Coolify vs Dokku
Coolify and Dokku are both paas and app hosting software. Coolify is open source under Apache-2.0, with 66k GitHub stars. Dokku is open source under MIT, with 32k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Coolify when
- You want push-to-deploy convenience on your own VPS fleet without Kubernetes.
- Pick Dokku when
- You want Heroku-like git push deployments on your own cheap VPS for small apps.
Side by side
A self-hosted platform for deploying apps, databases and over 360 one-click services to your own servers, like a self-run Heroku or Vercel.
A Heroku-style PaaS on a single server: git push an app and Dokku builds it with buildpacks or a Dockerfile and runs it in containers, with plugins for databases and TLS.
Your servers and the Coolify instance become your responsibility, including security updates.
Designed mainly for one host, so high availability and multi-server scaling need extra work.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Self-hosted server and command line
PHP, Laravel, Docker, PostgreSQL and Redis
Shell, Go and Docker
Open source, Apache-2.0 (permissive)
Open source, MIT (permissive)
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice. (both)
66k GitHub stars
32k GitHub stars
Established: started 5 years ago, latest release v4.6.0.
Established: started 13 years ago, latest release v0.38.34.
Other comparisons
More PaaS and app hosting platforms
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.