Cloud Bills Are Getting Out of Control
Vercel charges $20/month per team member. Heroku removed the free tier. Railway is $5/month per service. A simple app with a database and a worker costs $30-60/month.
Meanwhile, a $5/month VPS from Hetzner has 4GB RAM and can run 10 apps.
Coolify: Your Own Heroku on Any Server
Coolify is an open-source, self-hosted platform that turns any Linux server into a deployment platform. Push code, get a URL. Like Heroku, but you own the server.
What You Get
- One-click deploy from GitHub, GitLab, or any git repo
- Automatic SSL via Let's Encrypt
- Docker and docker-compose support
- One-click databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, MariaDB
- Built-in monitoring with resource usage graphs
- Automatic backups for databases
- Webhooks for CI/CD integration
- Multi-server management from one dashboard
Deploy a Next.js App
- Install Coolify on your VPS:
curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash
- Open
http://your-server:8000 - Connect your GitHub repo
- Click Deploy
Coolify detects the framework (Next.js, Nuxt, Remix, etc.) and configures the build automatically.
One-Click Services
Coolify has 100+ one-click services:
- Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, ClickHouse
- Apps: WordPress, Ghost, Plausible Analytics, Umami
- Tools: MinIO, Gitea, n8n, Appwrite, Supabase
- Monitoring: Grafana, Uptime Kuma
Click install. Wait 30 seconds. Done.
Coolify vs Alternatives
| Feature | Coolify | Vercel | Railway | Dokku |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (self-host) | $20/user/mo | $5/service | Free |
| Databases | One-click | None | $5/each | Manual |
| Custom domains | Unlimited | Limited | Limited | Unlimited |
| SSL | Auto | Auto | Auto | Manual |
| UI dashboard | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (CLI) |
| Docker support | Full | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-server | Yes | No | No | No |
When to Self-Host With Coolify
- Side projects where $5/month VPS beats $20/month PaaS
- Small teams who want unlimited deployments
- Privacy-sensitive apps that must stay on your own server
- Learning DevOps without the complexity of Kubernetes
When to Use Vercel/Railway
- Zero-ops is a priority (no server maintenance)
- Global edge deployment needed
- Team does not want to manage infrastructure
Get Started
curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash
Requires a Linux server with 2GB+ RAM. Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or any VPS works.
Building apps that need web data? 88+ scrapers on Apify for Reddit, Trustpilot, HN, Google News. Custom solutions: spinov001@gmail.com
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