HortusFox Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Deploy HortusFox hosting and run a self-hosted plant management system where you catalog plants by location, track care tasks and a calendar, and keep photos and notes together. xCloud configures the pinned upstream HortusFox 5.9 image, a private MariaDB 11.8.3 database, seven persistent volumes and the HTTPS reverse proxy in minutes, with generated administrator credentials waiting when you sign in.

Deploy your HortusFox

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is HortusFox?

Self-hosted HortusFox is a free, open source collaborative plant management system for keeping track of, caring for and journalling everything about your plants. Its README lists plant management, custom locations, a tasks system, an inventory system, a calendar, search, history, group chat, an admin dashboard, themes, a REST API and QR codes. It stands in for hosted plant care apps, so your collection, photos and care history are not tied to a vendor, under the MIT licence.

On xCloud the template runs the ghcr.io/danielbrendel/hortusfox-web v5.9 image beside a private MariaDB 11.8.3 database, both pinned by immutable digest, with seven persistent volumes. HTTPS is published on your domain, and you enter only an administrator email at install. SMTP, weather and plant identification are not enabled until you add your own provider settings.

From Sign-Up to a Live HortusFox Workspace In Just 3 Easy Steps

Self-hosting a plant-management app normally means a container, a database, a domain and a certificate before a single plant is logged. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick HortusFox from the OneClick catalog. Enter your administrator email and a domain — there are no other fields to fill in.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the upstream HortusFox 5.9 image and a private MariaDB 11.8.3 database, both pinned by immutable digest, generate independent administrator and database passwords, mount all seven persistent volumes and publish HortusFox over HTTPS on your domain.
Step 03
Sign In And Add A Plant
Open your HTTPS URL and sign in with the generated administrator credentials. Create a location, add your first plant with a care note or photo, and confirm it's saved correctly before adding your full collection.

Everything HortusFox Does, On Your Own Server

HortusFox runs in full here — plant locations, care tracking and shared media, on infrastructure you control.

Plant Inventory By Location
Organize your collection into locations and keep every plant's details attached to where it actually lives.
Care Tracking And Calendar
Log care tasks and see them on a calendar, so watering, feeding and repotting don't rely on memory.
Notes And Photos
Attach notes and photos to any plant to track its progress over time.
Shared Across A Household Or Team
Give family members or teammates their own accounts on the same collaborative workspace.
Private MariaDB Backend
A dedicated MariaDB 11.8.3 database stores HortusFox's state, reachable only on the internal network, never exposed to the internet.
Seven Volumes, Cleanly Split
Database, images, attachments, logs, backups, themes and migrations each get their own persistent volume, all surviving a restart.

Everything You Need To Run Your Plant Management 24/7

Managed hosting for HortusFox, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

HortusFox 5.9 deployed instantly
Upstream images pinned by digest
Administrator credentials generated for you
Private MariaDB, not exposed to the internet
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With HortusFox

Catalog plants by location
Group plants by room or location, and keep photos, notes and a history for each one in a single workspace.
Track care tasks on a calendar
Record watering, feeding and other tasks and see them on a calendar, so nothing in the collection is forgotten.
Share a collection with a household
Let family members or a small team use the same workspace, with a group chat and an admin dashboard to manage users.
Keep plant records on your own server
Plant data, images and attachments sit on volumes on your Cloud VPS instead of in a hosted app.

HortusFox vs Alternatives

Hosted plant care apps: A hosted app keeps your plant records and photos with a vendor. HortusFox is MIT licensed, and here its data lives on your own Cloud VPS.
Homebox: Homebox has its own xCloud template. HortusFox is built around plants, with custom locations, a tasks system, a calendar and a history for each plant.
Grocy: Grocy has its own xCloud template. HortusFox focuses on plant care: plants assigned to locations, care tasks, reminders and a shared group chat.
A spreadsheet or notes app: A spreadsheet is quick to start, but HortusFox adds locations, a tasks system, a calendar, history and photos in one shared workspace.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for HortusFox hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

A larger collection with more photos and collaborators.

$59.99per month

16 GB RAM
6 vCPU cores
200 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Cloud VPS 24 GB

HortusFox alongside a whole self-hosted stack.

$84.99per month

24 GB RAM
8 vCPU cores
300 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. HortusFox itself is free under the MIT License.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy HortusFox on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

Free

Start your journey without cost.

$0forever

1 server
10 sites

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Starter

Professional

The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

6–10 servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

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Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready To Keep Your Plants Organized?

HortusFox on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

How much RAM does HortusFox need?

The manifest asks for 1024 MB of RAM, 1 CPU core and 10 GB of disk as a floor. The 6 GB Cloud VPS sold on this page leaves comfortable headroom, and you should allow more storage than the floor if you keep a large photo collection.

Is HortusFox free and open source?

Yes. HortusFox is MIT licensed, per the LICENSE file at the v5.9 tag, so you owe no licence payment. xCloud's bill is the dedicated Cloud VPS, and your plant records stay on your own volumes.

Can you run HortusFox with Docker?

Yes. HortusFox Docker hosting is set up for you: the template runs the upstream ghcr.io/danielbrendel/hortusfox-web v5.9 image beside MariaDB 11.8.3, both pinned by immutable digest, so it works as HortusFox cloud hosting on your own VPS.

What is the difference between HortusFox and Homebox?

HortusFox is built for plants: every plant is assigned to a location, with care tasks, a calendar and a history. Homebox has its own xCloud page; compare it there, and note that both can run on the same server.

Homebox hosting

How do I sign in to HortusFox?

With generated administrator credentials. You enter only your administrator email at install; xCloud generates the admin password along with independent database and database-root passwords, shown in your credential panel. Change the admin password inside HortusFox once you are in.

Are SMTP, weather or plant identification enabled in HortusFox?

No. HortusFox supports optional SMTP, weather and plant-identification integrations, but the template configures none of them. Each needs your own provider settings or API keys added inside HortusFox after install, and some may carry their own costs.

Can a household share one HortusFox workspace?

Yes. The README describes a collaborative system with an admin dashboard and group chat, so several people can use the same workspace. Create their accounts from the admin area and tell them the address, then test that each person can sign in.

Why does HortusFox have seven volumes?

Each kind of data has its own: hortusfox_db_data for MariaDB, plus images, attachments, logs, backup, themes and migrations. That split keeps the pieces clear, but a restore is only complete when all seven come back from the same point in time.

What should I back up on a HortusFox server?

All seven volumes together, from the same maintenance window: hortusfox_db_data, hortusfox_images, hortusfox_attachments, hortusfox_logs, hortusfox_backup, hortusfox_themes and hortusfox_migrations. A database-only snapshot is not a complete backup, so snapshot all of them at once, keep a copy off the server, and test a restore on a spare server first.

Backups in xCloud

Can I change the HortusFox database passwords?

Treat them as fixed. The database name, user, password and root password are generated and coordinated between HortusFox and MariaDB, so changing one side without the other breaks database access. Rotate them in MariaDB first if you must, then update both.

How do I upgrade HortusFox?

Nothing upgrades it for you: the install stays on pinned releases HortusFox 5.9 and MariaDB 11.8.3 until you adopt a newer template version. Take a coordinated backup of all seven volumes first, read the upstream migration notes, then check sign-in and a plant record.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.