Docker Compose for Symfony + MariaDB + Mailpit
Symfony is a mature PHP framework built for performance and reliability. Its component architecture powers many major projects including Drupal and Shopware, making it a common choice for APIs, e-commerce platforms, and complex business applications.
MariaDB 11 is a high-performance, MySQL-compatible database developed by the original MySQL authors. It offers additional storage engines and an improved query optimizer, and is a popular drop-in replacement in European production environments.
When should you use this stack?
Symfony with MariaDB is a solid default for local development when your production environment matches it. If you're evaluating alternatives, the related configurations below swap one piece at a time — same framework with a different database, or the same data layer under a different framework — so you can compare without starting from scratch.
docker compose up -d
http://localhost:8080
http://localhost:8025
compose.yml
services:
nginx:
image: nginx:latest
ports:
- "${WEB_PORT-8080}:80"
volumes:
- .:/var/www/html
- ./docker/nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf:ro
depends_on:
- php
php:
image: php:8.5-fpm
volumes:
- .:/var/www/html
mariadb:
image: mariadb:11
environment:
MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD-root}
MARIADB_DATABASE: ${MARIADB_DATABASE-app}
MARIADB_USER: ${MARIADB_USER-app}
MARIADB_PASSWORD: ${MARIADB_PASSWORD-secret}
ports:
- "${MARIADB_PORT-3306}:3306"
volumes:
- mariadb_data:/var/lib/mysql
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "mariadb-admin", "ping", "-h", "localhost"]
interval: 10s
timeout: 5s
retries: 5
mailpit:
image: axllent/mailpit
ports:
- "${MAILPIT_SMTP_PORT-1025}:1025"
- "${MAILPIT_UI_PORT-8025}:8025"
volumes:
mariadb_data:
docker/nginx/default.conf
Run mkdir -p docker/nginx first
server {
listen 80;
server_name localhost;
root /var/www/html/public;
index index.php index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri /index.php$is_args$args;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass php:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
}
.env.example
Optional — Compose uses ${VAR-default} fallbacks
WEB_PORT=8080 MARIADB_PORT=3306 MARIADB_DATABASE=app MARIADB_USER=app MARIADB_PASSWORD=secret MAILPIT_SMTP_PORT=1025 MAILPIT_UI_PORT=8025