Layer 5 · self-hosting reality check
What it actually takes to self-host Taiga
The docs say 1 GB (the production guide says 'at least 1GB RAM'). In practice you want 2–4 GB. A community member running it on a 4 GB AWS t3.medium measured about 1.5 GB in use across all containers (September 2025). Here is the honest version — real requirements, real monthly cost, what you will be maintaining, and the one thing that catches people out.
Usually reached from Jira alternatives, where Taiga is one of the picks.
Wondering whether you need to at all? Is Jira free? — what the free tier actually allows, and where the wall is.
| RAM — documented minimum | 1 GB (the production guide says 'at least 1GB RAM') |
|---|---|
| RAM — what it really needs | 2–4 GB. A community member running it on a 4 GB AWS t3.medium measured about 1.5 GB in use across all containers (September 2025) |
| CPU | Not stated by the vendor. The same report saw a 5-minute load average around 0.1 and peaks near 0.65, so 2 vCPU is plenty |
| Disk | At least 20 GB free per the docs. The media volume (attachments) and PostgreSQL grow; the two RabbitMQ volumes stay small. |
| Monthly cost | $12–24/mo for a 5–20 user instance on a 4 GB VPS |
| Setup time | 1–2 hours with taiga-docker, plus time to set up SMTP and TLS |
| How you install it | Clone taigaio/taiga-docker, edit .env, run ./launch-taiga.sh, then ./taiga-manage.sh createsuperuser. It runs nine containers: taiga-back, taiga-async, taiga-front, taiga-events, taiga-protected, PostgreSQL, two RabbitMQ brokers and an nginx gateway. |
| Ongoing maintenance | The app images follow :latest, so updates are a pull and restart. The database, brokers and gateway are pinned, and moving them is your job. Email prints to the console by default, so invitations go nowhere until you configure SMTP. |
| Where it stops scaling | The vendor says 1 GB and 20 GB are enough for small and medium production environments with low traffic. Beyond that, move PostgreSQL to its own host and give the backend more resources. |
The thing that catches people out
The official compose pins its infrastructure to 2020 releases: postgres:12.3, rabbitmq:3.8 and nginx:1.19-alpine, while the Taiga images track :latest. PostgreSQL 12 went end-of-life on 21 November 2024. The issue asking Taiga to update these images has been open since November 2023 (#122). So every pull moves the app forward while the database stays on an unsupported major version. Move Postgres yourself with the community forum's dump-and-restore guide (written for 12 to 14), pin the Taiga image tags, and test on a copy first.
When not to self-host Taiga
You want one container you never think about. Taiga is nine, with two message brokers and a database pinned to an unsupported version. Kanboard and Vikunja are much lighter for boards, and OpenProject fits if you also need Gantt charts and time tracking.
Every guide here carries this section. A site that only ever tells you to self-host is selling something — the useful answer is sometimes no.
Other Layer 5 self-hosting guides
- Self-hosting LibreOffice2 GB with a large spreadsheet open
- Self-hosting ONLYOFFICE6 GB for the Document Server with a handful of concurrent editors
- Self-hosting Collabora Online4 GB, and roughly 1 GB per 20 concurrent documents
- Self-hosting CryptPad2 GB for a small instance
- Self-hosting Mattermost4 GB for a team of 50 with PostgreSQL on the same box
- Self-hosting Rocket.Chat6 GB with MongoDB on the same machine
Common questions
- How much RAM does Taiga actually need?
- 2–4 GB. A community member running it on a 4 GB AWS t3.medium measured about 1.5 GB in use across all containers (September 2025) in practice. The documented minimum is 1 GB (the production guide says 'at least 1GB RAM'), which is the figure at which the process starts rather than the figure at which it works under real use. Not stated by the vendor. The same report saw a 5-minute load average around 0.1 and peaks near 0.65, so 2 vCPU is plenty alongside it.
- What does self-hosting Taiga cost per month?
- $12–24/mo for a 5–20 user instance on a 4 GB VPS This is commodity VPS pricing and excludes your time, which is the larger cost for most people — budget for the app images follow :latest, so updates are a pull and restart. The database, brokers and gateway are pinned, and moving them is your job. Email prints to the console by default, so invitations go nowhere until you configure SMTP.
- How long does it take to set up Taiga?
- 1–2 hours with taiga-docker, plus time to set up SMTP and TLS, via Clone taigaio/taiga-docker, edit .env, run ./launch-taiga.sh, then ./taiga-manage.sh createsuperuser. It runs nine containers: taiga-back, taiga-async, taiga-front, taiga-events, taiga-protected, PostgreSQL, two RabbitMQ brokers and an nginx gateway..
- When should I NOT self-host Taiga?
- You want one container you never think about. Taiga is nine, with two message brokers and a database pinned to an unsupported version. Kanboard and Vikunja are much lighter for boards, and OpenProject fits if you also need Gantt charts and time tracking.
- What is the most common mistake when self-hosting Taiga?
- The official compose pins its infrastructure to 2020 releases: postgres:12.3, rabbitmq:3.8 and nginx:1.19-alpine, while the Taiga images track :latest. PostgreSQL 12 went end-of-life on 21 November 2024. The issue asking Taiga to update these images has been open since November 2023 (#122). So every pull moves the app forward while the database stays on an unsupported major version. Move Postgres yourself with the community forum's dump-and-restore guide (written for 12 to 14), pin the Taiga image tags, and test on a copy first.