Develop locally with our containers

The same container images we use to host your site in production are published as open-source images you can pull and run on your laptop. If you’re comfortable with Docker, this gives you a development environment that matches production exactly — same OS, same Apache/Nginx config, same PHP or Node version.

Why use our containers locally

Dev/prod parity. Anything that runs in the container on your machine will run the same way in production. No “works on my Mac” surprises.
Quick start. Each container ships a local-dev.sh script that handles the Docker incantation, volume layout, and helper commands.
No account required. The images are public — pull and run.

Available containers

Stack	Image	Use case
PHP + Apache	`repo.anhonesthost.net/cloud-hosting-platform/cac`	WordPress, Laravel, traditional PHP apps
Node + Nginx	`repo.anhonesthost.net/cloud-hosting-platform/cnoc`	Express, custom Node apps, PM2-managed processes

Both images live in our public Gitea organisation at repo.anhonesthost.net/cloud-hosting-platform/ — the source Dockerfiles, build configs, and helper scripts are all there too. Issues and PRs welcome.

Prerequisites

Docker (or a compatible runtime like Podman / OrbStack / Rancher Desktop). Docker Desktop on Mac/Windows or docker.io on Linux both work.
A terminal where you can run git, docker, and basic shell scripts.
Ports 80 and 443 free on your machine (the local-dev scripts bind these by default; both can be overridden with flags).

Pick your stack

PHP + Apache locally — for WordPress and any PHP application.
Node + Nginx locally — for Express, Next.js standalone, or any Node app.

Create a site — how the same images run as hosted sites in WHP.
What is containerized hosting?

Still stuck?

Still stuck? Open a support ticket and our team will help.