Launch Odoo 18 Like a Pro with Docker Compose

Ever wanted to try out Odoo 18 without diving into dependency hell? You’re in the right place. With Docker Compose, we’ll spin up a full Odoo environment — clean, fast, and production-ready in minutes.

⚡ This guide is for makers, hackers, developers, and small business heroes who just want to get things running — with no fluff.

🧰 Prerequisites

Before we dive in, make sure you’ve got Docker and Docker Compose installed:

• ✅ Docker on macOS
• ✅ Docker on Ubuntu
• ✅ Docker on Windows

If you’re set, let’s roll!

📁 Project Structure

Here’s how your setup will look:

odoo-docker-setup/
├── docker-compose.yml
├── odoo_pg_pass         # PostgreSQL password (securely stored)
├── config/
│   └── odoo.conf        # Odoo configuration file
└── addons/              # Your custom addons

🧾 docker-compose.yml

services:
  web:
    image: odoo:18.0
    depends_on:
      - db
    ports:
      - "8069:8069"
    volumes:
      - odoo-web-data:/var/lib/odoo
      - ./config:/etc/odoo
      - ./addons:/mnt/extra-addons
    environment:
      - PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/postgresql_password
    secrets:
      - postgresql_password

  db:
    image: postgres:15
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_DB=postgres
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/postgresql_password
      - POSTGRES_USER=odoo
      - PGDATA=/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
    volumes:
      - odoo-db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
    secrets:
      - postgresql_password

volumes:
  odoo-web-data:
  odoo-db-data:

secrets:
  postgresql_password:
    file: odoo_pg_pass

🗃️ Odoo Configuration: odoo.conf

[options]
addons_path = /mnt/extra-addons
data_dir = /var/lib/odoo
admin_passwd = admin

[options]
addons_path = /mnt/extra-addons
data_dir = /var/lib/odoo
; admin_passwd = admin
; csv_internal_sep = ,
; db_maxconn = 64
; db_name = False
; db_template = template1
; dbfilter = .*
; debug_mode = False
; email_from = False
; limit_memory_hard = 2684354560
; limit_memory_soft = 2147483648
; limit_request = 8192
; limit_time_cpu = 60
; limit_time_real = 120
; list_db = True
; log_db = False
; log_handler = [':INFO']
; log_level = info
; logfile = None
; longpolling_port = 8072
; max_cron_threads = 2
; osv_memory_age_limit = 1.0
; osv_memory_count_limit = False
; smtp_password = False
; smtp_port = 25
; smtp_server = localhost
; smtp_ssl = False
; smtp_user = False
; workers = 0
; xmlrpc = True
; xmlrpc_interface = 
; xmlrpc_port = 8069
; xmlrpcs = True
; xmlrpcs_interface = 
; xmlrpcs_port = 8071

🔐 Secure Your Secrets

Create your secret password file like this:

echo "supersecurepassword" > odoo_pg_pass

Keep this file out of version control (.gitignore it!).

🚀 Launch Time

From your project root, run:

docker compose up -d

📍 Visit http://localhost:8069 — your Odoo instance is live!

Create a new database, choose a password, and start exploring Odoo’s powerful features.

🧽 Tidy Up

To stop your environment:

docker compose down

To also remove persistent volumes (⚠️ this deletes your data):

docker compose down -v

📦 About Volumes

We use Docker volumes to persist important data:

• odoo-web-data: stores Odoo’s database files, attachments, and session info.
• odoo-db-data: stores PostgreSQL data files.

These volumes ensure your data survives container restarts or upgrades.

If you want to back them up, you can use:

docker run --rm -v odoo-web-data:/data busybox tar czf - /data > odoo-web-data-backup.tar.gz

🔗 Resources

• Odoo Docker Hub
• Odoo Docs

💡 Pro Tips

• Add custom modules in addons/
• You can tweak startup behavior with command overrides
• Use environment files (.env) for large configs

Give it a spin and unleash the power of Odoo — with zero install pain. 😎