What is Foodsoft?

Foodsoft is a web-based tool for running non-profit food cooperatives. It handles product listings, member ordering, financial accounting, and task scheduling. Members place orders online and pick them up on set days, while everyone contributes labor. You can self-host it via Docker (recommended) or a manual Ruby on Rails installation, backed by MySQL/MariaDB and Redis. The code is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later and has been developed since 2009.

Should you self-host Foodsoft?

Foodsoft scores 51/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #5 of 11 in Food & Agriculture. It has 359 GitHub stars.

It shipped 1 stable release in the past year. The latest, v4.9.2, came out on 28 June 2026.

Setup is advanced: plan for several services and some ongoing maintenance. An official Docker image is available. It is Other-licensed and written mostly in Ruby.

Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is Open Food Facts (65/100, 1 195 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See Foodsoft vs Open Food Facts side by side.

Features

Accounting
Background job processing
Cron Job Scheduling
Custom Fields
Email notifications
Financial links and double-entry accounting
International bank account numbers (IBAN)
Job Scheduling
Multi-cooperative support
Online ordering
PDF Generation
Product Catalog
Self-service balancing
Wiki and messaging

How to install Foodsoft

Install Foodsoft with Docker

MySQL/MariaDB, Redis

Environment variables

SECRET_KEY_BASE, DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL, RAILS_FORCE_SSL

docker run --name foodsoft_web -p 3000
-e SECRET_KEY_BASE -e DATABASE_URL -e REDIS_URL -e RAILS_FORCE_SSL=false
-v pwd/config/app_config.yml:/usr/src/app/config/app_config.yml:ro
foodsoft:latest

Requires MySQL/MariaDB and Redis instances

Install Foodsoft with Docker Compose

Docker, Docker Compose

Environment variables

DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL, TEST_DATABASE_URL, MAILCATCHER_ADDRESS, MAILCATCHER_PORT

version: '2' services: foodsoft: extends: foodsoft_worker command: ./proc-start web ports: - "3000:3000" foodsoft_worker: build: context: . dockerfile: Dockerfile-dev platform: linux/x86_64 command: ./proc-start worker volumes: - bundle:/usr/local/bundle - .:/app environment: - DATABASE_URL=mysql2://root:secret@mariadb/development?encoding=utf8mb4 - REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379 - TEST_DATABASE_URL=mysql2://root:secret@mariadb/test?encoding=utf8mb4 - DATABASE_CLEANER_ALLOW_REMOTE_DATABASE_URL=true - MAILCATCHER_ADDRESS=mailcatcher - MAILCATCHER_PORT=25 mailcatcher: image: tophfr/mailcatcher ports: - "1080:80" mariadb: image: mariadb:10.5 environment: - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=secret - MYSQL_DATABASE=development volumes: - mariadb:/var/lib/mysql phpmyadmin: image: phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin environment: - PMA_HOST=mariadb - PMA_USER=root - PMA_PASSWORD=secret ports: - "2080:80" redis: image: redis:6.2-alpine volumes: bundle: mariadb:

Development setup with MariaDB, Redis, Mailcatcher, phpMyAdmin

Install Foodsoft with Build from Source

Environment variables

DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL, SECRET_KEY_BASE

git clone https://github.com/foodcoops/foodsoft.git sudo apt install default-libmysqlclient-dev libmagic-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev sudo apt install rbenv eval "$(rbenv init -)" mkdir -p "$(rbenv root)"/plugins git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git "$(rbenv root)"/plugins/ruby-build rbenv install "$(cat .ruby-version)" rbenv exec gem install bundler sudo apt install libv8-dev default-libmysqlclient-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libffi-dev libreadline-dev libmagic-dev rbenv exec bundle install rbenv exec rails foodsoft:setup_development rbenv exec rails s