I will setup a very simple php page with docker and nginx. Source files can be found here: in folder recipe-02 https://github.com/ikknd/docker-study 1. Create a project folder setup: /var/www/docker-study.loc/recipe-02 -> /docker -> /php In "php" folder I will create index.php file that executes phpinfo(). 2. Create nginx config site.conf in "docker" folder: - this is what tells nginx how to connect to php container fastcgi_pass php:9000; 3. Edit /etc/hosts file on host machine, and add a record: 127.0.0.1 myapp.loc 4. Create docker-compose.yml file in "docker" folder: Here I do several things: I use my own php.ini file, that I copy to php container, so if I need to change some settings, I simply do changes in php.ini and restart container If I do changes in php code in index.php file, there is no need to restart container, changes get applied immediately with browser page reload. "depends_on" - prevents container to start before other container, on which it depends 5. Go to /var/www/docker-study.loc/recipe-02/docker/ and execute: docker-compose up -d If I now try in browser, I will see php info results. myapp.loc/