What Coolify is
Open-source Heroku/Vercel. Connects to GitHub, builds with Nixpacks or your Dockerfile, deploys to your own server. Free, no vendor lock-in, ~€6/month of VPS to run.
Requirements
- 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM minimum (4 GB recommended).
- A domain pointed at your VPS IP.
- Docker installed (see [our Docker guide](/help/install-docker-ubuntu)).
One-line install
curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash
The script installs Coolify itself plus a managed Traefik + a Postgres + a Redis. ~5 minutes.
First-time setup
Open `http://your-vps-ip:8000`. Create the admin user, add your domain in **Settings → Instance**, and Coolify will provision a Let's Encrypt cert on first request.
Deploying an app
1. **Sources → New** → connect GitHub (Coolify uses a GitHub App with read-only repo access).
2. **Applications → New** → pick the repo, branch, build pack (Nixpacks usually just works).
3. Set environment variables, hit **Deploy**.
The first build is slow (cold cache). Subsequent builds reuse layers and finish in 30–60 seconds.
Why this beats Vercel/Netlify
- You pay for the server, not the build minutes / function invocations / bandwidth.
- No surprise bill when a viral page hits.
- No 10-second function timeout — long jobs run as background workers.
- Your data stays on your server.
What you give up
- You manage upgrades. (`./coolify-upgrade.sh` is one command, but you have to remember.)
- No global CDN unless you front Coolify with Cloudflare or BunnyCDN.
- No serverless cold-start magic. Your apps are containers; they're always warm.
For most side projects and small SaaS, that trade is exactly what you want.