DocuSeal

Web app to create, fill and sign digital documents.

Replaces

Paid electronic signature services, such as DocuSign.

All open-source alternatives to DocuSign

Difficulty

Difficulty: Medium

3 services (1 database or broker: postgres), 3 volume mounts, 1 env value to set, no elevated host access. Heuristic score 4 of 11: medium.

Stack

Ruby (language), PostgreSQL (database)

Deployment

docker_compose

Requirements

Not stated.

License

AGPL-3.0 (OSI-approved open source)

Read from github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/LICENSE

Business model

Unknown

The README at the pinned commit does not state a business model, so it stays unknown.

Source: github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/README.md, read on 2026-10-22.

Repository

docusealco/docuseal

GitHub stats

Stars: 18,770
Forks: 1,897
Open issues and pull requests: 128
Last push: 2026-10-19
Latest release: 3.3.3
Released: 2026-10-19

From the GitHub API on 2026-10-22. These numbers are a snapshot, not live. GitHub detected the license as AGPL-3.0.

Compose file

Config check passed docker compose config exited 0 on this exact file on 2026-10-22.

docker-compose.yml Version 1

services:
  app:
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
    image: docuseal/docuseal:latest
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
    volumes:
      - ./docuseal:/data/docuseal
    environment:
      - FORCE_SSL=${HOST}
      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@postgres:5432/docuseal

  postgres:
    image: postgres:18
    volumes:
      - './pg_data:/var/lib/postgresql/18/docker'
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: postgres
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
      POSTGRES_DB: docuseal
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U postgres"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

  caddy:
    image: caddy:latest
    command: caddy reverse-proxy --from $HOST --to app:3000
    ports:
      - 80:80
      - 443:443
      - 443:443/udp
    volumes:
      - ./caddy:/data/caddy
    environment:
      - HOST=${HOST}

From the app's own repository: github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/docker-compose.yml.

Compose file from the app repository.

Install

Docker with the Compose plugin (github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/docker-compose.yml)
A host with Docker and the Docker Compose plugin. This entry runs from a compose file.
Save the compose file as docker-compose.yml (github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/docker-compose.yml)
Use the compose file shown above.
Set the values the compose file needs (github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/docker-compose.yml)
These variables have no default in the compose file: HOST. Compose reads them from the shell or from a .env file next to the compose file.
Start it (github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/docker-compose.yml)
```
docker compose up -d
```
Open the app (github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/docker-compose.yml)
Open http://localhost:3000. The compose file publishes host port 3000 for the app service.

Compose file check: config_ok on 2026-10-22.

Gotchas and maintenance

Gotchas

Some images use the latest tag or no tag. Images without a pinned version: app: docuseal/docuseal:latest, caddy: caddy:latest. A later pull can get a different version. (github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/docker-compose.yml, checked 2026-10-22)
The compose file publishes host ports. Host ports: 3000 (app), 80 (caddy), 443 (caddy), 443/udp (caddy). A port without a host address listens on all host network interfaces. (github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/docker-compose.yml, checked 2026-10-22)
The compose file mounts host folders. Host paths mounted into containers: ./docuseal at /data/docuseal (app), ./pg_data at /var/lib/postgresql/18/docker (postgres), ./caddy at /data/caddy (caddy). (github.com/docusealco/docuseal/blob/8f8f69f/docker-compose.yml, checked 2026-10-22)

Signals

Open issues and pull requests: 128
Last push: 2026-10-19 (2 days before this page was built)
Latest release: 3.3.3 on 2026-10-19 (2 days before this page was built)