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3 alternatives ranked by real activity

Open-source DigitalOcean alternatives

A curated, ranked list of the 3 best open-source alternatives to DigitalOcean.

The best open-source alternative to DigitalOcean is Coolify. If that doesn't suit you, other good options are Dokploy and Ubicloud.

DigitalOcean alternatives are mainly hosting & PaaS tools. 3 of them shipped code in the last 30 days, 3 can be self-hosted, and 1 uses a permissive licence.

Last updated October 2, 2026 · ranked by GitHub stars, growth and recent commits

Coolify

A self-hostable platform for deploying apps, databases and one-click services to your own servers over SSH, an open-source alternative to Heroku, Vercel and Netlify.

GitHub stars
62k
Last commit
today
Latest release
v4.3.23
Licence
Apache-2.0
Self-hosted
Yes
Hosted version
Available
coolify.ioCoolify homepage screenshot

Coolify is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Heroku, Vercel and Netlify. It manages servers, applications and databases on hardware you control, and the only requirement is SSH access, so a VPS, a bare-metal machine or even a Raspberry Pi can serve as a target. Your configuration stays on your own servers, and if you stop using Coolify the resources it deployed keep running.

Applications can be built from GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or Gitea using Nixpacks, Railpack, a Dockerfile, Docker Compose or a prebuilt image. Hundreds of one-click services and managed-style databases come with persistent storage and generated credentials. Deployments can run on every push, create pull-request previews, call webhooks and roll back to retained images. Custom domains, automatic HTTPS, reverse proxies and health checks cover networking, while logs, container terminals and resource monitoring help with operations.

Backups, scheduled tasks, secrets, environment variables and notifications are built in, and resources can be managed through the dashboard, an API, a CLI or MCP, with team-based access controls. Coolify is Apache-2.0 licensed and built mainly with PHP; a hosted Coolify Cloud option exists for people who prefer not to run the control plane themselves.

Key features

  • Deploy from Git with Nixpacks, Dockerfile or Compose
  • Hundreds of one-click services and databases
  • Pull-request previews and rollbacks
  • Automatic HTTPS and custom domains
  • Database and storage backups
  • Multi-server management with team access controls
  • Dashboard, API, CLI and MCP management

Pricing: Self-hosting is free with no feature limits. Coolify Cloud is $5 per month including two connected servers, plus $3 per month for each additional server.

Read more about CoolifyWebsite GitHub

Dokploy

A free, self-hostable platform as a service for deploying apps, databases and Docker Compose stacks on your own servers, an alternative to Vercel, Netlify and Heroku.

GitHub stars
38k
Last commit
yesterday
Latest release
v0.30.8
Self-hosted
Yes
Hosted version
Available
dokploy.comDokploy homepage screenshot

Dokploy is an open-source, self-hostable platform as a service that simplifies deploying and managing applications and databases. It is positioned as an alternative to Heroku, Vercel and Netlify, and it runs on a VPS you control, installed with a single command.

It can deploy apps in languages such as Node.js, PHP, Python, Go and Ruby, create and manage MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MariaDB, libsql and Redis databases, and schedule database backups to external storage. Docker Compose is supported natively, and multiple nodes can be clustered with Docker Swarm or managed as remote servers. One-click templates cover open-source apps such as Plausible, PocketBase and Cal.com, Traefik handles routing and load balancing, and live monitoring shows CPU, memory, storage and network usage per resource.

A CLI and API allow automation, and notifications about deploy success or failure can go to Slack, Discord, Telegram or email. The license is listed as 'Other', so check the repository terms before redistribution. For people who want to skip installation there is a hosted Dokploy Cloud.

Key features

  • Deploy apps in many languages
  • Managed databases with automated backups
  • Native Docker Compose support
  • Multi-node scaling with Docker Swarm
  • One-click open-source templates
  • Traefik routing and load balancing
  • Real-time resource monitoring

Pricing: Hobby costs $4.50 per server per month and Startup starts at $15 per month for up to 3 servers. Enterprise (cloud or self-hosted) and Agency plans are quoted by sales; there is a 7-day free trial.

Read more about DokployWebsite GitHub

Ubicloud

An open-source cloud platform that turns bare-metal Linux servers into an AWS-style cloud with compute, storage, networking, managed Postgres, Kubernetes and AI inference.

GitHub stars
12k
Last commit
today
Licence
AGPL-3.0
Self-hosted
Yes
Hosted version
Available
ubicloud.comUbicloud homepage screenshot

Ubicloud is an open-source cloud platform designed to run on any infrastructure, described by its authors as an open alternative to cloud providers in the way Linux is to proprietary operating systems. It delivers infrastructure-as-a-service capabilities on top of bare-metal hosts, for example Hetzner, Leaseweb and AWS Bare Metal.

Its services include elastic compute, non-replicated block storage, firewalls and load balancers, managed Postgres, Kubernetes, AI inference and IAM. A control plane takes leased bare-metal Linux machines, prepares them for cloud use, and then lets you provision and manage resources through a cloud console. The project is written in Ruby and topics also mention GitHub Actions runners.

You can use the managed platform at console.ubicloud.com without installing anything, where the underlying provider's price and location benefits are passed on to you, or build your own cloud by leasing servers and running the control plane yourself. Ubicloud is licensed under AGPL-3.0. The quick-start flow is currently described for Hetzner machines running Ubuntu 24.04.

Key features

  • Elastic compute on bare-metal servers
  • Block storage, firewalls and load balancers
  • Managed PostgreSQL databases
  • Managed Kubernetes clusters
  • AI inference services
  • IAM and cloud console

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go, billed per minute: runners from $0.00125 a minute, burstable VMs from $10.47 a month, managed PostgreSQL from $19.54 and Kubernetes from $71.82 a month. You can also self-host.

Read more about UbicloudWebsite GitHub

DigitalOcean alternatives: questions

What is the best open-source alternative to DigitalOcean?
Coolify is the top-ranked open-source alternative to DigitalOcean on Enlisted: A self-hostable platform for deploying apps, databases and one-click services to your own servers over SSH, an open-source alternative to Heroku, Vercel and Netlify. Other strong options are Dokploy and Ubicloud.
Are these DigitalOcean alternatives free?
All 3 are open source, so the code is free to use under its licence, and all of them can be self-hosted on your own server or computer. 3 also offer a paid or managed cloud version if you'd rather not host it yourself.
How is this list of DigitalOcean alternatives ranked?
By a score built from GitHub stars, star growth over the last 30 days and how recently the code changed. 3 of these projects shipped code in the last 30 days. Data is refreshed daily, and nobody can pay to move up.

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