Dokku Has a Free API — Your Own Mini-Heroku on a VPS

Dokku is the smallest PaaS you have ever seen. It turns any VPS into a Heroku-like platform with git push deploys, SSL, and plugin ecosystem.

What Is Dokku?

Dokku is a Docker-powered mini-PaaS. Push code via git, Dokku builds and deploys it. Runs on a $5 VPS.

Features:

• Git push deploy (like Heroku)
• Buildpacks or Dockerfile
• Auto SSL via Let us Encrypt
• Plugin ecosystem (PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB)
• Zero-downtime deploys
• Process management

Install

wget -NP . https://dokku.com/bootstrap.sh
sudo DOKKU_TAG=v0.34.8 bash bootstrap.sh

Deploy an App

# On server
dokku apps:create my-app

# On local machine
git remote add dokku dokku@your-server:my-app
git push dokku main

CLI API

# List apps
dokku apps:list

# Scale
dokku ps:scale my-app web=2 worker=1

# Set environment variables
dokku config:set my-app DATABASE_URL=postgres://...

# Add PostgreSQL
dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-postgres.git
dokku postgres:create my-db
dokku postgres:link my-db my-app

# SSL
dokku letsencrypt:enable my-app

# Logs
dokku logs my-app --tail

Use Cases

1. Side projects — unlimited apps on $5 VPS
2. Staging environments — cheap preview deploys
3. Client projects — isolated apps per client
4. Learning — understand PaaS internals
5. Cost optimization — escape Heroku pricing

Dokku vs Alternatives

Feature	Dokku	Heroku	CapRover
Price	$5 VPS	$5+/app	$5 VPS
Git deploy	Yes	Yes	Yes
Buildpacks	Yes	Yes	No
Plugins	50+	Add-ons	Apps
Maturity	10+ years	15+ years	5 years

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