Coolify - The Self-Hosted PaaS That Actually Doesn't Suck

Look, I'm fucking tired of paying Heroku $200/month for apps that barely use 100MB of RAM. Coolify is what happens when developers get pissed off enough to build their own PaaS. Apache 2.0 license means you can do whatever the hell you want with it - modify it, sell it, I don't care.

One curl command installs it. That's it. No 47-step setup guide, no "contact sales" bullshit. It works on any server - DigitalOcean VPS, that old laptop collecting dust, your homelab Raspberry Pi cluster. Your data stays on your hardware.

Core Architecture and Approach

Everything runs in Docker containers because Docker actually solved the "works on my machine" problem. Coolify handles all the Docker networking bullshit, SSL cert renewal, reverse proxy config - the stuff that normally takes you 3 hours to debug on a Sunday night.

Push to git, shit deploys automatically. Works with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, whatever. Webhooks trigger builds, zero-downtime rolling updates - you know, the stuff Heroku charges $500/month for.

Uses Traefik for reverse proxy stuff. SSL certs from Let's Encrypt get renewed automatically - no more 3am alerts because you forgot to renew your cert and everything's broken.

Key Features and Capabilities

Runs Anything: If it works in Docker, it works in Coolify. Node.js, Python, PHP, Go, Rust, static sites, whatever. Uses Nixpacks to auto-detect your app like Heroku buildpacks, except it actually works reliably.

Built-in Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, ClickHouse - they all run as managed containers with automated S3 backups. No more paying Heroku $200/month for a 10GB Postgres instance.

One-Click Everything: 150+ service templates including WordPress, Grafana, GitLab. Click install, it works. No yaml hell, no Kubernetes manifests to debug.

PR Previews: Every pull request gets its own environment with a unique URL. This feature alone costs $100+/month on other platforms.

Production Readiness and Limitations

I've been running production apps on Coolify for over a year. Here's the real shit:

What Actually Works:

• Deployments rarely fail, rollbacks work when they do
• Saved me $8,400 vs Heroku for the same workload (yeah, I tracked it)
• Discord community answers questions at 2am
• Updates come out regularly and don't break everything

Where It Sucks:

• Server dies, everything dies (duh, it's one server)
• Scaling means "buy a bigger server" not "add more instances"
• You better know Linux because shit will break at weird times
• Not as battle-tested as Heroku (obviously)

One production user nailed it: "It's a game of compromises. You either decide to pay more or to spend time learning about Linux and deployment while saving money."

If you're comfortable SSH'ing into a server to fix things, Coolify rocks. If you want to never think about infrastructure, stick with Heroku.

Installation Process

One command installs the whole thing. No fucking around with Docker configs or networking setup:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash

What you need:

• Ubuntu 22.04+ (other distros work but Ubuntu is least painful)
• 2GB RAM minimum (4GB if you don't want containers OOMKilled randomly)
• Ports 80, 443, 8000 open
• Clean server (if Docker's already installed, shit might break)

Takes 5 minutes to install. Web dashboard runs on port 8000, create your admin account, you're done.

First Application Deployment

Deploying apps is basically the same as Heroku:

1. Create Project: Group your apps so you don't lose track of everything
2. Connect Git: Paste your GitHub repo URL, webhook gets set up automatically
3. Pick Build Method: Usually auto-detect with Nixpacks works fine, use Dockerfile if you're picky
4. Environment Variables: Copy-paste from your old Heroku settings
5. Deploy: Click deploy, grab coffee, shit just works

Works with monorepos, microservices, whatever architecture you've created for yourself. Each app runs isolated so one crashing app doesn't kill the others.

Deployment Strategies and DevOps Integration

Branch Deployments: Each PR gets its own preview environment. Staging, production, feature branches - all get their own URLs automatically.

Private Registries: Works with your existing Docker registries if you have complex build pipelines. Don't need to rebuild everything from scratch.

API Integration: REST API for everything if you want to automate deployments through your existing CI/CD rather than git webhooks.

Monitoring: Real-time logs, Grafana/Prometheus integration if you want fancy dashboards. Health checks and alerts through Discord/Telegram (because who checks email anymore?).