DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is a cloud platform for deploying and managing applications. This guide walks through deploying ParadeDB on a DigitalOcean Droplet using Docker. Docker packages PostgreSQL and pg_search together, so you don't need to install them manually.

Prerequisites

1. A DigitalOcean account
2. Your local machine's public IPv4 address (used to restrict access to the Droplet)

Create a Droplet

1. In the DigitalOcean console, create a new Droplet
2. Select Ubuntu 24.04 (LTS) x64 as the image
3. Choose a plan size — see the DigitalOcean sizing guide for recommendations

Once the Droplet is running, SSH into it to complete the remaining steps.

Install Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

Install ParadeDB

The tag query parameter pins the ParadeDB version. See the Docker Hub page for available tags.

curl -fsSL "https://paradedb.com/install.sh?tag=0.23.3-pg18" | sh

Once the install completes, note the password printed to the terminal — you will need it for the psql connection string below.

To ensure the container restarts automatically if the Droplet reboots:

docker update --restart unless-stopped paradedb

Configure Firewall

In the DigitalOcean console, navigate to Networking → Firewalls and create a firewall with the following inbound rule:

Replace <YOUR_IP_ADDRESS> with your local machine's public IPv4 address (not the Droplet IP). To allow access from any IP, use 0.0.0.0/0 instead. Apply the firewall to your Droplet.

Connect to ParadeDB

From your local machine:

psql postgres://myuser:mypassword@<DROPLET_IP>:5432/paradedb

Replace <DROPLET_IP> with the public IPv4 address of your Droplet, found on the DigitalOcean console.