Introduction#
LaTeX is an excellent program to typeset documents. Overleaf used to be an excellent online editor for making collaborative LaTeX typeset documents. However, with increased commercialization of Overleaf, it has become increasingly difficult to create and collaborate on documents with Overleaf. Currently, the free version of Overleaf only allows you 1 collaborator for a repository. Plus there have been numerous restrictions placed on the compilation speed and time. If you’re considering compiling your PhD thesis in Overleaf, or creating a document that contains a lot of heavy images, chances are that you won’t really be able to do it practically, without having to purchase (atleast) your standard plan costing $300 USD a year!
Alternatively, you could consider deploying Overleaf Community Edition using Docker Compose. It provides a straightforward method for hosting and managing collaborative LaTeX editing environments on your own server. The Overleaf Community Edition is free to use and offers a powerful platform for collaborative writing and editing of LaTeX documents, with the added advantage of self-hosting, giving you full control over your documents and collaboration environment.
What is Overleaf community edition?#
Overleaf Community Edition is an open-source version of the popular online LaTeX editor, Overleaf. It allows you to create, edit, and collaborate on LaTeX documents in real-time, making it ideal for academic and professional writing projects. With Overleaf Community Edition, you can host you own instance of the platform, enabling greater customization and control over your LaTeX editing environment.
Advantages of self-hosting Overleaf Community Edition#
Control and Privacy: Self-hosting Overleaf Community Edition allows you to maintain control over your data and privacy. By hosting the platform on your own server, you can ensure that sensitive documents and information remain secure within your own infrastructure.
Customization: Self-hosting provides you with the flexibility to customize your Overleaf environment to meet your specific needs. You can configure the platform according to your preferences, including user management, access controls, and integration with other tools and services.
Scalability: Hosting Overleaf Community Edition on a dedicated server enables you to scale your environment according to your requirements. Whether collaborating on small projects or managing large-scale academic initiatives, self-hosting allows for seamless scalability and resource allocation.
Free Collaboration: Most importantly, you don’t have to pay a penny to start collaborating on LaTeX documents with your colleagues!
No compilation restrictions: Since you’re hosting your own application, you won’t be restricted by Overleaf online’s restrictions on compilation time and volume! Feel free to develop as many big projects as you want!
How this guide is structured#
Overleaf officially recommends their Overleaf toolkit for installaing the community edition. However, I found their guide very difficult to implement. Additionally, their documentation presumes a lot of knowledge about Linux and Docker. Therefore, this guide has been developed to ease and faciliate the process of self-hosting Overleaf Community Edition.
Requirements#
The only thing you require is a Ubuntu/Linux server that can host Overleaf and a willingness to get this done!
How to contribute?#
Since this guide is a work in progress, please feel free to help develop this guide further with screenshots and more detailed step-by-step.