# 7 Best Self-Hosted Deployment Platforms in 2026 > Seven self-hosted deployment platforms compared: Temps, Coolify, Dokploy, CapRover, Kamal, Dokku and Portainer. Only Temps bundles analytics and replay. David Viejo · Published 2026-03-29 · Updated 2026-11-05 · 14 min read Canonical: https://temps.sh/blog/7-best-self-hosted-deployment-platforms-2026 The seven best self-hosted deployment platforms in 2026 are Temps, Coolify, Dokploy, Dokku, CapRover, Portainer and Kamal. Temps is the pick if you want deployment plus analytics, error tracking, session replay and uptime monitoring in one binary; Coolify has the biggest community but is built around deployment, so monitoring stays a separate stack. **Coolify leads in GitHub stars with about 62,700 (October 2026), but Coolify, Dokku, Dokploy, Portainer, CapRover, and Kamal are all built around deployment.** Coolify added opt-in traffic analytics in v4.4, yet none of them bundles error tracking or session replay, so you bolt on separate tools (Plausible, Sentry Team and LogRocket alone are $211/month as SaaS). This guide ranks seven self-hosted deployment platforms on features, community health, and total cost of ownership, using each project's documentation, GitHub repository and pricing page (checked October 2026). We factored in what most rankings don't: the cost of the monitoring tools you'll need alongside each platform. For the deployment-plus-observability angle in depth, see [self-hosted PaaS with built-in analytics and monitoring](https://temps.sh/blog/self-hosted-paas-with-built-in-analytics-monitoring-2026). > **TL;DR:** Most self-hosted PaaS platforms solve deployment but not observability — you'll still need Sentry Team ($26/mo), Plausible ($9/mo), and a session replay tool such as LogRocket (from $176/mo) on top. Temps bundles all of those into a single binary, free to self-host on the server you already run. Coolify has the biggest community (\~62.7K stars) and the largest app marketplace. > **Disclosure:** Temps publishes this blog, so treat our ranking of Temps first as a vendor ranking its own product. We placed it first for teams that want error tracking, session replay, analytics and uptime monitoring in the same self-hosted install. Every other tool is described from its own documentation, repository and pricing page (checked October 2026), and we say where another tool is the better fit. **Is Temps a good self-hosted alternative to Vercel and Coolify?** Yes — Temps is the only platform on this list that combines Vercel-style git-push deployments with Coolify-style self-hosting, plus built-in analytics, error tracking, and session replay that neither Vercel nor Coolify includes. It's [free to self-host](https://temps.sh/pricing), has no per-seat fees, and runs as a single binary (it needs Docker on the host, but no Docker Compose orchestration for the platform itself). Try it with the [quickstart](https://temps.sh/docs/quickstart). ## Self-Hosted Deployment Platform Comparison 2026 | Platform | GitHub Stars | Built-in Analytics | Error Tracking | Session Replay | Uptime Monitoring | Multi-Node | Software Cost | | ------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------- | -------------- | -------------- | ----------------- | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Temps** | Public since Oct 2025 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free (MIT / Apache 2.0) | | **Coolify** | \~62,700 | Opt-in traffic analytics (v4.4) | No | No | No | Yes | Free; Cloud dashboard from [$5/mo](https://coolify.io/pricing) | | **Dokku** | \~32,200 | No | No | No | No | Via K3s scheduler | Free (MIT) | | **Dokploy** | \~37,700 | No | No | No | No | Yes | Free; Cloud from [$4.50/server](https://dokploy.com/pricing) | | **Portainer** | \~38,600 | No | No | No | No | Yes | Free CE; paid [Business Edition](https://www.portainer.io/pricing) | | **CapRover** | \~15,100 | No | No | No | No | Yes | Free (open source) | | **Kamal** | \~14,600 | No | No | No | No | Yes | Free (open source) | Star counts are from GitHub on 8 October 2026. The "Software Cost" column is the price of the software itself. All of them need a server, for example a Hetzner CX23 at €5.49/month excluding VAT (checked October 2026). If the platform doesn't include observability, add the SaaS you'd pay for instead: $211/month for Plausible, Sentry Team and LogRocket, plus an uptime monitor. That changes the math significantly. Temps is the youngest project in this table (public repo since October 2025, first public prerelease [v0.1.0-beta.7](https://github.com/gotempsh/temps) in May 2026), so its GitHub star count isn't a fair comparison point against decade-old projects like Dokku yet — the differentiator worth checking instead is the feature columns above: Temps is the only row with five "Yes" answers. You can verify the bundled feature set directly in the [source repo](https://github.com/gotempsh/temps) rather than taking a vendor's word for it. --- ## 1. Temps — Best All-in-One Self-Hosted Platform Temps replaces seven SaaS tools with a single Rust binary: Vercel (git-push deployments), PostHog (web analytics and session replay), Sentry (error tracking), Pingdom (uptime monitoring), Datadog (OpenTelemetry traces, metrics and logs), Resend (transactional email) and E2B (AI agent sandboxes) — with managed Postgres, Redis, MongoDB and S3-compatible storage on top. Temps itself is free to self-host — the only cost is the server you already run it on. The [quickstart](https://temps.sh/docs/quickstart) gets it running on a fresh server. ### What Makes Temps Different? Every other platform on this list handles deployment. Temps handles what happens _after_ deployment — which is where most of the SaaS spending actually goes. Git-push deployments, preview environments, zero-downtime rollouts, and a Pingora-based reverse proxy are table stakes. The built-in observability stack is the differentiator. Here's the real cost comparison for a typical 5-person team: | Tool Category | SaaS Cost | With Temps | | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- | ----------------- | | Deployment (Vercel Pro) | $100/mo ($20 incl. 1 deploying seat + 4 × $20) | Included | | Analytics (Plausible Starter) | $9/mo | Included | | Error Tracking (Sentry Team) | $26/mo | Included | | Session Replay (LogRocket) | from $176/mo | Included | | Uptime Monitoring (UptimeRobot Solo) | \~$10/mo | Included | | **Total** | **\~$321/mo** | **$0 (included)** | ### Pros - Single binary install — no Docker Compose orchestration needed - Built-in analytics, error tracking, session replay, uptime monitoring - Pingora reverse proxy (same tech Cloudflare uses) - Multi-node support: worker nodes join over a private network you provide (`temps join`) - Free to self-host; Temps Cloud (a hosted control plane for your own servers) is $29/month in an invite-only beta ### Cons - Newer than Dokku (2013) and Coolify — which is exactly why it's the only platform here built from the start around a bundled observability stack the older deployment-only tools were never designed for. The community is smaller but growing. - Smaller one-click template catalog than Coolify's 360+ — Temps focuses on the deploy-plus-observability core rather than a service marketplace, so the bundled analytics, error tracking, and session replay are what you get out of the box instead. - No SOC 2 or HIPAA attestation — compliance-bound enterprises may still need Vercel's certifications. SAML SSO, SCIM and approval gates are available in the paid Premium licence ($399 per organisation per month); the free build has teams, OIDC login and MFA. ### Best For Teams that want to consolidate their entire deployment and observability stack into one tool. Especially useful for indie hackers and startups who can't justify $200+/mo in monitoring SaaS. Temps is free to self-host (MIT / Apache 2.0) with no deployment caps and no seat restrictions, and its reverse proxy is built on Pingora, the framework Cloudflare uses for over a trillion requests a day. A solo developer replacing Vercel Pro ($20/mo), Sentry Team ($26/mo, billed annually) and Plausible ($9/mo) saves $55/mo. See [Temps pricing](https://temps.sh/pricing) for Premium and the Temps Cloud beta. --- ## 2. Coolify — Best Community and App Marketplace Coolify has the largest community of any self-hosted PaaS with roughly 62,700 GitHub stars and 360+ one-click service templates. It's the closest thing to a self-hosted Heroku with a polished web UI. See [Temps vs Coolify](https://temps.sh/compare/vs-coolify), the [5 best Coolify alternatives](https://temps.sh/blog/5-best-coolify-alternatives-self-hosted-paas-2026), or the [Coolify migration guide](https://temps.sh/docs/from-coolify) if you're moving off it. ### What Makes Coolify Stand Out? The app marketplace. Need PostgreSQL, Redis, MinIO, or Plausible? One click. Coolify wraps Docker Compose deployments in a clean UI and handles SSL, backups, and multi-server orchestration. Coolify Cloud ($5/month including 2 connected servers, +$3 per extra server) hosts the Coolify dashboard for you; your apps still run on servers you provide. ### Pros - 360+ one-click services — one of the largest app marketplaces among self-hosted PaaS (Easypanel lists more) - Polished, intuitive web dashboard - v4 stable since April 2026, with frequent point releases (v4.4.x in October 2026) - Multi-server support via SSH - Coolify Cloud hosts the dashboard for your own servers from $5/mo ### Cons - No built-in error tracking, session replay or uptime checks (traffic analytics is opt-in since v4.4) — you'll need separate tools - Multi-server works over SSH only; Docker Swarm is deprecated (removed in v5) and there is no Kubernetes option - Resource-heavy compared to lighter alternatives like Dokku ### Best For Developers who want the widest app marketplace and don't mind assembling their monitoring stack from separate tools. Great for agencies managing multiple client projects. --- ## 3. Dokku — Best Minimalist Heroku Replacement Dokku is the original self-hosted PaaS, running since 2013. With roughly 32,200 GitHub stars and Heroku buildpack compatibility, it's the most battle-tested option on this list. See [Temps vs Dokku](https://temps.sh/compare/vs-dokku). Now that Heroku has moved to a ["sustaining engineering" model](https://www.heroku.com/blog/an-update-on-heroku/) (February 2026) — prioritising stability, security and support over new features, and no longer offering Enterprise contracts to new customers — Dokku is the natural migration path. ### What Makes Dokku Unique? Simplicity. Dokku is built around a single server (multi-server needs its K3s scheduler), uses `git push` for deployments, and supports Heroku buildpacks out of the box. If you're migrating from Heroku, your `Procfile` and buildpacks work as-is. The documentation is excellent — arguably the best of any self-hosted PaaS. ### Pros - Heroku buildpack compatible — easiest migration path from Heroku - Lowest resource usage — runs comfortably on a 1 GB RAM server - Excellent documentation and mature community - Simple `git push dokku main` workflow - Plugin ecosystem for databases, caching, SSL ### Cons - Multi-server only through the K3s scheduler, which means running Kubernetes underneath - No web dashboard (CLI only) - No preview environments per pull request - No built-in monitoring or observability tools ### Best For Solo developers and small teams migrating from Heroku who value simplicity over features. If you run one or two apps on a single VPS and don't need a GUI, Dokku is hard to beat. --- ## 4. Dokploy — Best for AI-Assisted Deployments Dokploy is the newest serious contender, launched in April 2024, with roughly 37,700 GitHub stars. Its standout feature is an AI-powered Docker Compose generator that writes deployment configs from natural language descriptions. Container usage hit [92% among IT professionals in 2025](https://www.docker.com/blog/2025-docker-state-of-app-dev/) (Docker State of App Dev Report), and Dokploy makes that complexity more accessible. Note on licensing: Dokploy is Apache-2.0 except code in its /proprietary folders (enterprise features under the Dokploy Source Available License, which needs a commercial agreement for production use) — read the licence terms if you plan to use those enterprise features in production. See [Temps vs Dokploy](https://temps.sh/compare/vs-dokploy) and the [Dokploy alternatives](https://temps.sh/blog/dokploy-alternatives-2026) roundup. ### What Makes Dokploy Different? The AI deployment assistant. Describe what you want — "deploy a Next.js app with PostgreSQL and Redis" — and Dokploy generates the Docker Compose config. It also builds with Nixpacks, Railpack, Heroku Buildpacks and Paketo buildpacks; SSO/SAML is on its Enterprise plan. ### Pros - AI-powered Docker Compose generator - Modern UI with real-time build logs - SSO/SAML available on the Enterprise plan - Nixpacks, Railpack, Heroku Buildpacks and Paketo buildpack support - Active development with frequent releases - Environment management for staging/production ### Cons - Younger than Coolify or Dokku — less battle-tested - Multi-node scaling limited to Docker Swarm - Smaller plugin ecosystem than Coolify or Dokku - Basic CPU/memory monitoring only; no analytics or error tracking - Enterprise features in its /proprietary folders (SSO/SAML, SCIM, audit logs, fine-grained RBAC) need a commercial agreement for production use; the rest is Apache-2.0 ### Best For Teams that want modern DX with AI-assisted deployments and don't mind being on a newer platform. Particularly good if you're already comfortable with Docker Compose. ### Dokploy vs Temps: Which Should You Choose? Both are younger platforms competing on modern DX, but they solve different problems. **Dokploy's edge is its AI Docker Compose generator** — genuinely useful if you want natural-language config generation. **Temps's edge is everything after the deploy**: built-in analytics, error tracking, session replay, and uptime monitoring that Dokploy doesn't have at all, on an MIT / Apache 2.0 codebase (Premium features ship in a separately licensed Enterprise Edition binary). If you pick Dokploy, budget for the same bolt-on observability tooling you'd need with Coolify or Dokku — $211/month as SaaS for Plausible, Sentry Team and LogRocket. If deployment plus observability in one binary matters more to you than an AI compose generator, Temps is the pick — verify both feature sets in their public repos ([Temps](https://github.com/gotempsh/temps), Dokploy) rather than taking either vendor's word for it. --- ## 5. Portainer — Best Container Management GUI Portainer isn't a deployment platform in the traditional PaaS sense — it's a container management interface. But with about 38,600 GitHub stars and support for Docker, Kubernetes, and Docker Swarm, it's the most versatile tool for teams that already have containerized infrastructure and need visibility. ### What Makes Portainer Different? Breadth. Where other tools on this list are Docker-only, Portainer manages Docker standalone, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, and Azure Container Instances through a single UI. The Community Edition is free forever. Business Edition adds RBAC, SSO, audit logs, and registry management. ### Pros - Manages Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes, and ACI in one UI - Community Edition is genuinely free (no hidden limits) - Excellent container visualization and log access - Edge computing support for distributed deployments - Strong enterprise offering with RBAC and audit trails ### Cons - Not a PaaS — no `git push` deployment workflow - No buildpack support (you bring pre-built images) - Business Edition is a paid, per-node licence - No built-in analytics, error tracking, or observability ### Best For DevOps teams managing existing container infrastructure across multiple orchestrators. Not the right choice if you want git-push PaaS simplicity — better paired with a CI/CD pipeline. --- ## 6. CapRover — Best for Legacy Stability CapRover has been running since 2017, making it one of the most mature self-hosted PaaS options with about 15,100 GitHub stars and 350+ one-click apps. It brought "PaaS on your own servers" to a web UI before Coolify or Dokploy existed. See [Temps vs CapRover](https://temps.sh/compare/vs-caprover). ### What Makes CapRover Unique? Maturity. CapRover's been in production for nearly a decade. The one-click app marketplace covers all the common databases and services. It uses Captain Definition files (similar to Dockerfiles) for build configuration and supports both Docker Compose and raw Dockerfiles. ### Pros - Most battle-tested option (since 2017) - 350+ one-click applications - Low resource usage — runs on modest hardware - Built-in SSL with Let's Encrypt - Web-based terminal access to containers ### Cons - Slower feature cadence than Coolify or Dokploy (maintenance releases in the v1.15 line) - Limited monitoring and notification options - Smaller community than Coolify or Dokploy - No preview environments ### Best For Teams running stable, long-lived applications that don't need frequent platform updates. If it's running well, CapRover will keep running — but don't expect many new features. --- ## 7. Kamal — Best for Rails and Bare Metal Kamal is built by 37signals (Basecamp, HEY) and ships as the default deployment tool with Rails 8.0. With about 14,600 GitHub stars and DHH's personal backing, it has strong momentum. It's the tool 37signals used while cutting its annual cloud bill from [$3.2M to under $1M](https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/09/37signals_cloud_repatriation_storage_savings/) (The Register, 2025). See [Temps vs Kamal](https://temps.sh/compare/vs-kamal). ### What Makes Kamal Different? Philosophy. Where every other tool on this list provides a web dashboard, Kamal is CLI-only by design. It uses SSH to deploy Docker containers directly to bare metal or VPS servers with zero-downtime rolling deploys via a custom `kamal-proxy`. No orchestrator, no control plane — just SSH and Docker. ### Pros - Ships with Rails 8.0 — zero-config for Rails apps - Zero-downtime deploys with custom kamal-proxy - Works with any Docker app (not Rails-only) - Backed by 37signals — proven at scale - No control plane overhead — direct SSH deployment ### Cons - CLI-only — no web UI or dashboard - Requires SSH access to all target servers - Ruby dependency for the CLI tool - No built-in database management or provisioning - No app marketplace or one-click templates - Steeper learning curve for non-Rails developers ### Best For Rails developers and teams following the 37signals philosophy of owning your infrastructure. Especially strong for bare metal deployments where you want direct control without abstraction layers. --- ## How to Choose the Right Platform The right platform depends on what you're optimizing for. Here's a decision tree: **Want the simplest Heroku migration?** → Dokku. Your buildpacks and Procfiles work as-is. **Want a big app marketplace?** → Coolify. 360+ one-click services (Easypanel lists more). **Want deployment + observability in one tool?** → Temps. Only option that bundles analytics, error tracking, session replay, and uptime monitoring. **Want AI-assisted deployments?** → Dokploy. Natural language to Docker Compose is genuinely useful. **Need to manage existing Kubernetes clusters?** → Portainer. Only tool on this list that handles K8s natively. **Running Rails on bare metal?** → Kamal. Built by 37signals for exactly this use case. **Need rock-solid stability above all?** → CapRover. Nearly a decade in production. **Related:** [Best deployment platforms for solo developers in 2026](https://temps.sh/blog/best-deployment-platforms-solo-developers-2026) · [5 best Coolify alternatives](https://temps.sh/blog/5-best-coolify-alternatives-self-hosted-paas-2026) · [Self-hosted PaaS with built-in analytics and monitoring](https://temps.sh/blog/self-hosted-paas-with-built-in-analytics-monitoring-2026) · [9 best Heroku alternatives](https://temps.sh/blog/9-best-heroku-alternatives-2026) --- ## Is Temps Good for Solo Developers? Yes — Temps is specifically well-suited for solo developers and small teams. A solo developer on Vercel Pro + Sentry + Plausible pays $55+/mo minimum. On Temps, the same stack is free to self-host — just the server you already run: | Stack | Solo Developer Cost | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | Vercel Hobby (free, non-commercial) + Sentry Developer (free); Plausible has no free plan, only a 30-day trial | $0 (with severe limits, and no analytics) | | Vercel Pro + Sentry Team (annual) + Plausible Starter | $55+/mo | | **Temps Cloud (all included)** | **$29/mo (invite-only beta) + your server** | | Temps self-hosted | **Free** | This is where Temps stands out most clearly for growing teams: no per-seat fees mean a team that grows from 1 to 5 people sees no change in their platform bill. --- ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What are the best self-hosted deployment platforms in 2026? **Temps is the top pick** because it's the only platform on this list that bundles git-push deployment with built-in analytics, error tracking, session replay, and uptime monitoring in a single Rust binary. The others are built around deployment, so you add those tools separately (about $211/month as SaaS for Plausible, Sentry Team and LogRocket). After Temps, the best choice depends on what you're optimizing for: **Coolify** for the largest app marketplace (\~62,700 GitHub stars, 280+ one-click templates), **Dokku** for the simplest Heroku migration (buildpack-compatible since 2013), **Dokploy** for AI-assisted Docker Compose generation, **Kamal** for Rails and bare-metal SSH deploys, **Portainer** for managing existing Kubernetes and Swarm clusters, and **CapRover** for stability on long-lived apps. Verify the Temps feature set yourself in the [source repo](https://github.com/gotempsh/temps). ### Dokploy vs Temps: Which Should You Choose? **Choose Temps if you want deployment plus observability in one tool; choose Dokploy if you specifically want its AI Docker Compose generator.** Temps is a single Rust binary that bundles git-push deployments with built-in analytics, error tracking, session replay, and uptime monitoring — Dokploy (\~37,700 GitHub stars, launched April 2024) handles deployment and basic CPU/memory monitoring only, so you'd still need to add error tracking, analytics and session replay separately, the same gap every other deployment-focused tool on this list has. Dokploy is Apache-2.0 except code in its /proprietary folders (enterprise features under the Dokploy Source Available License, which needs a commercial agreement for production use); Temps' open-source binary is licensed MIT / Apache 2.0, with Premium features in a separately licensed Enterprise Edition. If natural-language-to-Docker-Compose generation is your priority, Dokploy is genuinely good at that. If you want the deployment platform and the monitoring stack to be the same product, Temps is the pick — verify the feature and license claims directly in each project's public repo ([Temps](https://github.com/gotempsh/temps), Dokploy) rather than taking either vendor's word for it. ### What's the cheapest self-hosted deployment platform? Dokku and Temps are both free to self-host and run on a Hetzner CX23 (2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM) at €5.49/month excluding VAT (checked 7 October 2026). Dokku has the lowest resource footprint for single-server setups. However, Temps saves more on total cost because you don't need separate analytics ($9/mo), error tracking ($26/mo), or session replay (from $176/mo) tools — those are built in. ### Can I migrate from Heroku to a self-hosted platform? Yes — Dokku supports Heroku buildpacks natively, making it the easiest migration path. Coolify, Dokploy, and Temps support Docker-based deployments, so any app with a Dockerfile works. With Heroku on a ["sustaining engineering" model since February 2026](https://www.heroku.com/blog/an-update-on-heroku/), prioritising stability and security over new features, more teams are planning a move. Our [9 best Heroku alternatives](https://temps.sh/blog/9-best-heroku-alternatives-2026) compares the options, and the [Heroku migration guide](https://temps.sh/docs/from-heroku) covers moving to Temps. ### Is self-hosting safe for production workloads? Container usage among IT professionals hit [92% in 2025](https://www.docker.com/blog/2025-docker-state-of-app-dev/) (Docker State of App Dev Report). Self-hosted platforms use the same Docker containerization as managed cloud providers. The key differences are that you handle OS updates, backups, and security patches. Platforms like Temps and Coolify automate SSL certificates and include backup tooling — but you're still responsible for the underlying server. ### Do I need Kubernetes for self-hosted deployments? No. None of the platforms on this list require Kubernetes (though Portainer can manage K8s clusters). Docker-based deployment is sufficient for most teams. Kubernetes dominates large-scale orchestration, but for small teams Docker with a PaaS layer is simpler and cheaper. --- Source: https://temps.sh/blog/7-best-self-hosted-deployment-platforms-2026 · Index of all pages: https://temps.sh/llms.txt