What Is Coolify?
Coolify is a self-hosted PaaS — deploy Docker containers, databases, and static sites to your own servers with a beautiful UI. Think Heroku + Vercel + Netlify combined, but on your infrastructure. 38K+ GitHub stars.
Coolify vs Heroku vs Vercel
| Feature | Coolify | Heroku | Vercel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | ✅ Your servers | ❌ | ❌ |
| Docker support | ✅ Any container | ✅ | ⚠️ Limited |
| Databases | ✅ One-click (PG, Redis, Mongo) | 💰 Add-ons | ❌ |
| Static sites | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ |
| Free SSL | ✅ (Let’s Encrypt) | 💰 | ✅ |
| Custom domains | ✅ Unlimited | 💰 | ✅ |
| Git push deploy | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Price | $0 + server cost | $7-25/dyno/mo | $20/user/mo |
| Vendor lock-in | None | High | Medium |
Installation (under 5 Minutes)
# On any VPS with SSH access
curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bashThat’s it. Coolify installs Docker, sets up a reverse proxy (Traefik), and gives you a web dashboard.
What Can You Deploy?
One-Click Services
- Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, ClickHouse
- Apps: Ghost, n8n, Plausible, Listmonk, Appsmith, NocoDB
- Dev tools: GitLab, Gitea, MinIO, Verdaccio
From Source
- Docker Compose projects
- Dockerfiles
- Nixpacks (auto-detect: Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, etc.)
- Static sites (HTML, Astro, Next.js export)
Git Integration
- GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket
- Auto-deploy on push
- Preview deployments per PR
Architecture
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Coolify Dashboard │
│ (Laravel + Livewire) │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────┘
│ SSH
┌─────────┼─────────┐
│ │ │
┌────▼───┐ ┌───▼────┐ ┌──▼─────┐
│Server 1│ │Server 2│ │Server 3│
│(Docker)│ │(Docker)│ │(Docker)│
│Traefik │ │Traefik │ │Traefik │
└────────┘ └────────┘ └────────┘Coolify manages multiple remote servers via SSH — deploy anywhere:
- Hetzner ($5/mo VPS)
- DigitalOcean
- AWS EC2
- Your own bare metal
Cost Comparison (Typical Stack)
Running: App + PostgreSQL + Redis + Background worker
| Provider | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Heroku | $75-150 |
| Railway | $30-60 |
| Render | $40-80 |
| Coolify on Hetzner CX32 | $8 |
| Coolify on DigitalOcean | $12 |
When to Use Coolify
| Scenario | Coolify | Heroku/Vercel |
|---|---|---|
| Side projects | ✅ Cheapest option | 💰 Costs add up |
| Startup (budget) | ✅ Deploy everything for $10/mo | 💰 $100+/mo |
| Enterprise (compliance) | ✅ Data on your servers | ⚠️ Shared infra |
| Learning DevOps | ✅ See how it all works | ❌ Abstracted away |
| Complex K8s workloads | ❌ Use real K8s | ❌ |
Limitations
- Not Kubernetes — Docker Compose under the hood (fine for most apps)
- Single-server per service — no auto-scaling across nodes
- Best for: 1-50 services, small-medium teams
- Not for: Multi-region HA, enterprise-scale microservices
For those cases, use Kubernetes directly.
