TempsTemps

Temps vs Dokku

Researched and updated 2026-08-07

Single server and a CLI, or a platform with a dashboard.

Dokku has been deploying apps by git push since long before Temps existed, and it is battle-tested. The two real differences: Dokku runs on a single server by design, and it has no built-in analytics, error tracking or uptime monitoring — those are plugins or separate services.

Get started with TempsAll comparisons

Monthly cost at a glance

Temps
Dokku
Self-hosted
$0
$0
Commercial edition
N/A
Dokku Pro is a paid product
With full observability
$0
$0 plus separate tools to run yourself,
Infrastructure
~$6/mo on your own VPS
Your own VPS, 1GB minimum
$curl -fsSL https://temps.sh/deploy.sh | bash

The short answer

Choose Temps if you…

  • You need to deploy across more than one server
  • You want a web dashboard rather than SSH and a CLI
  • You want analytics, error tracking and uptime monitoring without adding services
  • You want preview environments created per pull request automatically
  • You need managed Postgres with high availability

Choose Dokku if you…

  • One server is genuinely enough and you want the simplest thing that works
  • You value a decade of production use and a large plugin ecosystem
  • You are comfortable operating entirely from the command line
  • You already have observability you are happy with
  • You want the smallest possible resource footprint — Dokku runs in 1GB

Why teams switch from Dokku

More than one server
Dokku is documented as running on a single server of your choice and does not support multi-server deployments natively. Temps manages several servers from one control plane, which is the ceiling teams usually hit first.
Built-in observability
Dokku's core does not include analytics, error tracking, session replay or uptime monitoring. Temps includes all four, so a deployed app is instrumented without adding services.
A web dashboard
Dokku is driven from the command line over SSH. Temps has a web interface for deployments, logs, metrics and databases, which matters when more than one person operates the platform.
Preview environments per pull request
Temps creates a preview environment for every pull request automatically. On Dokku this is an app-per-branch convention you build and tear down yourself.

Feature comparison

What each platform includes out of the box, and what needs a separate subscription.

  • Git push deployments

    Temps

    Yes

    Dokku

    Yes
    The original strength

  • Dockerfile and buildpack builds

    Temps

    Yes

    Dokku

    Yes

  • Zero-downtime deploys

    Temps

    Yes

    Dokku

    Yes

  • Automatic SSL

    Temps

    Yes

    Dokku

    Yes
    Via the Let's Encrypt plugin

  • Custom domains

    Temps

    Yes

    Dokku

    Yes

  • Multi-server support

    Temps

    Yes
    Several servers, one control plane

    Dokku

    No
    Single server by design

  • Web dashboard

    Temps

    Yes
    Full management UI

    Dokku

    No
    CLI over SSH

  • Preview environments

    Temps

    Yes
    Per pull request

    Dokku

    No
    Manual app-per-branch

  • Managed PostgreSQL

    Temps

    Yes
    HA clusters

    Dokku

    Yes
    Via plugin, no HA

  • Managed Redis

    Temps

    Yes

    Dokku

    Yes
    Via plugin

  • S3-compatible storage

    Temps

    Yes
    Built in

    Dokku

    No

  • Error tracking

    Temps

    Yes
    Sentry-compatible

    Dokku

    No
    Not in core

  • Analytics

    Temps

    Yes
    Privacy-first, built in

    Dokku

    No
    Not in core

  • Session replay

    Temps

    Yes
    rrweb-based

    Dokku

    No

  • Uptime monitoring

    Temps

    Yes
    60s checks + alerting

    Dokku

    No
    Not in core

  • Transactional email

    Temps

    Yes
    SMTP, SES, Scaleway, Cloudflare

    Dokku

    No

  • Plugin ecosystem

    Temps

    No

    Dokku

    Yes
    Large and long-established

  • Open source

    Temps

    Yes
    Apache 2.0

    Dokku

    Yes
    Open source, with a commercial Dokku Pro

What it actually costs

Both are free and open source, and on a single small server the honest answer is that Dokku costs less to learn and does the job. The gap opens when you need a second server, a dashboard other people can use, or observability that is not four more services to run.

ScenarioTempsDokku
Self-hosted$0$0
Commercial editionN/ADokku Pro is a paid product
With full observability$0 (included)$0 plus separate tools to run yourself, or paid SaaS (e.g. Sentry Team $26/mo)
Infrastructure~$6/mo on your own VPSYour own VPS, 1GB minimum

Migrating from Dokku

Easy difficulty

Dokku apps are container-based, so images and Dockerfiles port directly and buildpack apps rebuild without changes. Config variables map to Temps environment variables one for one. Database plugins are the fiddly part: dump and restore rather than expecting a live migration. You gain a dashboard, multi-server support and built-in observability; you give up Dokku's plugin ecosystem, so check whether any plugin you rely on has an equivalent before committing.

Frequently asked questions

Is Dokku free?

Yes, Dokku is open source and free to self-host. A separate commercial product, Dokku Pro, is also available.

Can Dokku deploy across multiple servers?

Not natively. Dokku's documentation describes it as running on a single server of your choice. Multi-server deployment is the most common reason teams outgrow it.

What are Dokku's system requirements?

Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04, or Debian 11 and later, on AMD64 or arm64, with a minimum of 1GB of memory for the Docker scheduler and 2GB per node for the K3s scheduler.

Does Dokku include monitoring or analytics?

Not in core. Error tracking, analytics, session replay and uptime monitoring are separate services or plugins you add and operate yourself.

How we researched this comparison

Dokku's deployment model and system requirements read from its official installation documentation. Temps capabilities from this repository. No benchmarks were run.

Disclosure: Temps publishes this page and is one of the products being compared.

Ready to switch from Dokku?

Self-host Temps for free, or run it on Temps Cloud from ~$6/mo.

Read the quickstart guideSee pricing