nopCommerce Hosting: Requirements and Setup for 5.0 on IIS, Linux and Docker

Most pages about nopCommerce hosting are hosting companies selling plans. This one isn’t: it covers what nopCommerce 5.00 needs from a server, how to choose a host, and how to set it up on IIS, Linux and Docker, with the requirements taken from the 5.00 source code.

nopCommerce system requirements

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The 10.0.12 minimum comes from the ASP.NET Core packages nopCommerce 5.00 is built with. A server with an earlier .NET 10 runtime may start the site and then fail, so update the runtime first. .NET 9 and .NET 10 can be installed side by side, which lets one server run a 4.90 store and a 5.00 staging copy.

Which kind of hosting to use

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How to choose a nopCommerce host

• Supports .NET 10 today (ASP.NET Core Runtime 10.0.12 or later), not “coming soon”
• Lets you set the IIS application pool to always running, or keep the process alive on Linux
• Gives the site write access to the folders listed below
• Offers SQL Server Standard, or MySQL or PostgreSQL, sized for your catalog; SQL Server Express is capped at 10 GB per database
• Has daily backups of both files and database, with restores you can test
• Has servers near your customers, or works with a CDN
• Gives you SSL certificates, ideally free automatic ones

nopCommerce also lists hosting partners on its website. Any host that meets the list above works; a partner label doesn’t replace checking it.

Hosting nopCommerce on Windows and IIS

1. 1Install the .NET 10 Hosting Bundle from Microsoft (it includes the ASP.NET Core Runtime and the IIS module), then run iisreset.
2. 2Create a site and an application pool with .NET CLR version: No Managed Code. nopCommerce runs in-process inside the pool.
3. 3In the pool’s advanced settings set Start Mode to AlwaysRunning and Idle Time-out to 0, and on the site set Preload Enabled to True. Without this, IIS stops the site when it’s quiet and scheduled tasks, such as sending queued emails, stop with it.
4. 4Copy the release files, give the pool’s identity (IIS AppPool\YourPool) modify rights on the folders listed below, and bind HTTPS with your certificate.
5. 5Open the site to run the installation wizard, or for an upgrade, keep your App_Data settings files as described in the upgrade guide.

The web.config that ships with nopCommerce already removes WebDAV (which blocks some admin requests) and adds security headers. Keep it when you deploy, and merge your own changes into it.

Hosting nopCommerce on Linux behind nginx

On Linux, nopCommerce runs as a .NET process and nginx (or Apache) handles HTTPS in front of it:

1. 1Install the ASP.NET Core Runtime 10.0.12 or later and the ICU libraries for globalization, and install libgdiplus if you use features that render images or PDFs.
2. 2Copy the published files and run them as a systemd service with dotnet Nop.Web.dll, listening on a local port such as 5000, with automatic restart.
3. 3Configure nginx to proxy to that port and pass the X-Forwarded-Proto and X-Forwarded-For headers.
4. 4In nopCommerce’s App Settings (Configuration → Settings → App settings, or App_Data/appsettings.json), turn on UseProxy and set the forwarded header names and the proxy address in KnownProxies.

"HostingConfig": {
  "UseProxy": true,
  "ForwardedProtoHeaderName": "X-Forwarded-Proto",
  "ForwardedForHeaderName": "X-Forwarded-For",
  "KnownProxies": "127.0.0.1",
  "KnownNetworks": ""
}

Without UseProxy, nopCommerce thinks every request is plain HTTP, which causes redirect loops when SSL is enforced, and records the proxy’s IP address for every customer. Linux file names are case-sensitive, so test plugins that load files by name.

Running nopCommerce in Docker

The nopCommerce repository has a Dockerfile that builds the source with the .NET 10 SDK and runs it on Microsoft’s aspnet:10.0-alpine image on port 80, and three compose files: one with SQL Server, one with MySQL and one with PostgreSQL. From the repository root:

docker compose up -d
# or: docker compose -f postgresql-docker-compose.yml up -d

The compose files are for trying nopCommerce. For production, change the sample database password, put the database on a managed service or its own volume, and mount volumes for App_Data, Plugins and wwwroot/images. Otherwise settings, uploaded plugins and product pictures disappear when the container is recreated.

Folders nopCommerce must be able to write to

The official Dockerfile grants write access to exactly these folders. Use the same list for the IIS application pool identity or the Linux service user:

• App_Data and App_Data/DataProtectionKeys
• Plugins
• bin and logs
• wwwroot/bundles
• wwwroot/db_backups
• wwwroot/files/exportimport
• wwwroot/icons
• wwwroot/images, images/thumbs and images/uploaded
• wwwroot/sitemaps

Giving write access to the whole site is simpler, but it lets a compromised site change its own code.

Running nopCommerce on more than one server

A load-balanced store needs three things shared between instances:

• Cache: turn on the distributed cache in App Settings. nopCommerce 5.00 supports Redis, Redis with synchronised in-memory cache, and SQL Server. It’s off by default; see our caching and Redis guide.
• Data protection keys: by default they are files in App_Data/DataProtectionKeys. Every instance needs the same keys, or customers are signed out and forms fail when a request moves between servers.
• Files: product pictures and uploaded files must be on shared storage. The bundled Azure Blob storage plugin moves pictures to Azure.

Scheduled tasks run on every instance by default; check that tasks which must run once, such as sending emails, behave correctly. Before adding servers, measure: a single well-tuned server handles a lot. Our performance optimisation service starts with that measurement. A database swollen by logs and guest records slows every server, so clean up an oversized database before sizing up.

Common nopCommerce startup errors

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If the site runs but emails or other background jobs don’t, read scheduled tasks not running and store URL and HTTPS settings.

Frequently asked questions

Next steps

Moving a store to .NET 10 for nopCommerce 5.00, or out of shared hosting? Send us your current host, database and traffic, and we will suggest a setup and handle the move.