Kamal Has a Free Deployment Tool — Deploy Docker Apps to Any Server Without Kubernetes

Kamal (by 37signals/Basecamp) is a deployment tool that deploys Docker containers to bare servers — no Kubernetes, no orchestrators.

What You Get for Free

• Zero-downtime deploys — blue-green deployment via Traefik
• Any server — deploy to any VPS with Docker installed
• Multi-server — deploy across multiple servers
• SSL automatic — Traefik handles Let's Encrypt
• Rolling updates — graceful container replacement
• Accessory services — deploy databases, Redis alongside your app
• Environment variables — encrypted secrets management
• Asset bridging — serve new assets immediately
• Health checks — verify deployment before switching traffic

Quick Start

gem install kamal
kamal init  # creates config/deploy.yml

# config/deploy.yml
service: my-app
image: my-registry/my-app
servers:
  web:
    - 192.168.1.1
    - 192.168.1.2
traefik:
  options:
    publish:
      - "443:443"
    volume:
      - "/letsencrypt:/letsencrypt"

kamal setup  # first deploy: installs Docker, Traefik, deploys app
kamal deploy  # subsequent deploys: zero-downtime update

Why Developers Switch from Kubernetes

K8s is overkill for 90% of apps:

• Simple — YAML config, not K8s manifests
• Any server — $5 VPS, dedicated server, cloud VM
• No cluster — no etcd, no control plane, just Docker
• By Basecamp — they deploy Hey.com (millions of users) with Kamal

A team spent 3 months setting up Kubernetes for a Rails app with 50K users. After Kamal: same reliability, same zero-downtime deploys, setup took 2 hours.

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