TL;DR

HedgeDoc (AGPL 3.0, ~5K GitHub stars, TypeScript) is a real-time collaborative Markdown editor. Multiple people edit the same document simultaneously with live preview — like Google Docs, but for Markdown. Code blocks with syntax highlighting, Mermaid diagrams, LaTeX math, and even presentation mode (turn any document into slides). HackMD charges $5/user/month for team features; HedgeDoc is free with unlimited users and documents.

Key Takeaways

HedgeDoc: AGPL 3.0, ~5K stars, TypeScript — collaborative Markdown editor
Real-time collaboration: Multiple editors at once with live cursors
Markdown++: Code blocks, Mermaid diagrams, LaTeX math, Vega charts
Presentation mode: Turn any document into slides with --- separators
Permissions: Public, editable, locked, private — per document
Export: HTML, PDF, raw Markdown, EPUB

HedgeDoc vs HackMD vs Google Docs vs Etherpad

Feature	HedgeDoc	HackMD	Google Docs	Etherpad
Format	Markdown	Markdown	Rich text	Rich text
Real-time collab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Self-hosted	Yes	No (mostly)	No	Yes
Code highlighting	Yes (100+ languages)	Yes	No	No
Diagrams	Mermaid, PlantUML	Mermaid	No	No
Math formulas	LaTeX (MathJax)	LaTeX	Equation editor	No
Presentations	Yes	Yes	Separate tool	No
Price	Free	$5/user/mo	Free (cloud)	Free

Part 1: Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  hedgedoc:
    image: quay.io/hedgedoc/hedgedoc:latest
    container_name: hedgedoc
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - hedgedoc_uploads:/hedgedoc/public/uploads
    environment:
      CMD_DB_URL: "postgres://hedgedoc:${DB_PASSWORD}@db:5432/hedgedoc"
      CMD_DOMAIN: docs.yourdomain.com
      CMD_PROTOCOL_USESSL: "true"
      CMD_URL_ADDPORT: "false"
      CMD_SESSION_SECRET: "${SESSION_SECRET}"   # openssl rand -hex 32

      # Registration:
      CMD_ALLOW_EMAIL_REGISTER: "true"    # Set to false after creating your account
      CMD_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS: "false"
      CMD_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS_EDITS: "true"   # Allow anonymous users to edit shared docs

      # Default permission for new notes:
      CMD_DEFAULT_PERMISSION: "editable"  # freely, editable, limited, locked, protected, private

      # Image upload:
      CMD_IMAGE_UPLOAD_TYPE: filesystem

    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - hedgedoc_db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: hedgedoc
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"
      POSTGRES_DB: hedgedoc

volumes:
  hedgedoc_uploads:
  hedgedoc_db:

echo "DB_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -base64 24)" >> .env
echo "SESSION_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)" >> .env

docker compose up -d

Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

docs.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

Part 3: Writing in HedgeDoc

Create a document

+ New Note (or visit https://docs.yourdomain.com/new)
Left panel: Markdown editor
Right panel: Live preview
Toggle: edit-only, split view, preview-only

Extended Markdown features

Code blocks with syntax highlighting

```python
def fibonacci(n):
    if n <= 1:
        return n
    return fibonacci(n-1) + fibonacci(n-2)
```

```rust
fn main() {
    println!("Hello from HedgeDoc!");
}
```

Mermaid diagrams

```mermaid
graph TD
    A[Client] -->|HTTP| B[Load Balancer]
    B --> C[Web Server 1]
    B --> D[Web Server 2]
    C --> E[(Database)]
    D --> E
```

Sequence diagrams

```mermaid
sequenceDiagram
    Client->>API: POST /login
    API->>DB: Query user
    DB-->>API: User data
    API-->>Client: JWT token
```

LaTeX math

Inline: $E = mc^2$

Block:
$$
\int_{0}^{\infty} e^{-x^2} dx = \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}
$$

Tables

| Feature | Status | Notes |
|---------|--------|-------|
| Auth    | ✅     | OAuth2 |
| API     | 🟡     | In progress |
| Tests   | ❌     | Not started |

Alerts/admonitions

:::info
This is an info box.
:::

:::warning
This is a warning.
:::

:::danger
This is a danger alert.
:::

Part 4: Presentation Mode

Turn any document into slides with --- separators:

---
title: My Presentation
---

# Slide 1: Introduction

Welcome to the presentation!

---

# Slide 2: Architecture

```mermaid
graph LR
    A[Frontend] --> B[API] --> C[Database]

Slide 3: Key Metrics

Metric	Value
Users	10K
Uptime	99.9%

Questions?

Thank you! 🎉


Click the **presentation icon** (📊) → full-screen slide presentation.

---

## Part 5: Permissions

### Per-document permissions

| Permission | View | Edit | Owner |
|------------|------|------|-------|
| **Freely** | Anyone | Anyone | Creator |
| **Editable** | Anyone | Logged-in users | Creator |
| **Limited** | Logged-in users | Logged-in users | Creator |
| **Locked** | Logged-in users | Owner only | Creator |
| **Protected** | Logged-in users | Owner only | Creator |
| **Private** | Owner only | Owner only | Creator |

### Share a document

https://docs.yourdomain.com/abc123


Share the URL — permission controls who can view/edit.

### Publish a document

1. Click **Publish** → generates a read-only URL
2. Published URL: `https://docs.yourdomain.com/s/abc123`
3. Clean rendered view without editor

---

## Part 6: OAuth2 / SSO

### Login with Authentik

```yaml
environment:
  CMD_OAUTH2_PROVIDERNAME: Authentik
  CMD_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID: hedgedoc-client-id
  CMD_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET: hedgedoc-client-secret
  CMD_OAUTH2_AUTHORIZATION_URL: https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/authorize/
  CMD_OAUTH2_TOKEN_URL: https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/token/
  CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_URL: https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/userinfo/
  CMD_OAUTH2_SCOPE: "openid email profile"
  CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_USERNAME_ATTR: preferred_username
  CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_DISPLAY_NAME_ATTR: name
  CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_EMAIL_ATTR: email

environment:
  CMD_GITHUB_CLIENTID: your-github-client-id
  CMD_GITHUB_CLIENTSECRET: your-github-client-secret

Part 7: API

BASE="https://docs.yourdomain.com"

# Create a new note:
curl -X POST "$BASE/new" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/markdown" \
  -d "# My New Document

This was created via API."

# Get note content:
curl "$BASE/abc123/download"

# Export as HTML:
curl "$BASE/abc123/html" -o document.html

# Export as PDF (if configured):
curl "$BASE/abc123/pdf" -o document.pdf

Part 8: Use Cases

Meeting notes

Create a shared document before the meeting
Share URL with attendees
Everyone takes notes simultaneously
Notes are saved automatically — no "someone forgot to share the doc"

Technical documentation

Write docs in Markdown with diagrams and code blocks
Publish as read-only pages
Embed diagrams and architecture decisions
Version history included

Team standups

# Standup - March 9, 2026

## Alice
- ✅ Finished auth migration
- 🔄 Working on API rate limiting
- 🚫 Blocked on staging environment

## Bob
- ✅ Fixed deployment pipeline
- 🔄 Writing integration tests
- 🚫 No blockers

Decision records

Use HedgeDoc for Architecture Decision Records (ADRs):

# ADR-001: Use PostgreSQL for primary database

## Status: Accepted
## Date: 2026-03-09

## Context
We need a relational database...

## Decision
PostgreSQL 16...

## Consequences
- ✅ Strong consistency
- ❌ Requires backup strategy

Maintenance

# Update:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Backup database:
docker exec hedgedoc-db-1 pg_dump -U hedgedoc hedgedoc \
  | gzip > hedgedoc-db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

# Backup uploads:
tar -czf hedgedoc-uploads-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
  $(docker volume inspect hedgedoc_hedgedoc_uploads --format '{{.Mountpoint}}')

# Logs:
docker compose logs -f hedgedoc

Why Self-Host HedgeDoc?

The case for self-hosting HedgeDoc comes down to three practical factors: data ownership, cost at scale, and operational control.

Data ownership is the fundamental argument. When you use a SaaS version of any tool, your data lives on someone else's infrastructure subject to their terms of service, their security practices, and their business continuity. If the vendor raises prices, gets acquired, changes API limits, or shuts down, you're left scrambling. Self-hosting HedgeDoc means your data and configuration stay on infrastructure you control — whether that's a VPS, a bare metal server, or a home lab.

Cost at scale matters once you move beyond individual use. Most SaaS equivalents charge per user or per data volume. A self-hosted instance on a $10-20/month VPS typically costs less than per-user SaaS pricing for teams of five or more — and the cost doesn't scale linearly with usage. One well-configured server handles dozens of users for a flat monthly fee.

Operational control is the third factor. The Docker Compose configuration above exposes every setting that commercial equivalents often hide behind enterprise plans: custom networking, environment variables, storage backends, and authentication integrations. You decide when to update, how to configure backups, and what access controls to apply.

The honest tradeoff: you're responsible for updates, backups, and availability. For teams running any production workloads, this is familiar territory. For individuals, the learning curve is real but the tooling (Docker, Caddy, automated backups) is well-documented and widely supported.

Server Requirements and Sizing

Before deploying HedgeDoc, assess your server capacity against expected workload.

Minimum viable setup: A 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM VPS with 20GB SSD is sufficient for personal use or small teams. Most consumer VPS providers — Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr — offer machines in this range for $5-10/month. Hetzner offers excellent price-to-performance for European and US regions.

Recommended production setup: 2 vCPUs with 4GB RAM and 40GB SSD handles most medium deployments without resource contention. This gives HedgeDoc headroom for background tasks, caching, and concurrent users while leaving capacity for other services on the same host.

Storage planning: The Docker volumes in this docker-compose.yml store all persistent HedgeDoc data. Estimate your storage growth rate early — for data-intensive tools, budget for 3-5x your initial estimate. Hetzner Cloud and Vultr both support online volume resizing without stopping your instance.

Operating system: Any modern 64-bit Linux distribution works. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Debian 12 are the most commonly tested configurations. Ensure Docker Engine 24.0+ and Docker Compose v2 are installed — verify with docker --version and docker compose version. Avoid Docker Desktop on production Linux servers; it adds virtualization overhead and behaves differently from Docker Engine in ways that cause subtle networking issues.

Network: Only ports 80 and 443 need to be publicly accessible when running behind a reverse proxy. Internal service ports should be bound to localhost only. A minimal UFW firewall that blocks all inbound traffic except SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS is the single most effective security measure for a self-hosted server.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Running HedgeDoc without a tested backup strategy is an unacceptable availability risk. Docker volumes are not automatically backed up — if you delete a volume or the host fails, data is gone with no recovery path.

What to back up: The named Docker volumes containing HedgeDoc's data (database files, user uploads, application state), your docker-compose.yml and any customized configuration files, and .env files containing secrets.

Backup approach: For simple setups, stop the container, archive the volume contents, then restart. For production environments where stopping causes disruption, use filesystem snapshots or database dump commands (PostgreSQL pg_dump, SQLite .backup, MySQL mysqldump) that produce consistent backups without downtime.

For a complete automated backup workflow that ships snapshots to S3-compatible object storage, see the Restic + Rclone backup guide. Restic handles deduplication and encryption; Rclone handles multi-destination uploads. The same setup works for any Docker volume.

Backup cadence: Daily backups to remote storage are a reasonable baseline for actively used tools. Use a 30-day retention window minimum — long enough to recover from mistakes discovered weeks later. For critical data, extend to 90 days and use a secondary destination.

Restore testing: A backup that has never been restored is a backup you cannot trust. Once a month, restore your HedgeDoc backup to a separate Docker Compose stack on different ports and verify the data is intact. This catches silent backup failures, script errors, and volume permission issues before they matter in a real recovery.

Security Hardening

Self-hosting means you are responsible for HedgeDoc's security posture. The Docker Compose setup provides a functional base; production deployments need additional hardening.

Always use a reverse proxy: Never expose HedgeDoc's internal port directly to the internet. The docker-compose.yml binds to localhost; Caddy or Nginx provides HTTPS termination. Direct HTTP access transmits credentials in plaintext. A reverse proxy also centralizes TLS management, rate limiting, and access logging.

Strong credentials: Change default passwords immediately after first login. For secrets in docker-compose environment variables, generate random values with openssl rand -base64 32 rather than reusing existing passwords.

Firewall configuration:

ufw default deny incoming
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable

Internal service ports (databases, admin panels, internal APIs) should only be reachable from localhost or the Docker network, never directly from the internet.

Network isolation: Docker Compose named networks keep HedgeDoc's services isolated from other containers on the same host. Database containers should not share networks with containers that don't need direct database access.

VPN access for sensitive services: For internal-only tools, restricting access to a VPN adds a strong second layer. Headscale is an open source Tailscale control server that puts your self-hosted stack behind a WireGuard mesh, eliminating public internet exposure for internal tools.

Update discipline: Subscribe to HedgeDoc's GitHub releases page to receive security advisory notifications. Schedule a monthly maintenance window to pull updated images. Running outdated container images is the most common cause of self-hosted service compromises.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Container exits immediately or won't start

Check logs first — they almost always explain the failure:

docker compose logs -f hedgedoc

Common causes: a missing required environment variable, a port already in use, or a volume permission error. Port conflicts appear as bind: address already in use. Find the conflicting process with ss -tlpn | grep PORT and either stop it or change HedgeDoc's port mapping in docker-compose.yml.

Cannot reach the web interface

Work through this checklist:

Confirm the container is running: docker compose ps
Test locally on the server: curl -I http://localhost:PORT
If local access works but external doesn't, check your firewall: ufw status
If using a reverse proxy, verify it's running and the config is valid: caddy validate --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Permission errors on volume mounts

Some containers run as a non-root user. If the Docker volume is owned by root, the container process cannot write to it. Find the volume's host path with docker volume inspect VOLUME_NAME, check the tool's documentation for its expected UID, and apply correct ownership:

chown -R 1000:1000 /var/lib/docker/volumes/your_volume/_data

High resource usage over time

Memory or CPU growing continuously usually indicates unconfigured log rotation, an unbound cache, or accumulated data needing pruning. Check current usage with docker stats hedgedoc. Add resource limits in docker-compose.yml to prevent one container from starving others. For ongoing visibility into resource trends, deploy Prometheus + Grafana or Netdata.

Data disappears after container restart

Data stored in the container's writable layer — rather than a named volume — is lost when the container is removed or recreated. This happens when the volume mount path in docker-compose.yml doesn't match where the application writes data. Verify mount paths against the tool's documentation and correct the mapping. Named volumes persist across container removal; only docker compose down -v deletes them.

Keeping HedgeDoc Updated

HedgeDoc follows a regular release cadence. Staying current matters for security patches and compatibility. The update process with Docker Compose is straightforward:

docker compose pull          # Download updated images
docker compose up -d         # Restart with new images
docker image prune -f        # Remove old image layers (optional)

Read the changelog before major version updates. Some releases include database migrations or breaking configuration changes. For major version bumps, test in a staging environment first — run a copy of the service on different ports with the same volume data to validate the migration before touching production.

Version pinning: For stability, pin to a specific image tag in docker-compose.yml instead of latest. Update deliberately after reviewing the changelog. This trades automatic patch delivery for predictable behavior — the right call for business-critical services.

Post-update verification: After updating, confirm HedgeDoc is functioning correctly. Most services expose a /health endpoint that returns HTTP 200 — curl it from the server or monitor it with your uptime tool.

See all open source productivity tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/productivity.

Self-Host HedgeDoc: Collaborative Markdown Editor 2026