How To Install Plone CMS on Ubuntu 18.04

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Plone 6.2 with Docker

Ubuntu 18.04 is end of life. Plone is a mature open-source CMS written in Python, known for its security and fine-grained permissions. The current version is Plone 6.2. The simplest way to run it is the official Docker image.

Install Docker Engine (official repository)

Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12:

apt install ca-certificates curl
install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")
Components: stable
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF
apt update
apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

On Debian, use https://download.docker.com/linux/debian in both the key URL and URIs.

AlmaLinux 9 / Rocky Linux 9:

dnf install dnf-plugins-core
dnf config-manager --add-repo https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/docker-ce.repo
dnf install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
systemctl enable --now docker

Test with docker run hello-world. Compose is available as docker compose.

Run Plone (Classic UI)

docker volume create plone-data
docker run -d --name plone --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 -e SITE=Plone \
  -v plone-data:/data plone/plone-classicui:6.2

Open it through an SSH tunnel (ssh -L 8080:127.0.0.1:8080 root@SERVER-IP, then http://localhost:8080/Plone) or put Nginx with HTTPS in front of port 8080 for public access. Log in with the admin account described in the image's documentation and change its password.

Other ways

• Plone 6 also has a React front end (Volto), installed with the cookieplone project generator; it is aimed at developers.
• A pip-based installation in a Python 3.10+ virtual environment is possible; see the Plone documentation.