diff --git a/backend/.dockerignore b/backend/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ad97d132
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+.git
+.github
+.devcontainer
+.env
+__pycache__/
+*.py[cod]
+*.log
+*.sqlite3
+.coverage
+.pytest_cache/
+.mypy_cache/
+.ruff_cache/
+coverage.xml
+htmlcov/
+server/.pytest_cache
+server/.mypy_cache
+server/.ruff_cache
+server/.coverage
+server/coverage.xml
+server/htmlcov
+server/.hypothesis
+server/scheduler.log
+server/**/*.log
+server/tests/
+server/**/tests/
+server/test_*.py
+server/**/__pycache__/
+server/**/*.py[cod]
+server/media/
+server/staticfiles/
+server/.env
+server/.env.*
diff --git a/backend/Dockerfile b/backend/Dockerfile
index 98199d17..ffc30192 100644
--- a/backend/Dockerfile
+++ b/backend/Dockerfile
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
-# Stage 1: Build stage with dependencies
 ARG PYTHON_IMAGE=python:3.13-slim
+
 FROM ${PYTHON_IMAGE} AS builder
 
-# Metadata labels
 LABEL maintainer="Voyage contributors" \
       version="0.10.0" \
       description="Voyage — the ultimate self-hosted travel companion." \
@@ -14,64 +13,55 @@ LABEL maintainer="Voyage contributors" \
       org.opencontainers.image.vendor="Voyage contributors" \
       org.opencontainers.image.licenses="GPL-3.0"
 
-ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1
-ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
+    DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
+    VIRTUAL_ENV=/opt/venv
+
 WORKDIR /code
-ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
-# Install system dependencies needed for build
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-      git \
-      postgresql-client \
-      gdal-bin \
+      build-essential \
       libgdal-dev \
-      nginx \
-      memcached \
-      supervisor \
-    && apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+      libpq-dev \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
-# Install Python dependencies
-COPY ./server/requirements.txt /code/
-RUN pip install --upgrade pip \
-    && pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+COPY ./server/requirements.txt /tmp/requirements.txt
+
+RUN python -m venv "$VIRTUAL_ENV" \
+    && "$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/pip" install --upgrade pip \
+    && "$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/pip" install --no-cache-dir --no-compile --prefer-binary -r /tmp/requirements.txt \
+    && find "$VIRTUAL_ENV" \( -type d -name '__pycache__' -o -type d -name 'tests' \) -prune -exec rm -rf '{}' + \
+    && find "$VIRTUAL_ENV" -type f \( -name '*.pyc' -o -name '*.pyo' \) -delete
 
-# Stage 2: Final image with runtime dependencies
 FROM ${PYTHON_IMAGE}
-WORKDIR /code
-ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1
-ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
-ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
-# Install runtime dependencies (including GDAL)
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
+    DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
+    VIRTUAL_ENV=/opt/venv
+
+WORKDIR /code
+
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-      postgresql-client \
-      gdal-bin \
-      libgdal-dev \
+      libgdal36 \
       nginx \
       memcached \
       supervisor \
-    && apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
-# Copy Python packages from builder
-COPY --from=builder /usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages /usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages
-COPY --from=builder /usr/local/bin /usr/local/bin
-
-# Copy project code and configs
+COPY --from=builder /opt/venv /opt/venv
 COPY ./server /code/
 COPY ./nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
 COPY ./supervisord.conf /etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisord.conf
 COPY ./entrypoint.sh /code/entrypoint.sh
+
 RUN chmod +x /code/entrypoint.sh \
     && mkdir -p /code/static /code/media
 
-# Collect static files
-RUN python3 manage.py collectstatic --noinput --verbosity 2
+RUN "$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/python" manage.py collectstatic --noinput --verbosity 2
 
-# Expose ports
 EXPOSE 80 8000
 
-# Start with an entrypoint that runs init tasks then starts supervisord
 ENTRYPOINT ["/code/entrypoint.sh"]
-
-# Start supervisord to manage processes
 CMD ["supervisord", "-c", "/etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisord.conf"]
diff --git a/backend/entrypoint.sh b/backend/entrypoint.sh
index eef4e40e..bfc43ca0 100644
--- a/backend/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/backend/entrypoint.sh
@@ -1,29 +1,45 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/bin/sh
 
 # Function to check PostgreSQL availability
 # Helper to get the first non-empty environment variable
 get_env() {
-  for var in "$@"; do
-    value="${!var}"
-    if [ -n "$value" ]; then
-      echo "$value"
-      return
-    fi
-  done
+    for var in "$@"; do
+        eval "value=\${$var:-}"
+        if [ -n "$value" ]; then
+            printf '%s\n' "$value"
+            return 0
+        fi
+    done
+
+    return 1
 }
 
 check_postgres() {
-  local db_host
-  local db_user
-  local db_name
-  local db_pass
+    db_host=$(get_env PGHOST)
+    db_host=${db_host:-localhost}
+    db_port=$(get_env PGPORT)
+    db_port=${db_port:-5432}
+    db_user=$(get_env PGUSER POSTGRES_USER)
+    db_name=$(get_env PGDATABASE POSTGRES_DB)
+    db_pass=$(get_env PGPASSWORD POSTGRES_PASSWORD)
 
-  db_host=$(get_env PGHOST)
-  db_user=$(get_env PGUSER POSTGRES_USER)
-  db_name=$(get_env PGDATABASE POSTGRES_DB)
-  db_pass=$(get_env PGPASSWORD POSTGRES_PASSWORD)
+    "${VIRTUAL_ENV:-/opt/venv}/bin/python" - "$db_host" "$db_port" "$db_user" "$db_name" "$db_pass" <<'PY' >/dev/null 2>&1
+import sys
 
-  PGPASSWORD="$db_pass" psql -h "$db_host" -U "$db_user" -d "$db_name" -c '\q' >/dev/null 2>&1
+import psycopg2
+
+host, port, user, dbname, password = sys.argv[1:]
+
+conn = psycopg2.connect(
+    host=host,
+    port=int(port),
+    user=user,
+    dbname=dbname,
+    password=password,
+    connect_timeout=1,
+)
+conn.close()
+PY
 }
 
 
@@ -39,12 +55,12 @@ done
 # psql -h "$PGHOST" -U "$PGUSER" -d "$PGDATABASE" -f /app/backend/init-postgis.sql
 
 # Apply Django migrations
-python manage.py migrate
+${VIRTUAL_ENV:-/opt/venv}/bin/python manage.py migrate
 
 # Create superuser if environment variables are set and there are no users present at all.
 if [ -n "$DJANGO_ADMIN_USERNAME" ] && [ -n "$DJANGO_ADMIN_PASSWORD" ] && [ -n "$DJANGO_ADMIN_EMAIL" ]; then
   echo "Creating superuser..."
-  python manage.py shell << EOF
+  ${VIRTUAL_ENV:-/opt/venv}/bin/python manage.py shell << EOF
 from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
 from allauth.account.models import EmailAddress
 
@@ -76,7 +92,7 @@ fi
 
 # Sync the countries and world travel regions
 # Sync the countries and world travel regions
-python manage.py download-countries
+${VIRTUAL_ENV:-/opt/venv}/bin/python manage.py download-countries
 if [ $? -eq 137 ]; then
   >&2 echo "WARNING: The download-countries command was interrupted. This is likely due to lack of memory allocated to the container or the host. Please try again with more memory."
   exit 1
@@ -84,4 +100,4 @@ fi
 
 cat /code/voyage.txt
 
-exec "$@"
\ No newline at end of file
+exec "$@"
diff --git a/backend/supervisord.conf b/backend/supervisord.conf
index eb72171b..78ed87be 100644
--- a/backend/supervisord.conf
+++ b/backend/supervisord.conf
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ stdout_logfile=/dev/stdout
 stderr_logfile=/dev/stderr
 
 [program:gunicorn]
-command=/usr/local/bin/gunicorn main.wsgi:application --bind [::]:8000 --workers 2 --timeout 120
+command=/opt/venv/bin/gunicorn main.wsgi:application --bind [::]:8000 --workers 2 --timeout 120
 directory=/code
 autorestart=true
 stdout_logfile=/dev/stdout
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ stdout_logfile_maxbytes=0
 stderr_logfile_maxbytes=0
 
 [program:sync_visited_regions]
-command=/usr/local/bin/python3 /code/run_periodic_sync.py
+command=/opt/venv/bin/python /code/run_periodic_sync.py
 directory=/code
 autorestart=true
 stdout_logfile=/dev/stdout
diff --git a/frontend/.dockerignore b/frontend/.dockerignore
index 18774d63..f1f1338f 100644
--- a/frontend/.dockerignore
+++ b/frontend/.dockerignore
@@ -2,3 +2,8 @@ node_modules
 .svelte-kit
 build
 .env
+.git
+.github
+.vscode
+coverage
+package-lock.json
diff --git a/frontend/Dockerfile b/frontend/Dockerfile
index c494e60b..0ecc9e97 100644
--- a/frontend/Dockerfile
+++ b/frontend/Dockerfile
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
-# Use the official Bun image as the build platform (supports linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 natively)
 ARG BUN_VERSION=1.3.10
-FROM oven/bun:${BUN_VERSION}-alpine AS builder
 
-# Metadata labels for the Voyage image
+FROM oven/bun:${BUN_VERSION} AS deps
+
 LABEL maintainer="Voyage contributors" \
       version="v0.12.0" \
       description="Voyage — the ultimate self-hosted travel companion." \
@@ -13,60 +12,34 @@ LABEL maintainer="Voyage contributors" \
       org.opencontainers.image.url="https://voyage.app" \
       org.opencontainers.image.source="https://github.com/Alex-Wiesner/voyage" \
       org.opencontainers.image.vendor="Voyage contributors" \
-      org.opencontainers.image.created="$(date -u +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ')" \
       org.opencontainers.image.licenses="GPL-3.0"
 
-# The WORKDIR instruction sets the working directory for everything that will happen next
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# Upgrade zlib to include Alpine security fixes
-RUN apk upgrade --no-cache zlib
-
-# Copy package files first for better Docker layer caching
 COPY package.json bun.lock* ./
-
-# Clean install all node modules using bun with frozen lockfile
 RUN bun install --frozen-lockfile
 
-# Copy the rest of the application files
+FROM deps AS builder
+
 COPY . .
+RUN rm -f .env \
+    && bun run build
 
-# Remove the development .env file if present
-RUN rm -f .env
-
-# Build SvelteKit app
-RUN bun run build
-
-# Make startup script executable
-RUN chmod +x ./startup.sh
-
-# Keep only production dependencies for runtime image
-RUN bun install --frozen-lockfile --production
-
-# Runtime image contains only built app + runtime deps
-FROM node:22-alpine AS runtime
+FROM oven/bun:${BUN_VERSION} AS prod-deps
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# Upgrade zlib and remove npm toolchain from runtime image
-RUN apk upgrade --no-cache zlib \
-    && rm -f /usr/local/bin/npm /usr/local/bin/npx \
-    && rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm /usr/local/lib/node_modules/corepack
+COPY package.json bun.lock* ./
+RUN bun install --frozen-lockfile --production
+
+FROM gcr.io/distroless/nodejs22-debian12:nonroot AS runtime
+
+WORKDIR /app
 
-# Copy build artifacts and production runtime dependencies
 COPY --from=builder /app/build ./build
-COPY --from=builder /app/node_modules ./node_modules
+COPY --from=prod-deps /app/node_modules ./node_modules
 COPY --from=builder /app/package.json ./package.json
-COPY --from=builder /app/startup.sh ./startup.sh
 
-# Ensure startup script is executable
-RUN chmod +x ./startup.sh
-
-# Change to non-root user for security
-USER node:node
-
-# Expose the port that the app is listening on
 EXPOSE 3000
 
-# Run startup.sh instead of the default command
-CMD ["./startup.sh"]
+CMD ["build/index.js"]