Open-source Fly.io alternatives

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.

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.

Dokku is a Docker-powered platform as a service that you install on your own server. It is billed as the smallest PaaS implementation around and as an open-source alternative to Heroku, helping you build and manage the full lifecycle of applications, from building them to scaling them.

Installation uses a bootstrap script that you run on a fresh server, after which you set a global domain and add your SSH key to the dokku user, then create apps and deploy to them. Topics refer to buildpack-based builds, containers, and scheduler support for Docker, Kubernetes and Nomad. The project has documentation, a blog, community chat on Discord, Slack and IRC, GitHub Discussions, and a Pro offering listed on the site.

Dokku is MIT licensed and written in Go and shell, with sponsors and backers supporting its development. It suits developers who like the Heroku workflow but want to run it on their own VPS for less cost or more control.

Kamal is a deployment tool for web applications that can run anywhere, from bare metal servers to cloud virtual machines. It uses a proxy component called kamal-proxy to switch requests between containers without downtime, and it works across multiple servers by running commands over SSH using SSHKit.

Originally built for Rails applications, Kamal works with any web app that can be packaged in a Docker container. Documentation on installation, configuration and commands is on kamal-deploy.org, and the documentation itself lives in a separate repository where improvements are welcome.

Kamal is written in Ruby, developed by Basecamp, and released under the MIT license. Because it deploys to servers you control, it suits teams who want a simple alternative to hosted platforms while still getting rolling, zero-downtime releases.

ZaneOps is an open-source, self-hosted platform for deploying and managing applications on your own servers. It can host static sites, web apps, databases, workers and prepackaged services such as Supabase, WordPress or Ghost, and it is positioned as a free alternative to Heroku, Railway and Render.

Under the hood it uses Docker Swarm for scalability and Caddy for routing, and it presents a dashboard with onboarding, project views, HTTP logs and runtime logs. Projects group related services together, and the documentation covers installation steps and further setup. The project says it was inspired by Plane for its contribution guidelines and by Coolify and Dokploy as other self-hosted deployment tools.

ZaneOps is written in Python, and its licence is listed as other, so review the repository terms before relying on it. It is installed on a server you control, with a milestone-based public roadmap. It suits solo developers, startups and teams that want a Heroku-style workflow without paying for a managed PaaS or giving up control of their infrastructure.

Sidekick is a CLI that turns a plain Ubuntu VPS into a simple platform for deploying applications. The author describes it as having Fly.io on your own server, aimed at developers who are tired of the complexity and cost of hosting side projects and prefer a cheap virtual machine they control.

A single command prepares the VPS, installing Docker, Traefik, SOPS and age, and further commands deploy any application that has a Dockerfile. Features include zero-downtime deployment, high availability and load balancing, automatic SSL certificates, support for connecting domains or using sslip.io out of the box, and built-in integration with SOPS for encrypted secrets. All you need is an Ubuntu server with a public IP address and an SSH key.

Sidekick is written in Go and licensed under GPL-3.0, and it is installed through Homebrew, which it also uses to install SOPS locally. Setup takes a couple of minutes according to the README. It is positioned as a Heroku-style alternative without vendor lock-in, so it suits solo developers and small teams hosting several web apps on one server.