Deploy Prerender on Your Own Server
Prerender uses Headless Chrome to render HTML, screenshots, PDFs, and HAR files out of any web page, in order to serve them to crawlers.
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What is Prerender?
Prerender is a node server that uses Headless Chrome to render HTML, screenshots, PDFs, and HAR files out of any web page. The Prerender server listens for an http request, takes the URL and loads it in Headless Chrome, waits for the page to finish loading by waiting for the network to be idle, and then returns your content. You can choose wheter to expose it as a web app, or not.
Self-Host Prerender
Follow these steps to deploy on your own server.
Install Docker
Skip this step if Docker is already installed on your server.
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
Configure
Customize the settings below. Defaults work for most cases.
General
Deploy
Copy the configuration and run it on your server.
services:
prerender:
image: tvanro/prerender-alpine:6.4.0
environment:
BLACKLISTED_DOMAINS: ""
CACHE_MAXSIZE: "10000"
CACHE_TTL: "7200"
MEMORY_CACHE: "1"
Then run:
docker compose up -d
Access
Once started, access your app at http://localhost:3000
Why Self-Host Prerender?
Full Data Ownership
Your data stays on your servers. No third-party access.
No Monthly Fees
Pay only for your server. No per-seat or usage charges.
Complete Control
Customize, backup, and scale on your own terms.
Privacy & Compliance
Meet GDPR, HIPAA, or internal security requirements.
Technical Details
Docker Image
tvanro/prerender-alpine:6.4.0Official Docs
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