TL;DR: Running World Monitor in 5 Minutes

1. Get a Netcup VPS 2000 G12 (8 vCore, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB NVMe SSD — €19.25/month)

Use coupon 5800nc17718015230 for 1 month free.

2. SSH into your server and deploy with Docker:

ssh root@your-server-ip
apt update && apt install -y docker.io docker-compose-v2 git
git clone https://github.com/koala73/worldmonitor.git
cd worldmonitor
docker compose up -d
./scripts/run-seeders.sh

3. Access the dashboard:

Open http://your-server-ip:3000 in your browser.

4. Optional API keys for enhanced data — Add Groq, Finnhub, or AISStream keys via docker-compose.override.yml.

Need more power for multiple users or larger datasets? Check the full server comparison below — including VPS 4000 G12, VPS 8000 G12, and Root Servers with dedicated CPU cores and up to 2 months free with coupon codes.

Introduction: Global Intelligence at Your Fingertips

In an era of geopolitical volatility, market uncertainty, and rapidly evolving global events, staying informed requires more than scrolling through news feeds. World Monitor is an open-source real-time global intelligence dashboard that aggregates news, markets, military activity, maritime tracking, infrastructure data, and AI-powered analysis into a single map-first interface.

With over 51,000 GitHub stars and 8,300 forks, World Monitor has become the go-to platform for journalists, security analysts, researchers, and anyone who needs a comprehensive view of what's happening in the world. The platform tracks 500+ curated news feeds across 15 categories, monitors 45 data layers on dual map engines, and provides cross-stream correlation for military, economic, disaster, and escalation signals.

To run World Monitor at its full potential with always-on availability, you need reliable infrastructure. This is where VPS hosting comes in. Running World Monitor on a Netcup VPS gives you a powerful, always-on global intelligence platform at a fraction of the cost of hosted alternatives. This guide covers everything from what World Monitor is, to choosing the right Netcup server, deploying it with Docker, and running it securely in production.

What is World Monitor?

World Monitor is a real-time situational-awareness platform that brings together global intelligence data from over 65 external sources into a unified dashboard. Unlike traditional news aggregators that present information in isolated feeds, World Monitor correlates data across multiple streams to reveal patterns, trends, and emerging signals that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Key Features of World Monitor

500+ Curated News Feeds

World Monitor aggregates news from 500+ curated RSS feeds across 15 categories, AI-synthesized into briefs. Sources include major international outlets, regional feeds, and specialized intelligence sources, all correlated for maximum insight.

Dual Map Engine

The platform features two complementary visualization modes:

• 3D Globe (globe.gl + Three.js) — Interactive 3D visualization for a planetary perspective
• Flat Map (deck.gl + MapLibre GL) — WebGL-accelerated rendering for detailed regional analysis

45 Data Layers

Toggle between different data types including military flights, naval vessels, satellites, earthquakes, wildfires, cyber threats, disease outbreaks, radiation, and more. Each layer can be independently configured and correlated with others.

Cross-Stream Correlation

World Monitor's signal detection engine correlates data across military, economic, disaster, and escalation streams. This helps identify cascading events, emerging crises, and hidden connections that single-source monitoring would miss.

Country Intelligence Index

The platform calculates a composite risk score across 12 signal categories for countries worldwide, providing a high-frequency stress signal for geopolitical monitoring.

Finance Radar

Track 92 stock exchanges, commodities, cryptocurrency, and a 7-signal market composite. Includes integration with Finnhub, Yahoo Finance, and CoinGecko for real-time quotes.

Local AI Capabilities

Run everything with Ollama or connect to Groq/OpenRouter — no API keys required for basic operation. Browser-based inference via ONNX Runtime Web provides offline AI capabilities.

Five Site Variants

Deploy from a single codebase with pre-configured variants:

• World Monitor — General geopolitics
• Tech Monitor — Technology intelligence
• Finance Monitor — Markets and economics
• Commodity Monitor — Commodity prices
• Happy Monitor — Positive global trends

21 Languages

Native-language feeds and RTL support for 21 languages, making World Monitor accessible globally.

Why Self-Hosting World Monitor Matters

Data Privacy and Control

Running World Monitor on your own VPS means your intelligence data, search queries, and monitoring preferences stay under your control. This is critical for journalists, researchers, and organizations handling sensitive information.

Cost Efficiency

Hosted World Monitor services charge subscription fees that add up quickly. Self-hosting World Monitor on a VPS gives you full functionality for a flat monthly fee — often 70-90% cheaper than commercial alternatives.

Always-On Availability

Your laptop sleeps. Your home internet drops. A VPS in a data center with redundant power and networking keeps World Monitor available 24/7 from any device, anywhere in the world.

Customization and Extensibility

Self-hosting gives you full access to configure, customize, and extend World Monitor. Add your own data sources, configure alerting, and integrate with your existing workflows.

Full Data Ownership

When you self-host, you own the data. No third-party access logs, no commercial data sharing, no subscription required to access your own dashboard.

How to Use World Monitor

Installation Methods

World Monitor supports multiple installation methods:

Option 1: Docker (Recommended for VPS)

Docker provides the easiest production deployment with all services containerized:

git clone https://github.com/koala73/worldmonitor.git
cd worldmonitor
docker compose up -d
./scripts/run-seeders.sh

Option 2: Development Mode

For testing or development:

git clone https://github.com/koala73/worldmonitor.git
cd worldmonitor
npm install
npm run dev

Option 3: Vercel Deployment

For serverless hosting with edge functions:

npm run build
vercel deploy

Configuration

Create a docker-compose.override.yml to configure API keys:

services:
  worldmonitor:
    environment:
      # AI Summarization
      GROQ_API_KEY: "your-groq-key"
      OPENROUTER_API_KEY: "your-openrouter-key"
      
      # Markets
      FINNHUB_API_KEY: "your-finnhub-key"
      FRED_API_KEY: "your-fred-key"
      EIA_API_KEY: "your-eia-key"
      
      # Conflict Data
      ACLED_ACCESS_TOKEN: "your-acled-key"
      
      # Maritime
      AISSTREAM_API_KEY: "your-aisstream-key"

Core Functionality

Map Controls

• Left-click on any location for contextual information
• Right-click to toggle layers
• Scroll to zoom, drag to pan
• Keyboard shortcuts for quick layer toggles

Intelligence Panels

• News Panel — Aggregated news with clustering
• Market Panel — Stock and commodity quotes
• Signal Modal — Focal point intelligence
• Country Intelligence — Risk scoring
• Live News — YouTube live stream monitoring

Search and Filtering

• Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) opens universal search
• Filter by region, category, source, or time range
• Save custom monitor configurations

Quick Start Guide: Deploying World Monitor on Netcup VPS

This guide walks through deploying World Monitor on a Netcup VPS using Docker. Estimated time: 15-20 minutes.

Prerequisites

• Netcup VPS (VPS 1000 G12 or higher recommended)
• SSH access to your server
• Basic command line knowledge

Step 1: Order and Configure Your VPS

1. Choose your Netcup VPS plan:

For World Monitor, we recommend:

Use coupon 5800nc17755880760 for 1 month free on VPS 2000 G12.

2. Select a server location:

Available locations: Vienna (VIE), Nuremberg (NUE), Amsterdam (AMS), Manassas/USA (MNZ), Singapore (SIN)

For European data residency compliance, choose Vienna, Nuremberg, or Amsterdam.

3. Complete your order and note your server IP address.

Step 2: Initial Server Setup

1. SSH into your new server:

ssh root@your-server-ip

2. Update the system:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

3. Install required packages:

apt install -y docker.io docker-compose-v2 git curl wget

4. Start and enable Docker:

systemctl start docker
systemctl enable docker

Step 3: Deploy World Monitor

1. Clone the World Monitor repository:

git clone https://github.com/koala73/worldmonitor.git
cd worldmonitor

2. Create environment configuration:

cp .env.example .env

3. (Optional) Configure API keys:

Create docker-compose.override.yml with your API keys:

cat > docker-compose.override.yml << 'EOF'
services:
  worldmonitor:
    environment:
      GROQ_API_KEY: "your-groq-key"
      FINNHUB_API_KEY: "your-finnhub-key"
      AISSTREAM_API_KEY: "your-aisstream-key"
EOF

4. Start the stack:

docker compose up -d

5. Seed the database:

./scripts/run-seeders.sh

Step 4: Configure Firewall (Recommended)

1. Configure UFW firewall:

ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw allow 3000/tcp
ufw enable

2. Set up automatic updates:

apt install -y unattended-upgrades
dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

Step 5: Access and Verify

1. Access World Monitor:

Open http://your-server-ip:3000 in your browser.

2. Verify services are running:

docker compose ps

All services should show "Up" status.

3. Check the logs:

docker compose logs -f

Step 6: Optional Enhancements

1. Set up automated seeding (every 30 minutes):

(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "*/30 * * * * cd /root/worldmonitor && ./scripts/run-seeders.sh >> /tmp/wm-seeders.log 2>&1") | crontab -

2. Configure reverse proxy with HTTPS:

Install Nginx and Certbot for automatic HTTPS:

apt install -y nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx
certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com

3. Set up systemd service for auto-start:

cat > /etc/systemd/system/worldmonitor.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=World Monitor
Requires=docker.service
After=docker.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker compose up -d
ExecStop=/usr/bin/docker compose down
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable worldmonitor
systemctl start worldmonitor

Choosing the Right Netcup Server for World Monitor

Netcup offers a range of VPS and Root Server options suitable for World Monitor. Here's a comprehensive comparison:

VPS Plans (x86)

Root Server Plans (Dedicated CPU)

Recommendation by Use Case

Personal Use / Research (Single User)

Recommended: VPS 2000 G12 at €19.25/month

With coupon 5800nc17718015233, get 1 month free.

Features: 8 vCore, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB NVMe — ample resources for personal intelligence monitoring.

Power Users / Small Teams

Recommended: VPS 4000 G12 at €32.41/month

With coupon 5801nc17755880760, get 1 month free.

Features: 12 vCore, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe — handles multiple users and larger datasets.

Professional / Enterprise

Recommended: Root Server 2000 G12 at €22.99/month

With coupon 5160nc17718015414, get 1 month free.

Features: 4 dedicated vCore, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe — dedicated CPU for maximum performance.

Why Netcup for World Monitor?

Industry-Leading Price Performance

Netcup offers the best price for comparable VPS performance. If you find a lower price elsewhere, Netcup will give you an additional 10% discount.

GDPR Compliance and Digital Sovereignty

All European data centers (Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam) ensure GDPR compliance. Your intelligence data stays in Europe.

DDoS Protection Included

All servers include DDoS protection at no additional cost — essential for publicly accessible dashboards.

Flexible Billing

Choose between monthly billing (hourly rates) or 12-month contracts for savings. No minimum contract term required.

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

Root Servers come with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. Try World Monitor risk-free.

Conclusion: Real-Time Global Intelligence on Your Own VPS

World Monitor represents a paradigm shift in how we monitor and understand global events. By aggregating 500+ news feeds, 45 data layers, and AI-powered analysis into a single interface, it provides situational awareness that was previously only available to governments and large corporations.

Self-hosting World Monitor on a Netcup VPS democratizes this capability:

Key Benefits:

• Complete data privacy — Your intelligence queries and monitoring data stay under your control
• Cost efficiency — Full functionality for a flat monthly fee (€19.25/month with VPS 2000 G12)
• Always-on availability — 24/7 access from any device, anywhere
• Customization — Full access to configure, extend, and integrate with your workflows
• Digital sovereignty — GDPR-compliant hosting in European data centers

Quick Recap:

1. Get a Netcup VPS (VPS 2000 G12 recommended)
2. Use coupon 5800nc17718015232 for 1 month free
3. Deploy with Docker in under 20 minutes
4. Access your global intelligence dashboard

World Monitor on a Netcup VPS gives you the power of real-time global intelligence at a fraction of the cost of commercial alternatives. Whether you're a journalist tracking geopolitical events, a researcher monitoring market signals, or an individual seeking a comprehensive view of the world, World Monitor on a Netcup VPS provides the platform you need.

Start your intelligence journey today at netcup.com.

World Monitor is open-source under AGPL-3.0 for non-commercial use. Commercial use requires a separate license. Visit worldmonitor.app for more information.