Self-host PlikShare your way.
Four install paths. Pick by whether you're sharing files with people outside your network, or only with yourself and your team.
Share with anyone, anywhere.
PlikShare is reachable over the public internet. Share links work for anyone with a browser.
Caddy
Three-line config. Automatic HTTPS, automatic renewal.
- TLS
- Automatic, built-in
- Ports open
- 80, 443
- You need
- DNS A record
Nginx
Battle-tested. Tunable buffers and timeouts for big files.
- TLS
- Let's Encrypt via Certbot
- Ports open
- 80, 443
- You need
- DNS A record
Cloudflare Tunnel
No inbound ports. Cloudflare fronts every request.
- TLS
- Cloudflare-managed
- Ports open
- None
- You need
- Cloudflare account + domain on CF
Just for you or your team.
PlikShare lives inside your tailnet. Public share links won't work for people outside it. Pick this only if you don't need to send files to people who aren't on Tailscale.
Compare the options.
| Caddy | Nginx | Cloudflare Tunnel | Tailscale | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Public | Public | Public | Private (tailnet only) |
| TLS / certificates | Automatic | Let's Encrypt + Certbot | Cloudflare-managed | Optional |
| Ports open to internet | 80, 443 | 80, 443 | None | None |
| Prerequisites | DNS A record | DNS A record | Cloudflare account, domain on CF | Tailscale account, auth key |
| Public share links work | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Custom domain | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes, free | Paid (Funnel) |
| Best for | Default choice | Admins who know nginx | Behind CGNAT / max security | Team or family drive |
Prefer to set it up by hand?
Skip the script and run the Docker image directly. Full reference for every environment variable, volume layout, file permissions and how to update.
Where to host PlikShare
Recommended providers
- Hetzner - excellent price-to-performance, European data centers.
- DigitalOcean - user-friendly, global data centers, consistent performance.
Minimum requirements
- RAM: 1 GB
- CPU: 1 core
PlikShare runs fine on these minimums; scale up for more users and better performance.
Rather not run it yourself?
If you'd like a hand getting PlikShare running, or you want it fully managed by someone else, let's have a quick chat.
- Initial setup on your server - Docker, SSL, reverse proxy
- Storage (S3 / R2 / B2 / Azure / GCS) and email provider
- Ongoing updates, backups and migrations