SQLite database (data.db). When you click Deploy, QuickStack uses BuildKit to build your image (for Git-source apps), pushes it to the built-in registry, then creates or updates a Kubernetes Deployment. Traefik handles ingress routing and automatic TLS via Let's Encrypt. Longhorn provides distributed block storage for multi-node clusters. Everything app-related (projects, envs, volumes, domains, users) lives in the SQLite DB and is backed up separately from your app volumes.
History and Motivation
QuickStack started as a semester project by two students — glueh-wyy-huet and biersoeckli — at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences.
The motivation was simple: deploying and managing applications on your own servers is harder than it should be. Existing self-hosted PaaS solutions were more focused on single node setups. We wanted something that felt as frictionless as a managed cloud platform, with the scaling and reliability of Kubernetes, but without the complexity of managing it all through the command line.
What began as an academic exercise grew into a fully-featured tool. Today, QuickStack automates the full application lifecycle: building images from Git, deploying, SSL certificates, managing volumes and backups. All through a single web UI.
The project remains open-source and community-driven. We believe that self-hosting should be accessible to everyone, not just those with deep DevOps knowledge.
Who is QuickStack For?
- Developers: Who want to quickly deploy and manage applications without having to worry about server administration.
- Small Teams and Startups: Seeking a cost-effective and easy-to-use deployment solution.
- System administrators: Who want to manage their infrastructure through a user friendly interface.
- Anyone wanting an easy way to deploy applications on their own servers.
Community and Support
We are always looking for feedback and contributions. If you encounter a bug or have a feature request, please open an issue on our GitHub repository.
Let's get started!