ERPNext Docker Installation on Windows, Mac and Linux (Version 16 and 15)

To install ERPNext with Docker, install Docker Desktop (Windows or Mac) or Docker Engine (Linux), download the official pwd.yml file from the frappe_docker repository, and run docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml up -d. Wait for the create-site container to finish, then open http://localhost:8080 and log in as Administrator with the password admin. As of October 2026 that file starts ERPNext 16 (v16.51.1) with MariaDB 11.8 and Redis.

I use this setup whenever I need a throwaway ERPNext to test a customisation or demo a module, on my Windows laptop and on Linux VMs in my homelab. It is the fastest route from nothing to a working ERPNext.

Quick steps

1. Install Docker Desktop (Windows/Mac) or Docker Engine with the compose plugin (Linux).
2. Make a folder and download pwd.yml into it.
3. Run docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml up -d.
4. Watch docker logs pwd-create-site-1 -f until the site is created.
5. Open http://localhost:8080, log in as Administrator / admin and run the setup wizard.

Before you start

• Windows 10 or 11 (Home or Pro): Docker Desktop with the WSL 2 backend. Hardware virtualization must be on; if Docker complains, see my guide to enabling virtualization on Windows.
• macOS: Docker Desktop for Apple silicon or Intel.
• Linux: Docker Engine and the docker compose plugin. New to containers? Start with Docker for beginners.
• At least 4 GB of RAM free for Docker (8 GB is better) and about 10 GB of disk for the images.

Check Docker works:

docker --version
docker compose version

Step 1: Download pwd.yml

pwd.yml is a Docker Compose file maintained by the Frappe team. It defines every container ERPNext needs: the backend, frontend (Nginx), websocket, queue workers, scheduler, MariaDB and two Redis instances, plus a one-off create-site job. You do not need to edit it to get started.

On Windows, I keep it in C:\Data\Docker\Frappe. In PowerShell:

mkdir C:\Data\Docker\Frappe
cd C:\Data\Docker\Frappe
curl.exe -L -o pwd.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/frappe/frappe_docker/main/pwd.yml

On Linux or macOS:

mkdir -p ~/frappe && cd ~/frappe
curl -L -o pwd.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/frappe/frappe_docker/main/pwd.yml

You can also view the file on GitHub and save it from the browser.

Step 2: Start ERPNext

From the folder that holds pwd.yml:

docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml up -d

What the flags mean: -p pwd names the project (so the containers are called pwd-...), -f pwd.yml picks the file, up creates and starts the containers and -d runs them in the background. The first run downloads a few GB of images.

Step 3: Wait for the site to be created

The create-site container waits for the database and Redis, then creates a site called frontend and installs ERPNext. Follow it:

docker logs pwd-create-site-1 -f

When it finishes, the container exits. Check the rest are running:

docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml ps

You should see backend, frontend, websocket, queue-long, queue-short, scheduler, db, redis-cache and redis-queue up.

Step 4: Log in and run the setup wizard

Open http://localhost:8080 and sign in:

• Username: Administrator
• Password: admin

The setup wizard asks for your language, country, currency, company name and chart of accounts. Change the Administrator password straight after (top right menu, My Settings).

The video shows the same steps on Windows with version 15; the commands are unchanged for version 16.

Run ERPNext 15 instead of 16

The current pwd.yml pins frappe/erpnext:v16.x images. To stay on version 15, change every frappe/erpnext: image tag to a v15 tag and use MariaDB 10.6, which is what v15 was built and tested against. In PowerShell:

(Get-Content pwd.yml) -replace 'frappe/erpnext:v16[0-9.]*','frappe/erpnext:v15.123.0' -replace 'mariadb:11.8','mariadb:10.6' | Set-Content pwd.yml

On Linux or macOS:

sed -i.bak -E 's#frappe/erpnext:v16[0-9.]*#frappe/erpnext:v15.123.0#; s#mariadb:11.8#mariadb:10.6#' pwd.yml

Do this on a fresh project. A database created by v16 cannot be opened by v15.

Stop, start and reset

docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml stop      # stop, keep data
docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml start     # start again
docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml down      # remove containers, keep volumes
docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml down -v   # remove everything, including data

To back up the site before a reset:

docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml exec backend bench --site frontend backup --with-files

The files land in sites/frontend/private/backups inside the sites volume. My ERPNext backup and restore guide explains what each file is and how to restore it.

Troubleshooting

localhost:8080 does not load or shows a 404 for the site. create-site has not finished. Check docker logs pwd-create-site-1. If it failed because the database was not ready, run docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml up -d create-site to try again.

Bind for 0.0.0.0:8080 failed: port is already allocated. Something else uses 8080. In pwd.yml, change the frontend port to "8081:8080" and open http://localhost:8081.

Docker Desktop says WSL 2 is not installed or virtualization is disabled. Run wsl --install in an admin PowerShell, reboot, and turn on Intel VT-x or AMD SVM in the BIOS. See how to enable virtualization.

Containers restart in a loop or the build is slow. Docker Desktop is short of memory. In Settings, Resources, give it at least 4 GB (8 GB is better), or set the WSL memory limit in %UserProfile%\.wslconfig.

Login failed with Administrator / admin. The site was created earlier with a different password, or from an older file. Reset it:

docker compose -p pwd -f pwd.yml exec backend bench --site frontend set-admin-password admin

Docker for testing, bench for production

pwd.yml uses default passwords, no HTTPS and a single site called frontend. For a live system, use one of these:

• A Frappe Bench install on a server: Install ERPNext 16 on Ubuntu 24.04.
• Production Docker with the compose and override files in the frappe_docker docs, or the easy-install.py script covered in my ERPNext installation methods guide, which also explains running ERPNext on Proxmox.

Further learning

Full course: ERPNext installation and configuration

Full course: ERPNext Human Resource Management System