What is Doory?
Doory is a browser-based visual design editor for posters, social posts, stories, presentations, invitations, resumes, thumbnails and business cards. Users can start from a template or a blank canvas, arrange text and visual elements in layers, build multi-page documents and export the result without installing a desktop application.
Read the full overview
Guest work is stored in the browser, so a visitor can begin without creating an account. Registration adds server-backed designs, sharing, comments, version history and brand kits; the project says guest designs move into the account during sign-up. A self-hosted operator controls the application, PostgreSQL database and uploaded media, with optional S3-compatible storage.
The editor uses React, TypeScript, Fabric.js, Zustand and Yjs in the browser. Django, Django REST Framework, Channels and PostgreSQL provide accounts, content, API operations and real-time collaboration. The supported Compose stack also includes nginx, a separate WebSocket service and optional Redis when several real-time workers must share rooms.
Doory is a very young project. The repository was created on October 10, 2026 and had no published GitHub release or tag when this profile was checked four days later. Its feature surface is broad, but teams should treat the current main branch as early software, pin a reviewed commit and prove their own backup, upgrade and browser-compatibility procedures before depending on it.
Self-hosted browser design editor with templates, collaboration and video export
Key capabilities
- Layered browser editorEdit text, shapes, lines, photos, SVG graphics, stickers and QR codes with grouping, locking, hiding, ordering, masks, filters, alignment guides, snapping, rulers and multiple pages of different sizes.
- Templates and visual assetsSeed ten editable starter templates and download a catalog of roughly 25,000 icons, emoji and illustrations. Operators choose which fonts, element packs and models to add to a new installation.
- Animation and soundApply 27 entrance or exit animations, 12 emphasis effects and 16 page transitions on a timeline, then add uploaded audio, voiceover, fades or the bundled library of 24 music loops and 88 sound effects.
- Image, print and video exportsProduce PNG, JPG, SVG, PDF, MP4, WebM or animated GIF files in the browser. Print-ready PDF adds bleed and crop marks; optional server-side PDF rendering requires Chromium in the API environment.
- Presentation workflowRun a design as a presentation with speaker notes, timing, automatic page advance, a laser pointer and a second presenter window instead of exporting every deck to a separate tool.
- Sharing and co-editingCreate view, comment or edit links, optionally protect them with a password, pin comments to the design, retain version history and collaborate through Yjs-based live cursors and WebSockets.
- Brand and media toolsKeep colors, fonts and logos in reusable brand kits, search Unsplash or Pexels with operator-supplied API keys, upload custom fonts and remove image backgrounds with a U²-Net model running in the browser.
- Self-hosted application stackStart PostgreSQL, the Django API, the real-time service and nginx with Docker Compose, or follow the documented Debian and Ubuntu deployment using systemd. Store uploads in a local volume or an S3-compatible service.
Where Doory fits
Social, marketing and print design
Create campaign graphics, event posters, invitations, thumbnails, resumes and business cards in a common editor. Magic resize and multi-page support help adapt a visual system to several formats, but generated variants still need manual review for crop, text overflow, font substitution, print margins and accessibility.
Team presentations and brand assets
Build slides, save speaker notes and present from the browser while teams reuse approved colors, logos and fonts. Brand kits require an account and server storage, so an organization should define who can change shared assets and how prior versions are restored after an accidental edit.
Private collaboration
Self-host designs and uploads when an external design platform does not meet data-location or infrastructure-control requirements. Share permissions and optional passwords reduce casual exposure, but they do not replace network controls, account policy, logging, backups and a review of the precise access model for confidential material.
Guest-first creative tools
Let visitors create immediately with browser-local storage, then offer an account when they need cloud persistence or teamwork. Browser storage is tied to the device and profile: clearing site data, private browsing or device loss can remove guest work. Important projects should be exported or moved to an authenticated account.
Custom self-hosted design service
Use the Django admin and seed commands to populate templates, fonts, elements, audio and the background-removal model. The initial installation starts empty until those resources are added. Operators can curate a smaller licensed catalog rather than treating every optional download as part of the base product.
Positioning and limitations
Doory is positioned as a free, self-hosted alternative to Canva. Its clearest difference is infrastructure ownership: the application and signed-in designs can run on the operator's server, guests can begin without an account, and the repository exposes both the editor and backend. Canva offers a much larger established template and content ecosystem; Doory currently ships ten starter templates and depends on operator-run synchronization for many optional assets.
The editor combines capabilities often split across a graphic editor, lightweight slide tool and social-video generator. That breadth is useful for small teams wanting one interface, but it also increases the verification surface. Test complex text layouts, imported fonts, masks, long presentations, collaboration conflicts, large uploads, print PDF output and browser video encoding on the devices the team actually uses.
The repository uses an Attribution Assurance License adapted from BSD rather than a familiar GitHub-recognized SPDX license. It permits use, modification and redistribution, including commercial use, but requires the licence and NOTICE to remain with redistributed code and a prominent credit to Siam in the running application. GitHub reported the licence as NOASSERTION at review time. Organizations should read the exact terms and retain third-party notices before rebranding or offering Doory to customers.
Doory does not publish a stable release channel yet. There were no GitHub releases or tags at the time of review, so there is no semantic version, migration promise or supported upgrade boundary to rely on. Pin the tested commit, stage database migrations, keep media and PostgreSQL backups together and rehearse rollback before pulling changes from main.
A self-hosted visual editor can keep routine creative work close to existing infrastructure while giving non-designers a familiar canvas. Doory also makes a practical distinction between guest and account workflows: trying the editor has low friction, while persistent collaboration remains attached to an authenticated server-side project.
Deployment is more than running one container. The standard stack needs PostgreSQL, a Django API, a separate ASGI/WebSocket process and nginx; multiple real-time workers require a shared Redis-compatible channel layer. Optional server PDF export adds headless Chromium and roughly 400 MB to the image. Capacity tests should cover concurrent rooms, large CRDT updates, media storage, export workloads and recovery after a worker restart.
Production configuration needs deliberate hardening. Replace the Django secret and database password, restrict allowed hosts, set the public site URL, enable secure cookies and HTTPS redirects behind TLS, configure the correct proxy count for rate limiting, and bind the Compose port to localhost when a host reverse proxy fronts it. Isolate S3 credentials, apply upload limits, patch browser and image-processing dependencies, and monitor both HTTP and WebSocket services.
Back up the PostgreSQL database and the media volume or S3 bucket as one recoverable set. Test guest-to-account migration, password-protected shares, account deletion, version restoration and interrupted exports before inviting users. Because the project is days old and this profile does not independently certify its security, expose it gradually and keep sensitive design work on a proven workflow until the team has completed its own threat review.
“Self-hosted browser design editor with templates, collaboration and video export”
Technical details
- Access
- Self-hosted
- Source model
- Open source
- License
- Verify license
- Founded
- 2026
- Data location
- Self-hosted; guest files remain in the browser and account data uses operator-controlled storage
- Pricing model
- Open source
- API
- Available
- API documentation
- Read API documentation ↗
- Version reference
- main @ a1f6767 ↗
- Source checked
- October 14, 2026
- Website
- doory.art ↗
- GitHub
- Source repository ↗
What to verify
Profile audiences: Startups, IT Teams, System Administrators, Developers.
- Confirm current features, licensing and support terms.
- Validate deployment, data location and access control.
- Test integrations, exports and recovery workflows.
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