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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Coolify Has a Free API — Self-Hosted Vercel/Netlify Alternative

#tutorial #devops #selfhosted #webdev

Coolify is an open-source, self-hosted platform for deploying apps, databases, and services. It's Vercel + Railway + Netlify combined — running on YOUR server, for free.

Why Coolify?

  • Self-hosted — deploy to your own VPS ($5/mo), not $20+/mo cloud platforms
  • Git push deploy — push to GitHub/GitLab → auto-deploy
  • One-click services — PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, MinIO in one click
  • SSL included — automatic Let's Encrypt certificates

Quick Start 

# Install on any VPS (Ubuntu/Debian)
curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash

# Access dashboard at http://your-ip:8000
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Deploying Apps

  1. Connect your GitHub/GitLab repo
  2. Select branch and build pack (Nixpacks auto-detects)
  3. Set environment variables
  4. Deploy!

Supported frameworks:

  • Node.js — Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro, Express
  • Python — Django, FastAPI, Flask
  • Go — any Go app
  • Rust — Actix, Axum, Rocket
  • Docker — any Dockerfile
  • Static — HTML, React SPA, Vue SPA

One-Click Databases 

# Available with one click:
- PostgreSQL (15, 16)
- MySQL (8.0)
- MariaDB (11)
- MongoDB (7)
- Redis (7)
- Dragonfly
- KeyDB
- ClickHouse
- MinIO (S3-compatible storage)
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One-Click Services 

# Self-host popular tools:
- Plausible Analytics
- Umami Analytics  
- n8n (workflow automation)
- Uptime Kuma (monitoring)
- Ghost (blog)
- WordPress
- Gitea (Git hosting)
- Meilisearch
- Appwrite
- Supabase
- MinIO
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API 

# List applications
curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN' \
  https://coolify.yourdomain.com/api/v1/applications

# Deploy
curl -X POST \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN' \
  https://coolify.yourdomain.com/api/v1/applications/{uuid}/deploy

# Create database
curl -X POST \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  https://coolify.yourdomain.com/api/v1/databases \
  -d '{"type": "postgresql", "name": "mydb"}'
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Docker Compose Support 

# docker-compose.yml — Coolify deploys this as-is
services:
  app:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://db:5432/myapp
    depends_on:
      - db
  db:
    image: postgres:16
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
volumes:
  pgdata:
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Cost Comparison

Service Coolify (self-hosted) Vercel Pro Railway
Apps Unlimited 1 team Pay per use
Databases Unlimited - Pay per use
SSL Free (Let's Encrypt) Free Free
Cost ~$5/mo (VPS) $20/mo/member $5+
Data You own it Their servers Their servers

Need to deploy scraping infrastructure? Check out my Apify actors for managed scraping, or email spinov001@gmail.com for self-hosted scraping solutions on Coolify.

Coolify, CapRover, or cloud platforms — what do you deploy on? Share below!

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