How to Self-Host PrivateBin 2026

TL;DR

PrivateBin is a zero-knowledge pastebin — ZLIB license (permissive), ~6K GitHub stars, PHP. All encryption/decryption happens in the browser with AES-256-GCM — the server never sees your paste content. Share code snippets, passwords, and sensitive text with end-to-end encryption. Deploy in 2 minutes with Docker. Also covers Hastebin (MIT, Node.js) for teams that want simpler non-encrypted paste storage.

Key Takeaways

• PrivateBin: ZLIB license, ~6K stars, PHP — zero-knowledge encryption
• Zero-knowledge: Encryption key in URL fragment (#), never sent to server
• Burn after reading: Paste destroyed after first view
• Expiry: 5 minutes to 1 year, or never
• No account: Anonymous by default, no registration
• Password protection: Optional password on top of encryption

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PrivateBin vs Hastebin vs Pastebin.com

Feature	PrivateBin	Hastebin	Pastebin.com
License	ZLIB	MIT	Proprietary
Encryption	✅ AES-256 client-side	❌	❌
Zero-knowledge	✅	❌	❌
Server sees content	❌ Never	✅	✅
Burn after read	✅	❌	❌
Expiry options	✅	❌	✅ (paid)
Syntax highlight	✅	✅	✅
Anonymous	✅	✅	Limited
Password protect	✅	❌	✅
API	✅	✅	✅

When to use PrivateBin: Sharing secrets, passwords, API keys, sensitive code. When to use Hastebin: Simple code sharing within a trusted team without encryption overhead.

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Part 1: PrivateBin Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  privatebin:
    image: privatebin/nginx-fpm-alpine:latest
    container_name: privatebin
    restart: unless-stopped
    read_only: true
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - privatebin_data:/srv/data    # Encrypted paste storage
      - ./conf.php:/srv/cfg/conf.php:ro  # Custom configuration

volumes:
  privatebin_data:

Configuration

<?php
# conf.php

[main]
; Enable burn after reading option:
burnafterreading = true

; Default discussion mode (true/false):
discussion = false

; Require password (all pastes must be password-protected):
password = true

; Default expiration:
; 5min, 10min, 1hour, 1day, 1week, 1month, 1year, never
defaultexpiration = 1week

; Syntax highlighting language:
defaultformatter = plaintext

; File uploads (optional):
fileupload = false

; Paste limit per IP:
sizelimit = 10485760    ; 10MB

[traffic]
; Minimum time between two pastes (seconds):
limit = 10

; IP based flood protection:
header =

[model]
class = Filesystem

[model_options]
dir = PATH "data"

docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-server:8080.

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Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

paste.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

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Part 3: How PrivateBin Zero-Knowledge Works

Understanding the encryption model:

1. You write paste content in browser
2. Browser generates random 256-bit key (never sent to server)
3. Browser encrypts content with AES-256-GCM using that key
4. Encrypted ciphertext sent to server
5. Server stores only ciphertext (can't read it)
6. Share URL: https://paste.yourdomain.com/?id=abc123#base64encodedkey
                                                         ^
                                         Key is in fragment (#)
                                         Fragment never sent to server

7. Recipient opens URL → browser extracts key from #fragment
8. Browser fetches ciphertext, decrypts locally
9. Server only sees: "give me paste abc123" — never the key

Result: Even if your server is compromised, all pastes remain unreadable without the URL fragment.

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Part 4: Using PrivateBin

Web Interface

1. Visit https://paste.yourdomain.com
2. Paste your content
3. Options:
   • Expiration: 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, etc.
   • Burn after reading: ✓
   • Password: (optional extra layer)
   • Format: Plain text, code (syntax), Markdown
4. Click Send
5. Share the URL

CLI (curl)

# Paste content via CLI:
echo '{"v":2,"ct":"your-encrypted-content"}' | \
  curl -s -X POST https://paste.yourdomain.com/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data-binary @-

# Or use pb (PrivateBin CLI tool):
pip install privatebin
# Configure:
pb set-url https://paste.yourdomain.com

# Create a paste:
cat secret.txt | pb
# Returns paste URL

# Burn after read:
cat credentials.txt | pb --burn

# Expiry:
cat code.py | pb --expire 1hour

Share Secrets Between Team Members

# Share a database password securely:
echo "POSTGRES_PASSWORD=SuperSecret123!" | pb --burn --expire 1hour

# Share an SSH key:
pb < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

# Share environment variables:
cat .env | pb --expire 1week

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Option 2: Hastebin — Simple Team Pastebin

Hastebin is a simple, fast pastebin for teams — no encryption, just quick code sharing with syntax highlighting and an intuitive API.

Docker Setup

services:
  hastebin:
    image: ghcr.io/nicholaswilde/haste-server:latest
    container_name: hastebin
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "7777:7777"
    environment:
      STORAGE_TYPE: file   # or: redis, postgres, mongo
      STORAGE_PATH: /app/data
    volumes:
      - hastebin_data:/app/data

volumes:
  hastebin_data:

paste.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:7777
}

Hastebin Usage

# Web: paste and get a URL like paste.yourdomain.com/abcde
# CLI:
echo "hello world" | curl -X POST -s -d @- https://paste.yourdomain.com/documents | \
  python3 -c "import sys,json;print('https://paste.yourdomain.com/'+json.load(sys.stdin)['key'])"

# Or install haste CLI:
npm install -g haste-client
# Set endpoint:
export HASTE_SERVER=https://paste.yourdomain.com
# Use:
cat code.js | haste

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Part 5: Integrate with Shell

Add paste function to .bashrc/.zshrc

# PrivateBin paste function:
pb() {
  local content
  if [ -p /dev/stdin ]; then
    content=$(cat)
  else
    content="$*"
  fi

  curl -s -X POST https://paste.yourdomain.com/ \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "{\"v\":2,\"adata\":[[\"pbkdf2\",\"sha256\",100000,256],1,1],\"ct\":\"$(echo "$content" | base64)\"}" \
  | jq -r '"https://paste.yourdomain.com/?" + .id + "#" + .key'
}

# Usage:
git diff | pb
cat /etc/hosts | pb
pb "some quick note"

Git Integration (diff sharing)

# Alias in .gitconfig:
[alias]
  share-diff = "!git diff | pb"
  share-log = "!git log --oneline -20 | pb"

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Part 6: Admin and Cleanup

PrivateBin automatically handles expiry based on configured paste expiration. No manual cleanup needed.

For manual cleanup of expired pastes:

# Via Docker exec:
docker exec privatebin /bin/sh -c "php -r \"
\\\$model = new PrivateBin\Data\Filesystem(['dir' => 'PATH \"data\"']);
\\\$model->purge(0);
echo 'Purged expired pastes\n';
\""

Configure automatic purge in conf.php:

[purge]
; 0 = no purge, otherwise time in seconds between purge runs
batchsize = 10

---

Maintenance

# Update PrivateBin:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Backup pastes (encrypted blobs):
tar -czf privatebin-data-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
  $(docker volume inspect privatebin_privatebin_data --format '{{.Mountpoint}}')

Why Self-Host PrivateBin?

The case for self-hosting PrivateBin 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 PrivateBin 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 PrivateBin, 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 PrivateBin 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 PrivateBin 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 PrivateBin 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 PrivateBin'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 PrivateBin 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 PrivateBin's security posture. The Docker Compose setup provides a functional base; production deployments need additional hardening.

Always use a reverse proxy: Never expose PrivateBin'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 PrivateBin'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 PrivateBin'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 privatebin

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 PrivateBin's port mapping in docker-compose.yml.

Cannot reach the web interface

Work through this checklist:

1. Confirm the container is running: docker compose ps
2. Test locally on the server: curl -I http://localhost:PORT
3. If local access works but external doesn't, check your firewall: ufw status
4. 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 privatebin. 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 PrivateBin Updated

PrivateBin 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 PrivateBin 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.

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