Self-hosting ConvertX the easy way

Yulei Chen

4 min

ConvertX is a self-hosted file converter that supports over 1,000 formats. It handles images, videos, documents, e-books, 3D files, and more by combining powerful backends like FFmpeg, ImageMagick, LibreOffice, Pandoc, and Calibre. Online converters often have file size limits, watermarks, or privacy concerns. With ConvertX, you own the whole pipeline.

Sliplane lets you deploy ConvertX with one click. No server setup, no reverse proxy configuration, and no infrastructure to maintain. You get a running instance with HTTPS in under a minute.

Prerequisites

Before deploying, ensure you have a Sliplane account (free trial available).

Quick start

Sliplane provides one-click deployment with presets.

Deploy ConvertX >

Click the deploy button above
Select a project
Select a server. If you just signed up you get a 48-hour free trial server
Click Deploy!

About the preset

The one-click deploy above uses Sliplane's ConvertX preset. Here's what it includes:

Image: ghcr.io/c4illin/convertx:v0.17.0
Persistent storage mounted to /app/data for the SQLite database and converted files
Account registration enabled so you can create your first admin account right away
JWT secret auto-generated for secure session handling
Auto-delete set to clean up converted files every 24 hours

Next steps

Once ConvertX is running, open the domain Sliplane provided (e.g. convertx-xxxx.sliplane.app).

Creating your account

ConvertX has no default credentials. The first account you create automatically becomes the admin. Go to the registration page, pick a username and password, and you're in.

After creating your admin account, you can disable registration by setting ACCOUNT_REGISTRATION to false in the service environment variables on Sliplane. This prevents anyone else from signing up.

Environment variables

Here are the key environment variables you can customize in your Sliplane service settings:

Variable	Default	Description
`ACCOUNT_REGISTRATION`	`true`	Allow new users to register
`ALLOW_UNAUTHENTICATED`	`false`	Allow conversions without logging in
`AUTO_DELETE_EVERY_N_HOURS`	`24`	How often to delete converted files
`HTTP_ALLOWED`	`true`	Allow HTTP connections (behind Sliplane's HTTPS proxy)
`JWT_SECRET`	auto-generated	Secret used for session tokens

Converting files

Upload one or more files, select the target format, and click convert. ConvertX runs the conversion on the server and gives you a download link. Batch conversions are supported, so you can drop multiple files at once.

Logging

ConvertX logs to STDOUT by default, which works perfectly with Sliplane's built-in log viewer. If something goes wrong during a conversion, check the logs in your Sliplane dashboard. For general tips on reading container logs, see our post on how to use Docker logs.

Cost comparison

Of course you can also self-host ConvertX with other cloud providers. Here is a pricing comparison for the most common ones:

Provider	vCPU	RAM	Disk	Monthly Cost	Note
Sliplane	2	2 GB	40 GB	€9 (~$10.65)	Flat rate, 1 TB bandwidth, SSL included
Fly.io	2	2 GB	40 GB	~$18	Disk and bandwidth billed separately
Render	1	2 GB	40 GB	~$35	100 GB bandwidth, Disk billed separately
Railway	2	2 GB	40 GB	~$67 + $20 plan	Pro plan floor, usage-based, bandwidth billed separately

Click here to see how these numbers were calculated.

(Assuming an always-on instance running 730 hrs/month)

Sliplane: flat €9/month for the Base server. Unlimited services on the same server, 1 TB egress and SSL included.
Fly.io: shared-cpu-2x 2 GB = $11.83/mo + 40 GB volume × $0.15/GB = $6 -> ~$17.83/mo. Egress billed separately ($0.02/GB in EU).
Render: closest match is Standard ($25, 1 vCPU / 2 GB) plus 40 GB disk × $0.25/GB = $10 -> ~$35/mo. Stepping up to Pro (2 vCPU / 4 GB) costs $85/mo + disk.
Railway (Pro plan): CPU 2 × $0.00000772/s × 2,628,000 s = $40.57; RAM 2 × $0.00000386/s × 2,628,000 s = $20.29; volume 40 × $0.00000006/s × 2,628,000 s = $6.31 -> ~$67/mo compute, plus the $20/mo Pro plan floor and $0.05/GB egress.

Bandwidth costs can add up fast on usage-based providers. Use our bandwidth cost comparison tool to see what your egress would cost on each platform.

FAQ

What file formats does ConvertX support?

ConvertX supports over 1,000 formats across images, video, audio, documents, e-books, and 3D files. It bundles converters like FFmpeg, ImageMagick, LibreOffice, Pandoc, Calibre, Inkscape, and more. Check the full format list on GitHub for details.

Yes. Set the ALLOW_UNAUTHENTICATED environment variable to true in your Sliplane service settings. This lets anyone with the URL convert files without creating an account. Keep in mind this means anyone can use your server resources for conversions.