GlintPost 🌟

The open-source, self-hostable product marketing platform.

Embeddable widgets for Changelogs, Roadmaps, and Feedback that drop into your site in minutes — so your users actually find out about all the stuff you shipped at 2am.

A free, self-hosted alternative to Canny, Beamer, Sleekplan, and Frill — no per-seat pricing, no vendor lock-in, your data on your own server.

🌐 glintpost.com · 📚 Docs · ⚖️ Compare · 🐳 Self-host in one command

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⚡ TL;DR

git clone https://github.com/mvsssharma/glintpost.git && cd glintpost
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d --build   # app + Postgres + local storage, zero external accounts
# → open http://localhost:3000

That's the entire setup. No cloud account, no "book a demo", no per-seat invoice.

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🤔 Why does this exist?

You spent three weeks building a feature. You shipped it. And then… crickets. 🦗 Nobody noticed. Support is still fielding "hey, can you build X?" tickets for the X you launched last month.

The usual fix is bolting on Yet Another Tool — a separate changelog site, a separate roadmap portal, a separate feedback box — each with its own login, its own subdomain, and its own monthly invoice. Congratulations, you now run a small SaaS zoo. 🦒

GlintPost is the boring-in-a-good-way alternative: one lightweight layer for changelogs, roadmaps, and feedback that embeds straight into your product, plugs into your existing data stack (GTM, datalayer) instead of starting a new silo, and doesn't make your users go somewhere else to hear what's new. Ship it, announce it, watch people vote on what's next. That's the whole pitch.

And since it's open source, you can run the entire thing on your own box with a single docker compose up — no per-seat pricing, no "book a demo," no cloud account required. Your data, your server, your rules.

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🚀 Features

• Changelog Widget: Rich-text "look what we shipped" posts your users see without leaving your app.
• Interactive Roadmaps: Let people suggest and upvote features — free product prioritization, courtesy of the folks who actually use the thing.
• Feedback Collection: Context-rich feedback captured right where the frustration happens.
• Multi-Tenant: Run many products or clients from one dashboard. Great for founders, agencies, and serial side-project offenders.
• Modern Stack: Next.js + Prisma + Postgres. Fast, typed, and unsurprising.
• Frictionless Self-Hosting: One command, zero external accounts to get started. Bring your own DB and storage whenever you're ready.

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⚖️ How GlintPost compares

Most changelog/roadmap/feedback tools are closed-source SaaS that charge per seat and keep your users' data on their servers. GlintPost bundles all three surfaces into one self-hostable app.

	GlintPost	Canny	Beamer	Sleekplan	Frill
Open source (MIT)	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Self-host your data	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Free forever tier	✅ (self-host)	Limited	Limited	Limited	Limited
Per-seat pricing	❌ None	✅	✅	✅	✅
Changelog	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Roadmap + voting	✅	✅	➖	✅	✅
Feedback / surveys	✅	✅	➖	✅	✅
In-app embeddable widgets	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Multi-tenant (many products)	✅	➖	➖	➖	➖
Headless REST API	✅	➖	➖	➖	➖

Full side-by-side breakdowns: glintpost.com/vs — vs Canny · vs Beamer · vs Sleekplan · vs Frill

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🐳 Quick Start (Self-Hosting via Docker)

The easiest way to run GlintPost locally or on your own server is using Docker.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/mvsssharma/glintpost.git
   cd glintpost
   

2. Create your environment variables:

   cp .env.example .env
   # For self-hosting, keep ENABLE_BILLING=false in .env and set APP_URL to your public URL
   

3. Start the stack (Next.js app + PostgreSQL database):

   docker compose up -d --build
   

4. Access the dashboard at http://localhost:3000.

(Note: Database migrations run automatically on startup!)

The bundled docker-compose.yml runs everything you need — the app, a PostgreSQL database, and local file storage for image uploads — with no external accounts required. Everything below is optional and only needed if you want to plug in your own managed services.

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⚙️ Configuration

All configuration is done through environment variables (see .env.example). GlintPost is designed so a single build can be pointed at any environment — all deployment-specific values are read at runtime, so you never need to rebuild the image to change a URL, flag, or credential.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Description
DATABASE_URL	✅	PostgreSQL connection string.
DIRECT_DATABASE_URL	⚠️	Direct (non-pooled) connection, used only for migrations. Required if DATABASE_URL points at a connection pooler (e.g. Supabase pgBouncer, Neon pooled). Falls back to DATABASE_URL if unset.
AUTH_SECRET	✅	Secret for signing sessions & encrypting tokens. Generate with openssl rand -base64 32.
AUTH_URL	✅	Public base URL used by the auth layer, e.g. https://updates.yourcompany.com.
APP_URL	✅	Public base URL of the app. Used for email links and embed snippets. Usually the same as AUTH_URL.
STORAGE_DRIVER	–	local (default when no S3 is set) stores uploads on disk; s3 uses an object store.
UPLOAD_DIR	–	Directory for the local storage driver. Defaults to ./data/uploads (a mounted volume in Docker).
S3_ENDPOINT, S3_BUCKET, S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID, S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, S3_PUBLIC_URL	–	Object storage config — only when STORAGE_DRIVER=s3. Works with Cloudflare R2, AWS S3, MinIO, Backblaze B2, etc.
RESEND_API_KEY	–	Email provider (Resend). If omitted, verification/reset links are printed to the server console.
ENABLE_BILLING	–	false hides billing (recommended for self-hosting). Defaults to enabled.
REQUIRE_EMAIL_VERIFICATION	–	true forces email verification before login. Defaults to false (frictionless self-host).
LOG_LEVEL	–	Pino log level. Defaults to info.

📧 Email

By default the Docker setup uses REQUIRE_EMAIL_VERIFICATION=false — a frictionless, instant setup where email verification is bypassed entirely. No email provider needed to get started.

If you forget your password and haven't configured a RESEND_API_KEY, just trigger a password reset and check the server console (docker compose logs web) to grab your secure reset link.

To send real emails, sign up for Resend, verify your sending domain, and set RESEND_API_KEY.

🗄️ Use your own database (managed Postgres)

The bundled docker-compose.yml starts a Postgres container for you. To use an external managed database instead (Supabase, Neon, RDS, Railway, your own server, etc.):

1. Point the app at your database in .env (or the compose environment: block):

   DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@your-db-host:5432/glintpost
   # If your provider uses a connection pooler, also set the DIRECT (non-pooled) URL —
   # migrations cannot run over a pooler:
   DIRECT_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@your-db-host:5432/glintpost
   

2. Remove the bundled database so it doesn't also start. In docker-compose.yml, delete (or comment out) the db: service, the depends_on: block under web, and the postgres_data volume.
3. Start just the app:

   docker compose up -d --build web
   

Migrations run automatically on startup (prisma migrate deploy via the entrypoint), so a fresh database is initialized for you — no manual step required.

🖼️ Use your own object storage (S3 / Cloudflare R2)

By default, image uploads are stored on a local Docker volume (uploads_data) and served by the app — no cloud account needed. This is great for most self-hosters.

If you'd rather offload images to an external, CDN-backed object store (recommended once you have many images or multiple app instances), switch to the s3 driver. It works with any S3-compatible provider — Cloudflare R2, AWS S3, MinIO, Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces.

Cloudflare R2 example:

1. Create an R2 bucket in the Cloudflare dashboard (e.g. glintpost-uploads).
2. Enable public access — turn on the bucket's public r2.dev URL, or attach a custom domain (e.g. cdn.yourcompany.com). That URL becomes S3_PUBLIC_URL.
3. Create an R2 API token with Object Read & Write and copy the Access Key ID + Secret.
4. Set these in .env (or the compose environment: block) and remove STORAGE_DRIVER=local:

   STORAGE_DRIVER=s3
   S3_ENDPOINT=https://<ACCOUNT_ID>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
   S3_BUCKET=glintpost-uploads
   S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<your-access-key-id>
   S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<your-secret-access-key>
   S3_PUBLIC_URL=https://cdn.yourcompany.com   # or the pub-xxxx.r2.dev URL
   

5. (Optional) Drop the uploads_data volume from docker-compose.yml since it's no longer used.

AWS S3 note: S3_ENDPOINT is https://s3.<region>.amazonaws.com, and the bucket needs a policy allowing public s3:GetObject (R2 handles public access at the bucket level instead). No bucket CORS config is required — uploads happen server-side and images load via plain <img> tags.

🔒 Production checklist

• Generate a real AUTH_SECRET (openssl rand -base64 32) — never ship the quickstart default.
• Set APP_URL and AUTH_URL to your real https:// domain.
• Behind a reverse proxy? Set AUTH_TRUST_HOST=true and forward X-Forwarded-* headers.
• Change the default Postgres credentials in docker-compose.yml (or use an external database).
• Set ENABLE_BILLING=false unless you've configured Razorpay.

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💻 Local Development

If you want to contribute or run the app manually using Node.js:

1. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

2. Setup your environment: Create a .env file from .env.example and ensure DATABASE_URL points to a valid PostgreSQL instance.
3. Apply database migrations:

   npx prisma migrate deploy   # Creates the schema (use `migrate dev` if you're changing it)
   

4. Start the dev server:

   npm run dev        # Starts server at http://localhost:3000
   

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📚 Documentation

For deep dives into our product decisions, architecture, and roadmap, check out the constitution/ directory:

• mission.md — Problem statement, target audience, and product strategy.
• architecture.md — Tech stack, directory structure, and database models.
• roadmap.md — Live features, planned features, and delivery phases.

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🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please check out the issues tab or submit a pull request.

📄 License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.