Tutorials · 5 min read
Self-Hosting nextExplorer: A Browser-Based File Manager for Your VPS
nextExplorer is a self-hosted, browser-based file manager: it turns any set of folders on a server into a full file-management interface — browsing, previews, built-in editors, uploads, and sharing links — accessible from a normal web browser instead of an FTP or SSH client. It ships as a single Docker image with support for multi-user accounts and single sign-on, so a small team can share one file interface without everyone needing shell access to the server. What nextExplorer Does Under the hood it's a Vue 3 frontend talking to an Express backend, with a SQLite database handling users, permissions, and settings — no separate database container to run. Core features include multi-user accounts with per-user access control, quick file previews and a media gallery view, built-in file editors, link-based sharing, smart search, and a terminal bridge that opens a shell in the current folder. Optional integrations include OIDC single sign-on (it documents a working setup with Authelia) and ONLYOFFICE for in-browser document editing. Deploying nextExplorer on a VPS with Docker It's Docker-native and ships as one image — no companion containers required beyond whatever reverse proxy you already run. A minimal deployment looks like this: services: nextexplorer: image: nxzai/explorer:latest container_name: nextexplorer restart: unless-stopped ports: – "3000:3000" volumes: – ./config:/config – ./cache:/cache – /path/to/your/files:/mnt/Files environment: – NODE_ENV=production – PUBLIC_URL=https://files.yourdomain.com Each directory you mount under /mnt becomes a top-level volume in the interface, so you can expose several separate folders — a media library and a projects folder, for instance — as distinct sections rather than one flat tree. The /config volume holds the SQLite database and app settings, so back it up the same way you would any other stateful container. Set PUBLIC_URL to the address you'll actually reach it at once it's behind a reverse proxy with TLS — don't expose port 3000 directly to the internet. How nextExplorer Compares to Other Self-Hosted File Managers nextExplorer isn't the only browser-based file manager worth self-hosting, and it's worth knowing where it sits relative to the two most established alternatives before committing to it: nextExplorer vs File Browser vs Filestash Self-hosted browser-based file manager comparison — compiled September 2026. nextExplorer File Browser Filestash SSO / OIDC support Yes, built in No (reverse-proxy auth only) Yes, LDAP and OAuth2 Built-in editors / terminal Editor + terminal bridge Editor only Editor only Storage backends Local mounts only Local mounts only 20+ (S3, SFTP, WebDAV,…
