Dokku · Self-hosted

Last updated October 10, 2026 · Written by Temps, one of the products compared. Sources and method

Temps vs Dokku

A minimal CLI PaaS, or a platform with a dashboard.

Get started with Temps All comparisons

Monthly cost at a glance

Temps

Dokku

Self-hosted

Commercial edition

N/A

Dokku Pro is a paid product

With full observability

$0 plus separate tools to run yourself,

Infrastructure

Free on your own VPS

Your own VPS, 1GB minimum

$curl -fsSL https://temps.sh/deploy.sh | bash

The short answer

Is Temps better than Dokku? It depends on what you need. Here is what each one is, and what Dokku has that Temps doesn't.

Dokku: Dokku is driven entirely from the command line, fits in 1GB of RAM on a single server, and has a decade of production use and a large plugin ecosystem behind it. To scale out, its K3s scheduler (since 0.33.0) turns servers into a Kubernetes cluster.
Temps: Temps joins worker nodes to one control plane without Kubernetes, has a web dashboard alongside its CLI, and includes analytics, error tracking, session replay and uptime monitoring, which is also why its footprint is larger.
What Dokku has that Temps doesn't: A decade of production use, a large plugin ecosystem, and a much smaller resource footprint. Both are free to self-host; the axis is a minimal CLI tool against a platform that also stores and shows your telemetry.

Scored, dimension by dimension

Multiple servers
Tie
Temps
Worker nodes join one control plane, no Kubernetes
Dokku
K3s (Kubernetes) cluster via its scheduler
Web dashboard
Temps
Temps
Full UI plus a CLI
Dokku
CLI only
Built-in observability
Temps
Temps
Analytics, errors, replay, uptime
Dokku
None — plugins or separate tools
Resource footprint
Dokku
Temps
Heavier — bundles telemetry storage
Dokku
Runs in 1GB RAM
Maturity and plugin ecosystem
Dokku
Temps
Pre-1.0 (v0.1.0 prereleases)
Dokku
A decade of use, large plugin catalogue

Dimension	Temps	Dokku	Winner
Multiple servers	Worker nodes join one control plane, no Kubernetes	K3s (Kubernetes) cluster via its scheduler	Tie
Web dashboard	Full UI plus a CLI	CLI only	Temps
Built-in observability	Analytics, errors, replay, uptime	None — plugins or separate tools	Temps
Resource footprint	Heavier — bundles telemetry storage	Runs in 1GB RAM	Dokku
Maturity and plugin ecosystem	Pre-1.0 (v0.1.0 prereleases)	A decade of use, large plugin catalogue	Dokku

Why teams switch from Dokku

Dokku has been deploying apps by git push since long before Temps existed, and it is battle-tested. The two real differences: Dokku is driven from the CLI and scales out by running K3s, where Temps has a web dashboard and joins worker nodes to its own control plane; and Dokku has no built-in analytics, error tracking or uptime monitoring, which are plugins or separate services.

More than one server, without Kubernetes: Dokku starts on one server, and its K3s scheduler (new in 0.33.0) adds nodes by installing K3s on them, so a multi-server Dokku is a Kubernetes cluster with 2GB of memory per node. Temps joins servers to one control plane with 'temps join' over a private network you provide, with no Kubernetes to run.
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
Worker nodes, one control plane
Dokku
Yes
K3s scheduler (since 0.33.0)
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
Through SES, Scaleway or an SMTP relay
Dokku
No
Plugin ecosystem
Temps
No
Dokku
Yes
Large and long-established
Open source
Temps
Yes
MIT / Apache 2.0
Dokku
Yes
MIT, with a commercial Dokku Pro

Feature	Temps	Dokku
Git push deployments	Yes	Yes The original strength
Dockerfile and buildpack builds	Yes	Yes
Zero-downtime deploys	Yes	Yes
Automatic SSL	Yes	Yes Via the Let's Encrypt plugin
Custom domains	Yes	Yes
Multi-server support	Yes Worker nodes, one control plane	Yes K3s scheduler (since 0.33.0)
Web dashboard	Yes Full management UI	No CLI over SSH
Preview environments	Yes Per pull request	No Manual app-per-branch
Managed PostgreSQL	Yes HA clusters	Yes Via plugin, no HA
Managed Redis	Yes	Yes Via plugin
S3-compatible storage	Yes Built in	No
Error tracking	Yes Sentry-compatible	No Not in core
Analytics	Yes Privacy-first, built in	No Not in core
Session replay	Yes rrweb-based	No
Uptime monitoring	Yes 60s checks + alerting	No Not in core
Transactional email	Yes Through SES, Scaleway or an SMTP relay	No
Plugin ecosystem	No	Yes Large and long-established
Open source	Yes MIT / Apache 2.0	Yes MIT, with a commercial Dokku Pro
End of Dokku feature group

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 want a dashboard other people can use, observability that is not several more services to run (or about $211/month of Sentry Team, Plausible and LogRocket), or more servers without operating Kubernetes.

Scenario	Temps	Dokku
Self-hosted	$0	$0
Commercial edition	N/A	Dokku 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	Free on your own VPS	Your own VPS, 1GB minimum (2GB per node with K3s)

Which one should you choose?

Choose Temps if you…

You want several servers without running Kubernetes
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

What Dokku does better than Temps

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

Migrating from Dokku

Easy difficulty

Dokku apps are container-based, so Dockerfile apps port directly and most buildpack apps rebuild from the same repository (a custom buildpack needs a Dockerfile). Config variables export with config:export and 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-node worker clusters and built-in observability; you give up Dokku's plugin ecosystem, so check whether any plugin you rely on has an equivalent before committing.

Step-by-step: migrate from Dokku to Temps

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?

Yes. Since 0.33.0 Dokku has a K3s scheduler: `dokku scheduler-k3s:cluster:add` installs K3s on another server over SSH and joins it to the cluster, and apps are scheduled across nodes by Kubernetes. Each node needs at least 2GB of memory. Temps takes a different route: worker nodes join one control plane with `temps join` over a private network you provide, without Kubernetes.

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.

Related comparisons

How we researched this comparison

Dokku's deployment model, K3s scheduler and system requirements read from its official documentation on 2026-10-08. Temps capabilities from this repository. No benchmarks were run.

Disclosure: Temps publishes this page and is one of the products being compared. Reviewed by David Viejo, founder of Temps.

Ready to switch from Dokku?

Self-host Temps for free, or run it with a Premium licence. Temps Cloud, a hosted control plane for your own servers, is $29/month in an invite-only beta, with your servers billed separately.

Read the quickstart guide See pricing