Deploying Docker Compose Applications to AWS EC2: Step-by-Step Guide

You’ve built and tested your Docker Compose app locally — now it’s time to go live!

In this guide, I’ll walk you through deploying a multi-container application using Docker Compose on an AWS EC2 instance. This setup is perfect for staging, testing, or lightweight production environments.

🌐 Why Deploy to EC2?

✅ Full control over environment
✅ Cost-effective and scalable
✅ Great for Dockerized apps and DevOps testing
✅ Useful for MVPs, personal projects, and client demos

🧰 Prerequisites

AWS account
Docker + Docker Compose installed locally
A working docker-compose.yml file
A Linux EC2 instance (Ubuntu recommended)
SSH access to EC2 (.pem key)

✅ Step 1: Launch EC2 Instance

Go to the AWS Console → EC2 → Launch Instance
Choose Ubuntu Server 22.04
Select t2.micro (Free Tier eligible)
Configure your Key Pair and download the .pem file
Under Security Group, allow ports 22 (SSH), 80, and 443

✅ Step 2: SSH into the EC2 Instance

chmod 400 your-key.pem
ssh -i "your-key.pem" ubuntu@your-ec2-public-ip

✅ Step 3: Install Docker and Docker Compose

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker.io docker-compose
sudo usermod -aG docker ubuntu

Reboot or log out and log back in to apply group permissions.

✅ Step 4: Upload Your App Files

Option 1: Upload via SCP

scp -i your-key.pem -r /local/project/path ubuntu@your-ec2-ip:/home/ubuntu/app

Option 2: Clone from GitHub

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo.git

🧾 Sample Docker Compose File

If you don’t have a Compose setup yet, here’s a working example of a Flask + PostgreSQL stack.

📁 Directory structure:

app/
├── docker-compose.yml
└── web/
    ├── app.py
    ├── requirements.txt
    └── Dockerfile

📄 docker-compose.yml

version: '3.8'

services:
  web:
    build: ./web
    container_name: flask_app
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=postgres://postgres:postgres@db:5432/mydb
    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    image: postgres:14
    container_name: postgres_db
    restart: always
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: postgres
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
      POSTGRES_DB: mydb
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  pgdata:

📄 web/Dockerfile

FROM python:3.10-slim

WORKDIR /app

COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt

COPY . .

CMD ["python", "app.py"]

📄 web/requirements.txt

Flask
psycopg2-binary

✅ Step 5: Run Docker Compose on EC2

Navigate to your project directory:

cd app/
docker compose up -d

Check running containers:

docker compose ps

If all goes well, your app should be live at:

http://<your-ec2-public-ip>:5000

Make sure port 5000 is allowed in your EC2 security group.

🧪 Verify the Deployment

Open a browser and enter your EC2 instance’s public IP with the exposed port (e.g., :5000). You should see your app running.

You can also view logs:

docker compose logs -f

🛡️ Bonus: Add a Domain and SSL (Next Blog Teaser)

Want to serve your app on a domain with HTTPS?
In the next blog, I’ll cover:

Mapping a domain to EC2
Installing Let’s Encrypt SSL with Nginx
Reverse proxying to your container app

✅ Conclusion

Deploying Docker Compose apps on EC2 gives you a fast, flexible way to go live. It’s an essential skill for any DevOps engineer building or testing full-stack containerized applications.