Deploy WordPress on Oracle Cloud's free tier

At a glance

Running WordPress on Ampere ARM

Both the WordPress and MariaDB images are multi-arch. A 2 OCPU / 12 GB Ampere instance running PHP 8.3 with OPcache outperforms most entry-level shared hosting.

Steps

1. Run WordPress and the database as separate containers. It keeps upgrades and backups independent.
2. Put Caddy in front. Caddy terminates TLS and forwards to the WordPress container on the private port.
3. Back up both volumes. The uploads directory and the SQL dump are both needed for a real restore.

Dockerfile for WordPress on ARM64

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  wordpress:
    image: wordpress:php8.3-apache
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db
      WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wp
      WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: wp
    volumes:
      - wpdata:/var/www/html
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8080:80"
  db:
    image: mariadb:11
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MARIADB_DATABASE: wp
      MARIADB_USER: wp
      MARIADB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${DB_ROOT_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - dbdata:/var/lib/mysql
volumes:
  wpdata:
  dbdata:

Need one tailored to your repository? The free Dockerfile generator writes an ARM-ready multi-stage build for you.

Common mistakes

• Site URL locked to an IP: Set WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL to your domain before you start linking pages.
• Upload size limits: PHP defaults cap uploads at 2 MB; raise upload_max_filesize and post_max_size.
• Forgetting updates: Self-hosting means core, theme and plugin updates are your responsibility.

Related reading

• /guides/self-host-docker
• /tools/cloud-cost-calculator
• /compare/oracle-vs-aws-free-tier
• All deployment guides