A self-hosted PaaS turns a $15 VPS into your private Heroku: git push, automatic builds, SSL, rollbacks — without per-seat or per-app pricing. In 2026 the realistic shortlist is three tools, and they split cleanly by philosophy: Coolify v4 maximizes features, Dokploy minimizes footprint, CapRover maximizes track record. The numbers below are what actually differ.
The three, in numbers
| Coolify v4 | Dokploy | CapRover | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First release | 2021 (v4 rewrite current) | 2024 | 2017 |
| Idle RAM | ~1.2 GB | ~350–800 MB | ~600 MB |
| One-click templates | 280+ | ~100 | ~200 (older set) |
| Docker Compose | full | native — paste a compose file, done | limited, single-container focus |
| Multi-server | yes, first-class | yes (Docker Swarm based) | partial (cluster mode) |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 (some cloud features paid) | Apache 2.0 |
Coolify: choose it for breadth
Coolify v4 is what most people imagine when they say "self-hosted Vercel": a polished dashboard, 280+ services deployable in one click, preview deployments per pull request, team members with roles, and native management of multiple servers from one panel — build server here, production there, database on a third box. The tax is resources: about 1.2 GB RAM idle before your first app starts, and a background CPU tick that is noticeable on the smallest VPSes. The honest sizing floor is a 4 GB machine, comfortable at 8 GB; below that you are squeezing.
Dokploy: choose it for weight and Compose
Dokploy's pitch is doing 90% of Coolify's job on a third of the resources — roughly 350–800 MB idle. Its killer feature is native Docker Compose: paste an existing compose file and Dokploy runs the whole stack with networking and dependencies intact, which is exactly where CapRover falls down and where Coolify adds its own abstraction layer. If your projects already live as compose files, this is the shortest migration on the market. Being younger (2024), it has fewer templates and a smaller community — the trade you make for the footprint.
Need a dedicated server?
Compare prices from top providers. Configure and order in minutes.
CapRover: choose it for boredom (the good kind)
CapRover has been deploying apps since 2017 and it shows in both directions. Positive: it survives upgrades, the failure modes are documented, and the one-click library covers the classics. Negative: the architecture predates the Compose-first world — multi-service stacks deploy as separate apps that lose Compose's networking and dependency management, and the UI feels its age. For a single production app that must not surprise you for three years, that boredom is a feature.
Sizing the server under it
The PaaS is overhead; your apps are the load. Practical arithmetic from stacks we host:
- Dokploy + 2–3 small apps (bots, APIs, a Postgres): 2 vCPU / 4 GB VPS is comfortable; 2 GB works if the apps are tiny.
- Coolify + 4–6 services: 4 vCPU / 8 GB — the VPS-1 class ($15/mo) is exactly this profile.
- Team setup, CI builds, preview deployments: builds are the hidden RAM eater (a Next.js build alone can take 2–4 GB). This is where a cheap dedicated box beats a big VPS: a 6-core Xeon-E 2136 with 32 GB ECC and NVMe runs at $59/mo in our catalog — Coolify, a build runner and a dozen apps with room left.
One rule regardless of choice: give the PaaS its own box. Mixing a deployment platform with pet-project containers managed by hand is how Saturday debugging sessions are born. For the underlying OS setup our Docker on bare metal guide covers the disk and network layout that saves pain later.
Verdict
- Solo dev, compose-file projects, small VPS → Dokploy.
- Team, many services, preview deployments, multi-server → Coolify v4.
- One boring production app, minimal churn tolerance → CapRover.
Versions and figures checked July 8, 2026 (Coolify v4, Dokploy 0.25.x, CapRover 1.14). All three move fast — expect the numbers, not the philosophy, to drift.
