WordPress is the world's most popular blogging and content management platform. Powerful yet simple, everyone from students to global corporations use it to build beautiful, functional websites.

Overview of WordPress

docker run --name wordpress bitnami/wordpress:latest

Warning: This quick setup is only intended for development environments. You are encouraged to change the insecure default credentials and check out the available configuration options in the Environment Variables section for a more secure deployment.

• Bitnami closely tracks upstream source changes and promptly publishes new versions of this image using our automated systems.
• With Bitnami images the latest bug fixes and features are available as soon as possible.
• Bitnami containers, virtual machines and cloud images use the same components and configuration approach - making it easy to switch between formats based on your project needs.
• All our images are based on minideb -a minimalist Debian based container image that gives you a small base container image and the familiarity of a leading Linux distribution- or scratch -an explicitly empty image-.
• All Bitnami images available in Docker Hub are signed with Notation. Check this post to know how to verify the integrity of the images.
• Bitnami container images are released on a regular basis with the latest distribution packages available.

Looking to use WordPress in production? Try VMware Tanzu Application Catalog, the commercial edition of the Bitnami catalog.

Deploying Bitnami applications as Helm Charts is the easiest way to get started with our applications on Kubernetes. Read more about the installation in the Bitnami WordPress Chart GitHub repository.

Bitnami containers can be used with Kubeapps for deployment and management of Helm Charts in clusters.

Non-root container images add an extra layer of security and are generally recommended for production environments. However, because they run as a non-root user, privileged tasks are typically off-limits. Learn more about non-root containers in our docs.

Starting December 10th 2024, only the latest stable branch of any container will receive updates in the free Bitnami catalog. To access up-to-date releases for all upstream-supported branches, consider upgrading to Bitnami Premium. Previous versions already released will not be deleted. They are still available to pull from DockerHub.

Please check the Bitnami Premium page in our partner Arrow Electronics for more information.

Learn more about the Bitnami tagging policy and the difference between rolling tags and immutable tags in our documentation page.

You can see the equivalence between the different tags by taking a look at the tags-info.yaml file present in the branch folder, i.e bitnami/ASSET/BRANCH/DISTRO/tags-info.yaml.

Subscribe to project updates by watching the bitnami/containers GitHub repo.

The recommended way to get the Bitnami WordPress Docker Image is to pull the prebuilt image from the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/wordpress:latest

To use a specific version, you can pull a versioned tag. You can view the list of available versions in the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/wordpress:[TAG]

If you wish, you can also build the image yourself by cloning the repository, changing to the directory containing the Dockerfile and executing the docker build command. Remember to replace the APP, VERSION and OPERATING-SYSTEM path placeholders in the example command below with the correct values.

git clone https://github.com/bitnami/containers.git
cd bitnami/APP/VERSION/OPERATING-SYSTEM
docker build -t bitnami/APP:latest .

WordPress requires access to a MySQL or MariaDB database to store information. We'll use the Bitnami Docker Image for MariaDB for the database requirements.

docker network create wordpress-network

$ docker volume create --name mariadb_data
docker run -d --name mariadb \
  --env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  --env MARIADB_USER=bn_wordpress \
  --env MARIADB_PASSWORD=bitnami \
  --env MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_wordpress \
  --network wordpress-network \
  --volume mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb \
  bitnami/mariadb:latest

$ docker volume create --name wordpress_data
docker run -d --name wordpress \
  -p 8080:8080 -p 8443:8443 \
  --env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_USER=bn_wordpress \
  --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_PASSWORD=bitnami \
  --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_wordpress \
  --network wordpress-network \
  --volume wordpress_data:/bitnami/wordpress \
  bitnami/wordpress:latest

Access your application at http://your-ip/

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitnami/containers/main/bitnami/wordpress/docker-compose.yml > docker-compose.yml
docker-compose up -d

Please be aware this file has not undergone internal testing. Consequently, we advise its use exclusively for development or testing purposes. For production-ready deployments, we highly recommend utilizing its associated Bitnami Helm chart.

If you detect any issue in the docker-compose.yaml file, feel free to report it or contribute with a fix by following our Contributing Guidelines.

If you remove the container all your data will be lost, and the next time you run the image the database will be reinitialized. To avoid this loss of data, you should mount a volume that will persist even after the container is removed.

For persistence you should mount a directory at the /bitnami/wordpress path. If the mounted directory is empty, it will be initialized on the first run. Additionally you should mount a volume for persistence of the MariaDB data.

The above examples define the Docker volumes named mariadb_data and wordpress_data. The WordPress application state will persist as long as volumes are not removed.

To avoid inadvertent removal of volumes, you can mount host directories as data volumes. Alternatively you can make use of volume plugins to host the volume data.

This requires a minor change to the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

   mariadb:
     ...
     volumes:
-      - 'mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb'
+      - /path/to/mariadb-persistence:/bitnami/mariadb
   ...
   wordpress:
     ...
     volumes:
-      - 'wordpress_data:/bitnami/wordpress'
+      - /path/to/wordpress-persistence:/bitnami/wordpress
   ...
-volumes:
-  mariadb_data:
-    driver: local
-  wordpress_data:
-    driver: local

NOTE: As this is a non-root container, the mounted files and directories must have the proper permissions for the UID 1001.

docker network create wordpress-network

docker run -d --name mariadb \
  --env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  --env MARIADB_USER=bn_wordpress \
  --env MARIADB_PASSWORD=bitnami \
  --env MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_wordpress \
  --network wordpress-network \
  --volume /path/to/mariadb-persistence:/bitnami/mariadb \
  bitnami/mariadb:latest

NOTE: As this is a non-root container, the mounted files and directories must have the proper permissions for the UID 1001.

docker run -d --name wordpress \
  -p 8080:8080 -p 8443:8443 \
  --env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_USER=bn_wordpress \
  --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_PASSWORD=bitnami \
  --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_wordpress \
  --network wordpress-network \
  --volume /path/to/wordpress-persistence:/bitnami/wordpress \
  bitnami/wordpress:latest

NOTE: As this is a non-root container, the mounted files and directories must have the proper permissions for the UID 1001.

When you start the WordPress image, you can adjust the configuration of the instance by passing one or more environment variables either on the docker-compose file or on the docker run command line. Please note that some variables are only considered when the container is started for the first time. If you want to add a new environment variable:

• For docker-compose add the variable name and value under the application section in the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

  wordpress:
    ...
    environment:
      - WORDPRESS_PASSWORD=my_password
    ...

• For manual execution add a --env option with each variable and value:

  $ docker run -d --name wordpress -p 80:8080 -p 443:8443 \
    --env WORDPRESS_PASSWORD=my_password \
    --network wordpress-tier \
    --volume /path/to/wordpress-persistence:/bitnami \
    bitnami/wordpress:latest

This would be an example of SMTP configuration using a Gmail account:

• Modify the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

    wordpress:
      ...
      environment:
        - WORDPRESS_DATABASE_USER=bn_wordpress
        - WORDPRESS_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_wordpress
        - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
        - WORDPRESS_SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
        - WORDPRESS_SMTP_PORT=587
        - WORDPRESS_SMTP_USER=your_email@gmail.com
        - WORDPRESS_SMTP_PASSWORD=your_password
    ...

• For manual execution:

  $ docker run -d --name wordpress -p 80:8080 -p 443:8443 \
    --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_USER=bn_wordpress \
    --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_wordpress \
    --env WORDPRESS_SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com \
    --env WORDPRESS_SMTP_PORT=587 \
    --env WORDPRESS_SMTP_USER=your_email@gmail.com \
    --env WORDPRESS_SMTP_PASSWORD=your_password \
    --network wordpress-tier \
    --volume /path/to/wordpress-persistence:/bitnami \
    bitnami/wordpress:latest

The Bitnami WordPress container supports connecting the WordPress application to an external database. This would be an example of using an external database for WordPress.

• Modify the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

     wordpress:
       ...
       environment:
  -      - WORDPRESS_DATABASE_HOST=mariadb
  +      - WORDPRESS_DATABASE_HOST=mariadb_host
         - WORDPRESS_DATABASE_PORT_NUMBER=3306
         - WORDPRESS_DATABASE_NAME=wordpress_db
         - WORDPRESS_DATABASE_USER=wordpress_user
  -      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
  +      - WORDPRESS_DATABASE_PASSWORD=wordpress_password
       ...

• For manual execution:

  $ docker run -d --name wordpress\
    -p 8080:8080 -p 8443:8443 \
    --network wordpress-network \
    --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_HOST=mariadb_host \
    --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_PORT_NUMBER=3306 \
    --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_NAME=wordpress_db \
    --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_USER=wordpress_user \
    --env WORDPRESS_DATABASE_PASSWORD=wordpress_password \
    --volume wordpress_data:/bitnami/wordpress \
    bitnami/wordpress:latest

In case the database already contains data from a previous WordPress installation, you need to set the variable WORDPRESS_SKIP_BOOTSTRAP to yes. Otherwise, the container would execute the installation wizard and could modify the existing data in the database. Note that, when setting WORDPRESS_SKIP_BOOTSTRAP to yes, values for environment variables such as WORDPRESS_USERNAME, WORDPRESS_PASSWORD or WORDPRESS_EMAIL will be ignored. Make sure that, in this imported database, the table prefix matches the one set in WORDPRESS_TABLE_PREFIX.

The Bitnami WordPress container includes the command line interface wp-cli that can help you to manage and interact with your WP sites. To run this tool, please note you need use the proper system user, daemon.

This would be an example of using wp-cli to display the help menu:

• Using docker-compose command:

docker-compose exec wordpress wp help

• Using docker command:

docker exec wordpress wp help

Find more information about parameters available in the tool in the official documentation.

The Bitnami WordPress Docker image sends the container logs to stdout. To view the logs:

docker logs wordpress

Or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose logs wordpress

You can configure the containers logging driver using the --log-driver option if you wish to consume the container logs differently. In the default configuration docker uses the json-file driver.

To backup your data, configuration and logs, follow these simple steps:

docker stop wordpress

Or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose stop wordpress

We need to mount two volumes in a container we will use to create the backup: a directory on your host to store the backup in, and the volumes from the container we just stopped so we can access the data.

docker run --rm -v /path/to/wordpress-backups:/backups --volumes-from wordpress busybox \
  cp -a /bitnami/wordpress /backups/latest

Restoring a backup is as simple as mounting the backup as volumes in the containers.

For the MariaDB database container:

 $ docker run -d --name mariadb \
   ...
-  --volume /path/to/mariadb-persistence:/bitnami/mariadb \
+  --volume /path/to/mariadb-backups/latest:/bitnami/mariadb \
   bitnami/mariadb:latest

For the WordPress container:

 $ docker run -d --name wordpress \
   ...
-  --volume /path/to/wordpress-persistence:/bitnami/wordpress \
+  --volume /path/to/wordpress-backups/latest:/bitnami/wordpress \
   bitnami/wordpress:latest

Bitnami provides up-to-date versions of MariaDB and WordPress, including security patches, soon after they are made upstream. We recommend that you follow these steps to upgrade your container. We will cover here the upgrade of the WordPress container. For the MariaDB upgrade see https://github.com/bitnami/containers/tree/main/bitnami/mariadb#upgrade-this-image

The bitnami/wordpress:latest tag always points to the most recent release. To get the most recent release you can simple repull the latest tag from the Docker Hub with docker pull bitnami/wordpress:latest. However it is recommended to use tagged versions.

docker pull bitnami/wordpress:latest

Stop the currently running container using the command

docker-compose stop wordpress

Follow the steps in Backing up your container to take a snapshot of the current application state.

Remove the currently running container by executing the following command:

docker-compose rm -v wordpress

Update the image tag in docker-compose.yml and re-create your container with the new image:

docker-compose up -d

The Bitnami WordPress Docker image is designed to be extended so it can be used as the base image for your custom web applications.

Before extending this image, please note there are certain configuration settings you can modify using the original image:

• Settings that can be adapted using environment variables. For instance, you can change the ports used by Apache for HTTP and HTTPS, by setting the environment variables APACHE_HTTP_PORT_NUMBER and APACHE_HTTPS_PORT_NUMBER respectively.
• Adding custom virtual hosts.
• Replacing the 'httpd.conf' file.
• Using custom SSL certificates.

If your desired customizations cannot be covered using the methods mentioned above, extend the image. To do so, create your own image using a Dockerfile with the format below:

FROM bitnami/wordpress
## Put your customizations below
...

Here is an example of extending the image with the following modifications:

• Install the vim editor
• Modify the Apache configuration file
• Modify the ports used by Apache

FROM bitnami/wordpress

## Change user to perform privileged actions
USER 0
## Install 'vim'
RUN install_packages vim
## Revert to the original non-root user
USER 1001

## Enable mod_ratelimit module
RUN sed -i -r 's/#LoadModule ratelimit_module/LoadModule ratelimit_module/' /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/httpd.conf

## Modify the ports used by Apache by default
# It is also possible to change these environment variables at runtime
ENV APACHE_HTTP_PORT_NUMBER=8181
ENV APACHE_HTTPS_PORT_NUMBER=8143
EXPOSE 8181 8143

Based on the extended image, you can update the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository to add other features:

   wordpress:
-    image: bitnami/wordpress:latest
+    build: .
     ports:
-      - '80:8080'
-      - '443:8443'
+      - '80:8181'
+      - '443:8143'
     environment:
+      - PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT=512m
     ...

• The XML-RCP endpoint has been disabled by default. Users can manually activate via the new WORDPRESS_ENABLE_XML_RPC environment variable.

• The size of the container image has been decreased.
• The configuration logic is now based on Bash scripts in the rootfs/ folder.
• Multisite support was added via WORDPRESS_ENABLE_MULTISITE and related environment variables.
• Plugins can be installed and activated on the first deployment via WORDPRESS_PLUGINS.
• Added support for limiting auto-updates to WordPress core via WORDPRESS_AUTO_UPDATE_LEVEL. In addition, auto-updates have been disabled by default. To update WordPress core, we recommend to swap the container image version for your deployment instead of using the built-in update functionality.
• This image now supports connecting to MySQL and MariaDB databases securely via SSL.

• The WordPress container has been migrated to a "non-root" user approach. Previously the container ran as the root user and the Apache daemon was started as the daemon user. From now on, both the container and the Apache daemon run as user 1001. You can revert this behavior by changing USER 1001 to USER root in the Dockerfile.
• Consequences:
  • The HTTP/HTTPS ports exposed by the container are now 8080/8443 instead of 80/443.
  • Backwards compatibility is not guaranteed when data is persisted using docker or docker-compose. We highly recommend migrating the WP site by exporting its content, and importing it on a new WordPress container. In the links below you'll find some alternatives:
    • Migrate WordPress using All-in-One WP Migration plugin
    • Migrate WordPress using VaultPress
  • No writing permissions will be granted on wp-config.php by default.

• This image has been adapted so it's easier to customize. See the Customize this image section for more information.
• The Apache configuration volume (/bitnami/apache) has been deprecated, and support for this feature will be dropped in the near future. Until then, the container will enable the Apache configuration from that volume if it exists. By default, and if the configuration volume does not exist, the configuration files will be regenerated each time the container is created. Users wanting to apply custom Apache configuration files are advised to mount a volume for the configuration at /opt/bitnami/apache/conf, or mount specific configuration files individually.
• The PHP configuration volume (/bitnami/php) has been deprecated, and support for this feature will be dropped in the near future. Until then, the container will enable the PHP configuration from that volume if it exists. By default, and if the configuration volume does not exist, the configuration files will be regenerated each time the container is created. Users wanting to apply custom PHP configuration files are advised to mount a volume for the configuration at /opt/bitnami/php/conf, or mount specific configuration files individually.
• Enabling custom Apache certificates by placing them at /opt/bitnami/apache/certs has been deprecated, and support for this functionality will be dropped in the near future. Users wanting to enable custom certificates are advised to mount their certificate files on top of the preconfigured ones at /certs.

• Users reported that they wanted to import their WordPress database from other installations. Now, in order to cover this use case, the variable WORDPRESS_SKIP_INSTALL can be set to avoid the container launch the WordPress installation wizard.

• For performance and security reasons, Apache will set the AllowOverride directive to None by default. This means that, instead of using .htaccess files, all the default directives will be moved to the /opt/bitnami/wordpress/wordpress-htaccess.conf file. The only downside of this is the compatibility with certain plugins, which would require changes in that file (you would need to mount a modified version of wordpress-htaccess.conf compatible with these plugins). If you want to have the default .htaccess behavior, set the WORDPRESS_HTACCESS_OVERRIDE_NONE env var to no.

• wp-cli tool is included in the Docker image. Find it at /opt/bitnami/wp-cli/bin/wp.

We'd love for you to contribute to this container. You can request new features by creating an issue or submitting a pull request with your contribution.

If you encountered a problem running this container, you can file an issue. For us to provide better support, be sure to fill the issue template.

Copyright © 2025 Broadcom. The term "Broadcom" refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.