Dokploy vs Coolify: Which Self-Hosted PaaS Should You Use?

Dokploy and Coolify both turn a VPS into a self-hosted platform for deploying containers, with Git deploys, automatic HTTPS, and scheduled database backups. Coolify has the larger community and more proxy and database options, while Dokploy opens fewer ports during setup and keeps supporting Docker Swarm.

Either one is a reasonable choice, and both need to stay off the public internet.

You should know my bias before reading further. I run Dokploy for Katabench and teach it in my course, so I'm not a neutral party in a comparison with Coolify. Every number below comes from each project's own repository and documentation on November 4, 2026, and these projects move quickly enough that you should recheck anything that decides your choice.

How Do Dokploy and Coolify Compare?

Template counts are my own count of each template directory, and they say little about quality. Nothing in this table decides the question for most small applications, so the sections below focus on the differences that do.

How Does Deployment Differ?

Both projects deploy from Git, a Dockerfile, a Compose file, or a registry image, and both can build on a separate server. You get a similar first experience from either: connect a repository, set environment variables, add a domain, and deploy.

The clearest difference is Docker Swarm. Dokploy still supports Swarm clusters and Docker Stack deployments, including automatic rollback on failed health checks. Coolify's documentation marks Swarm as deprecated and scheduled for removal in version 5, so don't start a new Swarm setup there.

If you want to scale past one server without Kubernetes, that difference matters. If you plan to stay on one or two servers, it probably doesn't.

Coolify's proxy options include Caddy as well as Traefik, and I found no Caddy option in Dokploy. Coolify also needs more ports open during setup, though its firewall documentation says you can close 8000, 6001, and 6002 once a domain works.

How Do Backups and Recovery Differ?

Both can schedule database backups to S3-compatible storage such as Cloudflare R2, and both can back up the platform's own configuration. You need that second kind, because losing the panel's data means reconfiguring every service by hand.

Dokploy's web server backup saves its internal database and /etc/dokploy as a zip, and it also offers volume backups. Coolify documents instance backup and restore, and its database backup coverage varies by engine, so check yours.

Neither platform can tell you a backup works. A scheduled job that reports success still needs a restore drill, whichever one you pick.

Which One Is More Secure?

Neither has a clean record, and this is where I'd pay the most attention. Here are the advisories each project published on GitHub in 2026:

You can read each project's full list on GitHub: Dokploy advisories and Coolify advisories. Some comparison articles still claim Dokploy has no published CVEs, and that's out of date.

I wouldn't use these counts to rank the two. They also reflect how many researchers are looking and how each project handles disclosure, and a project that publishes everything can look worse than one that doesn't. What they do show is that a panel with shell access to your server is a high-value target that keeps producing serious bugs.

So do these things whichever one you choose:

• Keep the panel private. Block its port at the provider firewall and reach it through a VPN or SSH tunnel. An attacker needs network access to the panel to use a pre-authentication bug like the ones above.
• Update on a schedule. Subscribe to the project's releases and treat platform updates like operating system patches.
• Limit panel accounts. Many of these advisories start from a low-privilege member, so don't hand out accounts casually.
• Check it from outside. The VPS deployment checklist has the scan to run from a machine outside your network.

How Do Licensing and Pricing Differ?

Coolify is Apache 2.0, and I found no carve-out.

Dokploy's license is Apache 2.0 outside its proprietary directories, and those fall under a source-available license that requires a commercial agreement for production use. Its docs list SSO, SCIM, white-labeling, custom roles, and audit logs as Enterprise features. If you need one of those, talk to them before you build around it.

Both are free to self-host, so your main cost is the server. Both also sell a managed control plane that deploys to your own servers: Dokploy Cloud starts at $4.50 per server per month, and Coolify Cloud costs $5 per month for two servers plus $3 for each additional one. That option takes the panel off your server, along with the job of patching it.

Which Should You Choose?

Choose Coolify if you want the larger community, Caddy as an option, a pure Apache 2.0 license, or one of its additional one-click databases.

Choose Dokploy if you want Docker Swarm as a path past one server, fewer ports open during setup, or a Compose-oriented workflow where Preview Compose shows you exactly what will run.

Choose neither if one Compose file and a reverse proxy you configure yourself covers your needs. You then have no privileged panel to patch, and you write the routing, certificate, and deployment steps yourself.

I picked Dokploy because it gives me an Azure App Service style workflow on my own machines, and because one instance can deploy to my whole fleet. Coolify also supports multiple servers now, so that isn't an argument against it.

The concepts carry over if you change your mind later. Your images, Compose files, DNS, certificates, and database dumps don't belong to either platform, and that's a good reason to keep them visible instead of relying on platform-specific features.

Summary

For one small application, either platform will get you to a deployed app with HTTPS and scheduled backups in about the same number of steps. Pick based on the differences you can actually use (Swarm, Caddy, licensing), try it on a throwaway server, and don't let the choice delay your first deployment.

Whichever you choose, keep the panel private and stay on a current release, because both projects published critical advisories this year. To see Dokploy in practice, follow this .NET deployment walkthrough, or watch the free lessons from my self-hosting course.

Thanks for reading.

And stay awesome!