diff --git a/docker/README.md b/docker/README.md
index c3722d2d6..63f07ece8 100644
--- a/docker/README.md
+++ b/docker/README.md
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ For actinia_core development, run and enter the running container (in a separate
 ```
 docker-compose run --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash -v $HOME/repos/actinia_core/src:/src/actinia_core/src actinia-core
 
-docker-compose -f docker-compose-dev.yml run --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash -v $HOME/repos/actinia/actinia_core/src:/src/actinia_core/src -v $HOME/repos/actinia/actinia_core/scripts:/src/actinia_core/scripts actinia-core
+docker-compose -f docker-compose-dev.yml run --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash -v $HOME/repos/actinia/actinia_core/src:/src/actinia_core/src -v $HOME/repos/actinia/actinia_core/scripts:/src/actinia_core/scripts actinia-core```
 ```
 
 Inside the container, you can run GRASS GIS with:
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ python3 setup.py install
 bash /src/start-dev.sh
 
 # python3 -m actinia_core.main
-gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8088 -w 1 actinia_core.main:flask_app
+gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8088 -w 1 --access-logfile=- -k gthread actinia_core.main:flask_app
 
 ```
 If you have problems with cache, run
diff --git a/docker/actinia-core-prod/start.sh b/docker/actinia-core-prod/start.sh
index d739489b2..2786a473a 100644
--- a/docker/actinia-core-prod/start.sh
+++ b/docker/actinia-core-prod/start.sh
@@ -14,7 +14,9 @@ grass -text -e -c 'EPSG:4326' /actinia_core/grassdb/latlong_wgs84
 # created here, because set in sample config as default location
 grass -text -e -c 'EPSG:3358' /actinia_core/grassdb/nc_spm_08
 
-gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8088 -w 1 actinia_core.main:flask_app
+# optimized gunicorn settings (http://docs.gunicorn.org/en/stable/design.html) # recommended num of workers is (2 x $num_cores) + 1, here minimum is assumed.
+# If deployed with 8 replicas, each will run with 3 workers.
+gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8088 -w 3 --access-logfile=- -k gthread actinia_core.main:flask_app
 status=$?
 if [ $status -ne 0 ]; then
   echo "Failed to start actinia_core/main.py: $status"
diff --git a/docker/actinia-core/start.sh b/docker/actinia-core/start.sh
index 6e944c55b..f7f2ad0e7 100644
--- a/docker/actinia-core/start.sh
+++ b/docker/actinia-core/start.sh
@@ -34,7 +34,9 @@ if [ $status -ne 0 ]; then
   exit $status
 fi
 
-gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8088 -w 1 actinia_core.main:flask_app
+# optimized gunicorn settings (http://docs.gunicorn.org/en/stable/design.html) # run only 1 worker for debugging reasons. This is overwritten for production
+# deployment.
+gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8088 -w 1 --access-logfile=- -k gthread actinia_core.main:flask_app
 status=$?
 if [ $status -ne 0 ]; then
   echo "Failed to start actinia_core/main.py: $status"