This article provides a guide for how to run self-hosted Link-in-Bio tool with LinkStack on AlmaLinux VPS.

Table of Contents

🛠️ How to Run Self-Hosted Link-in-Bio Tool with LinkStack on AlmaLinux VPS

This guide walks you through installing and running LinkStack, a free and open-source alternative to Linktree, on an AlmaLinux VPS.

What is LinkStack?

🔗 LinkStack is a self-hosted, open-source link sharing platform that allows users to create a personalized landing page containing a list of links—commonly used for social media bios, portfolios, or contact hubs. It’s akin to platforms like Linktree, but with the flexibility of being hosted on your own server-under your control and customized to your specific project needs!

🔍 Key Features of LinkStack:

Self-Hosting: Deploy it on your own server (e.g., Apache or Nginx with PHP support).
Customization: Modify the look and feel to match your branding.
No Limits: Unlike many freemium SaaS alternatives, you control everything—no paywalls.
Responsive UI: Mobile-friendly and adaptable for various screen sizes.
Analytics: Basic tracking of link clicks (depending on the version/fork).

🛠️ Technical Requirements:

A web server (Apache, Nginx, etc.)
PHP 7.4+
MySQL/MariaDB database
Optionally, tools like Composer for dependency management

💡 Typical Use Case:

Imagine you’re a developer, artist, or influencer—you’d use LinkStack to create a page like:

yourdomain.com/links

Where you’d list:

Instagram
GitHub
Resume PDF
Portfolio Website
Contact Email

All neatly organized on one page.

🧾 Prerequisites

Before we start, make sure you have:

A VPS running on AlmaLinux 8 or AlmaLinux 9
A non-root user with sudo privileges (See Guide: How to Create Sudo User in RHEL)
A fully-qualified domain name (Cheap domain registration👉Register a Domain)
Basic knowledge of SSH and Linux terminal

How to Run Self-Hosted Link-in-Bio Tool with LinkStack on Your AlmaLinux VPS

To run self-hosted Link-in-Bio tool with LinkStack on AlmaLinux VPS, follow the steps provided below:

Connect to Your VPS

Open your terminal and connect to the VPS via SSH.
```
ssh your_user@your_server_ip
```
Update your system:
```
sudo dnf update -y
```

Install Required Packages

Install Apache, PHP, and MariaDB (LAMP stack).

dnf install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
dnf -y install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm
dnf -y install yum-utils
dnf module reset php -y
dnf module install php:remi-8.2 -y
dnf update -y
sudo dnf install -y httpd mariadb-server php php-mysqlnd php-zip php-bcmath php-pdo php-json php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-cli unzip git

Start and enable Apache:

sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd

Start and enable MariaDB:

sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb

Secure the Database Server

Run the MariaDB secure installation script:
```
sudo mysql_secure_installation
```
- Press Enter for current root password (leave blank).
- Set a root password.
- Answer Y to all prompts (remove anonymous users, disallow root remote login, remove test DB, reload privileges).

Create LinkStack Database and User

Log into MariaDB:

sudo mysql -u root -p

Inside the MySQL prompt:

CREATE DATABASE linkstack;
CREATE USER 'linkuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_secure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON linkstack.* TO 'linkuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Replace your_secure_password with something secure.

Download and Set Up LinkStack

Change to the Apache web directory:

cd /var/www/html

Remove the default index page (optional):

sudo rm -f index.html

Clone the LinkStack repo:

sudo git clone https://github.com/LinkStackOrg/LinkStack.git

Move into the LinkStack directory:

cd LinkStack

Set correct permissions:

sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/LinkStack
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/LinkStack

Configure Apache for LinkStack

Create a new Apache config file:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/linkstack.conf

Paste this configuration (replace yourdomain.com):

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/LinkStack
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    ServerAlias www.yourdomain.com

    <Directory /var/www/html/LinkStack>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/linkstack_error.log
    CustomLog /var/log/httpd/linkstack_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Save and exit (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X).

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Enable `.htaccess` Support

Edit Apache main config file:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Find this block:

<Directory "/var/www">
    AllowOverride None

Change it to:

<Directory "/var/www">
    AllowOverride All

Save and exit. Then restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Set Up LinkStack Environment

Rename the example environment file:

cp .env.example .env

Edit the .env file:

nano .env

Update the DB settings:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=linkstack
DB_USERNAME=linkuser
DB_PASSWORD=your_secure_password

Save and exit.

Install Composer and Dependencies

Install Composer:

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php composer-setup.php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Now install PHP dependencies:

composer install --no-dev

Set App Key and Run Migrations

Generate app key:

php artisan key:generate

Run database migrations:

php artisan migrate --force

Set permissions again:

sudo chown -R apache:apache .
sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

Access LinkStack Web Interface

Now visit your server IP or domain in a browser:
```
http://yourdomain.com
```
You’ll see the LinkStack welcome screen. Create an admin user and start building your bio page.

Set Up Cron for Laravel

Add a cron job to run Laravel’s scheduler:

sudo crontab -e

Add this line:

* * * * * cd /var/www/html/LinkStack && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Save and exit.

🎉 Done!

You now have a self-hosted, customizable Link-in-Bio tool running on AlmaLinux with LinkStack.

📌 Tips

Backup .env and database regularly.
Check logs: storage/logs/laravel.log
Customize themes and settings in the admin panel.

Next, we need to encrypt LinkStack’s web server with SSL encryption! (Can’t have your Links page scaring people away with browser warning! ⛔😱)

🔐 Step-by-Step: Install SSL with Certbot on AlmaLinux + Apache

This will give your LinkStack site a free HTTPS certificate from Let’s Encrypt and keep it automatically renewed.

Install EPEL Repository and Certbot

sudo dnf install -y epel-release

Then install Certbot and the Apache plugin:

sudo dnf install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache

Request the SSL Certificate

Make sure your Apache virtual host is correctly configured for your domain (ServerName and ServerAlias match the DNS records).

Then run:
```
sudo certbot --apache
```
You’ll be prompted to:
- Enter your email
- Agree to the terms
- Choose whether to redirect HTTP to HTTPS (select option 2 for redirect)
Certbot will automatically configure Apache for HTTPS and reload it.
Confirm HTTPS is WorkingOpen your browser and go to:
```
https://yourdomain.com
```
You should see the secure padlock 🔒 and your LinkStack site loading over HTTPS.

Enable Automatic Renewal

Certbot already installs a systemd timer to auto-renew your certificates.

To verify:

sudo systemctl list-timers | grep certbot

You should see something like:

NEXT                         LEFT          LAST                         PASSED       UNIT                         ACTIVATES
2025-04-21 03:22:00 UTC      11h left      2025-04-20 03:22:00 UTC      1h ago       certbot.timer                certbot.service

This means it checks twice a day and renews if necessary.

Test Renewal

Always good to test manually:
```
sudo certbot renew --dry-run
```
If you see “Congratulations, all renewals succeeded,” you’re good to go.

🎉 That’s It — SSL is Live and Auto-Renewing

Your LinkStack site is now:

✅ Secure with HTTPS
🔁 Set up for auto-renewal
🔧 Fully configured via Certbot and Apache

And, finally, we will apply some minor redirection to synchronize the www subdomain to non-www. This ensures a more consistent experience for humans and robots, alike.

Let’s get started:

🔁 Step-by-Step: Redirect `www` to Non-`www` with Apache + SSL

Edit Apache Config

Open your LinkStack Apache config:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/linkstack.conf

Replace whatever’s there with the following clean structure:

# Redirect www to non-www
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.yourdomain.com
    Redirect permanent / http://yourdomain.com/
</VirtualHost>

# Main non-www config for HTTP
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/LinkStack

    <Directory /var/www/html/LinkStack>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

# Redirect HTTPS www to non-www
<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName www.yourdomain.com
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem
    Redirect permanent / https://yourdomain.com/
</VirtualHost>

# Main non-www config for HTTPS
<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/LinkStack

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem

    <Directory /var/www/html/LinkStack>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

⚠ Replace yourdomain.com everywhere with your actual domain name.

Reload Apache

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Test the Redirect

Open your browser and go to:

https://www.yourdomain.com

It should redirect you to:

https://yourdomain.com

Done ✅

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Conclusion

You now know how to run self-hosted Link-in-Bio tool with LinkStack on AlmaLinux VPS.

Add as Preferred Source on Google

🛠️ How to Run Self-Hosted Link-in-Bio Tool with LinkStack on AlmaLinux VPS

What is LinkStack?

🔍 Key Features of LinkStack:

🛠️ Technical Requirements:

💡 Typical Use Case:

🧾 Prerequisites

How to Run Self-Hosted Link-in-Bio Tool with LinkStack on Your AlmaLinux VPS

Connect to Your VPS

Install Required Packages

Secure the Database Server

Create LinkStack Database and User

Download and Set Up LinkStack

Configure Apache for LinkStack

Enable .htaccess Support

Set Up LinkStack Environment

Install Composer and Dependencies

Set App Key and Run Migrations

Access LinkStack Web Interface

Set Up Cron for Laravel

🎉 Done!

📌 Tips

🔐 Step-by-Step: Install SSL with Certbot on AlmaLinux + Apache

Install EPEL Repository and Certbot

Request the SSL Certificate

Confirm HTTPS is WorkingOpen your browser and go to:

Enable Automatic Renewal

Test Renewal

🎉 That’s It — SSL is Live and Auto-Renewing

🔁 Step-by-Step: Redirect www to Non-www with Apache + SSL

Edit Apache Config

Reload Apache

Test the Redirect

Conclusion

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🔁 Step-by-Step: Redirect `www` to Non-`www` with Apache + SSL