CapRover introduced the concept of one-click self-hosted PaaS. Check out how it stacks up against Peon on team collaboration tools, database management and daily maintenance.
Historical significance of CapRover
CapRover has acted as an introduction to self-hosted PaaS for nearly a decade. The promise was quite groundbreaking for its time: type a single installation command on a VPS, get yourself a web console, have your applications deployed either via CLI or captain-definition files, have your databases and popular software installed via a simple click, receive certificates from Let’s Encrypt automatically.
CapRover is free, Apache-licensed and surprisingly stable considering its function. When comparing CapRover, one must take into consideration the fact that CapRover has solved this problem long before any other solution became available.
Where the age reveals itself
The design of CapRover dates back to its time. First of all, it is an old-school solution with only one server and only one administrator – one CapRover instance controls one machine (clusters can be run via Docker Swarm, but they are underutilized and not much supported) with all deployment performed by one common admin’s password.
Features which are now expected from any operational platform are simply not available or are done manually: there is no built-in system of automatic backups for your database (you do it yourself), no separate access levels, no multi-server dashboard and even the pipeline for deploying apps is outdated in comparison with nowadays’ standards.
What sets Peon apart
Multi-server architecture: control multiple VPSs from a single dashboard, not one instance of CapRover per server
Workspaces with role-based authentication and unlimited users, rather than one admin password that everyone uses
Built-in Git support: OAuth for Github and Gitlab, webhooks deployments per branch, and build logging
Database management: database creation, scheduled backups to Amazon S3 compatible cloud storage, restore from a single click
First-class Docker Compose deployment method, alongside git apps, containers, and many templates to choose from
Proxy management: automatic configuration of Traefik or Caddy per server
Migration path
Since both of the platforms finally use Docker containers that are deployed using a reverse proxy server, the process of migration is more physical rather than architectural. In regards to CapRover apps, the user has to find out what image is used in this app, to save all the environment variables, recreate the app as a Peon service, and transfer all data from persistent volumes (in tar format or by uploading files directly).
The process takes up an afternoon for most single-server migrations, and the user can have both platforms running on different servers.
The bottom line
If you’re a single developer running on one server, who has CapRover working for them and no desire for change, then there’s no pressing need to migrate because CapRover works. However, if you’re making a fresh choice in 2026, or if your team is now too big to share admin passwords and custom scripts, then a more modern stack offers the same self-hosted economics as CapRover, plus all its features.
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