Deploy on Fly.io

Deploy LNbits on Fly.io - a platform for running full-stack apps and databases close to your users.

Fly.io runs applications in lightweight VMs (Firecracker) across global edge locations. It's a good option for deploying LNbits with low latency and easy scaling.

Prerequisites

• Fly.io account
• flyctl CLI installed
• A Lightning backend accessible from the internet (LND, CLN, or a service like OpenNode)

Quick start

# Log in to Fly.io
fly auth login

# Clone LNbits
git clone https://github.com/lnbits/lnbits.git
cd lnbits

# Launch the app
fly launch

When prompted:

• Choose a region close to your Lightning node
• Select a VM size (shared-cpu-1x with 512MB is fine to start)
• Add a persistent volume for data storage

fly.toml configuration

app = "your-lnbits-instance"
primary_region = "iad"

[build]
  dockerfile = "Dockerfile"

[env]
  LNBITS_ADMIN_UI = "true"
  LNBITS_BACKEND_WALLET_CLASS = "LndRestWallet"
  PORT = "5000"

[http_service]
  internal_port = 5000
  force_https = true
  auto_stop_machines = false
  auto_start_machines = true

[[vm]]
  size = "shared-cpu-1x"
  memory = "512mb"

[mounts]
  source = "lnbits_data"
  destination = "/app/data"

Set secrets

Store sensitive configuration as Fly.io secrets (not in fly.toml):

# LND REST backend example
fly secrets set LND_REST_ENDPOINT="https://your-node:8080"
fly secrets set LND_REST_CERT="base64-encoded-tls-cert"
fly secrets set LND_REST_MACAROON="hex-encoded-macaroon"

Create persistent volume

LNbits needs persistent storage for its database and configuration:

fly volumes create lnbits_data --size 1 --region iad

Deploy

fly deploy

Your instance will be available at https://your-lnbits-instance.fly.dev.

Custom domain

fly certs add lnbits.yourdomain.com

Then add a CNAME record pointing lnbits.yourdomain.com to your-lnbits-instance.fly.dev.

PostgreSQL (recommended for production)

# Create a Fly Postgres cluster
fly postgres create --name lnbits-db

# Attach it to your app
fly postgres attach lnbits-db

# The DATABASE_URL secret is set automatically

Then configure LNbits to use it:

fly secrets set LNBITS_DATABASE_URL="postgres://..."

Scaling

# Scale memory
fly scale memory 1024

# Scale to multiple regions
fly scale count 1 --region iad

WARNING

LNbits is not designed for multi-instance horizontal scaling. Run a single instance per deployment unless you have a shared PostgreSQL database and understand the implications.

Monitoring

# View logs
fly logs

# Check status
fly status

# SSH into the VM
fly ssh console

Updating

cd lnbits
git pull --rebase
fly deploy

After updating, use Admin UI → Extensions → "Update All" to update extensions.

Related Pages

• Installation Overview - all installation methods
• Docker - container-based deployment
• Reverse Proxy - HTTPS setup with Nginx or Caddy
• PostgreSQL - database configuration