Blog · Alternatives
Best Dokploy alternatives in 2026: self-hosted PaaS and managed hosting
You run Dokploy, or were about to, and something made you look around: the licence that changed in January, 56 security advisories in one year, a server that is still yours to patch. Dokploy alternatives in 2026 are of three kinds: another self-hosted PaaS, a hosted panel on a server you still rent, and managed hosting that runs the same Docker Compose file on a machine someone else looks after. Pethost is the third: €9.99 a month for 2 vCPU, 3 GB and 30 GB, with HTTPS, backups and request logs done.
- Why people look past Dokploy: paid features in a source-available
/proprietarydirectory since January 2026; 56 security advisories in 2026, 33 critical; still 0.x. - Another self-hosted PaaS (Coolify, CapRover, Dokku, Easypanel) changes the panel. The server, its updates and the backup storage stay yours.
- A hosted panel: Dokploy Cloud is $4.50 a month per server, Coolify Cloud $5 for two. Both host the panel only.
- Managed hosting: Pethost runs a Compose project as written on a machine it looks after: €9.99 a month for 2 vCPU, 3 GB and 30 GB. The same 3 GB is $30.00 at Railway's rates and €28.80 on Sliplane.
Why people look for Dokploy alternatives in 2026
Dokploy is a self-hosted PaaS: a free panel you install on a server you rent, to deploy applications, databases and Compose projects.
The Dokploy license: Apache 2.0, and a proprietary directory for paid features
Dokploy's code is under the Apache License 2.0, except a /proprietary directory. That directory is under the Dokploy Source Available License 1.0: the source can be read, and running it in production takes a commercial agreement. The split dates from 21 January 2026, with a promise of “never moving functionality from our open source license to our paid license”.
The paid features today are custom roles, SSO, SCIM, application authentication, audit logs and whitelabeling. Deployments, databases, Compose, domains and several servers are in the free edition, so what a solo developer deploys with is all Apache 2.0. What changed is the model: Dokploy is open core now, and advanced features to come can be paid ones.
Its youth: version 0.30, and 56 security advisories in 2026
The latest release is v0.30.8, of 29 September 2026: the eighth in six weeks, and still 0.x. The repository lists 56 security advisories published in 2026, 33 of them critical. Each advisory is an update, and a self-hosted Dokploy is updated by hand. Dokploy is not alone: Coolify's repository lists 61 for 2026, 16 critical.
The server is yours, and Compose has gaps
Dokploy's documentation says it of the self-hosted edition: if the server goes down, restarts or runs out of disk, you fix it. Every backup needs an S3 destination you set up. Compose projects have no preview deployments, and we found no rollback documented for them.
What Dokploy is good at
Much is in the free edition: Compose, volume backups to S3, a screen of HTTP requests, several servers and Swarm replicas. Dokploy is built for people who want one free panel over several servers of their own, and who are glad to look after them.
Coolify vs Dokploy vs CapRover vs Dokku vs Easypanel: the self-hosted PaaS compared
Five panels to install, two hosted panels, and one host that takes the server off your list:
| Product | Licence and price | Docker Compose | Backups of volumes | The server |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pethost | A managed service: €9.99 a month, machine included | Runs the file as written | Nightly, off the machine, included | Ours to look after |
| Dokploy v0.30 | Apache 2.0, paid features source-available | Runs it, adds Traefik labels | To an S3 bucket of yours | Yours |
| Coolify v4.3 | Apache-2.0, every feature | Runs it, parsed and extended | Archives; the S3 bucket is yours | Yours |
| CapRover v1.15 | Apache 2.0 with an appendix on paid features | A subset, experimental | Not covered | Yours |
| Dokku v0.38 | MIT; a web UI is $849 once | None | None built in | Yours |
| Easypanel 2.36 | Closed source; $14.9 a server a month past 3 projects | Runs it | Paid plans; not Compose services | Yours |
| Dokploy Cloud, Coolify Cloud | $4.50 a month a server; $5 for two servers | As self-hosted | As self-hosted | Yours |
Coolify: Apache-2.0, every feature in the free edition
Coolify is the nearest to Dokploy, with the same server to look after: Apache-2.0 with no paid directory, and out of beta since v4.0.0 on 27 April 2026. It asks 2 CPU cores, 2 GB of RAM and 10 GB of disk for the panel alone. Coolify vs Dokploy vs CapRover vs Dokku is the long comparison.
CapRover and Dokku: lighter, without Compose as written
CapRover runs on a server of 1 GB. Its Compose support is experimental and reads eight fields of a service, build not among them, and its backup leaves out volumes. Dokku is MIT, one server and git push, as on Heroku. Its open-source product has no web UI (that is Dokku Pro, $849 once) and no Docker Compose.
Easypanel: closed source, a licence per server
Easypanel's core is closed source. Its free plan stops at 3 projects and has no backups, API or MCP. Hobby is $14.9 per server a month paid monthly, on top of the server's rent. Easypanel alternatives has more.
Dokploy Cloud and Coolify Cloud: a hosted panel, and the same server
Dokploy Cloud is $4.50 a month per server, and Coolify Cloud $5 for two. Both host the control plane only: the dashboard, its database and its updates. Your applications, databases and proxy run on the server you connect, and its operating system, firewall and backups stay your job. Coolify Cloud vs Dokploy Cloud goes through both.
Managed hosting as a Dokploy alternative: what a server's worth of memory costs
On managed hosting the machine, its updates and the backups are the host's. A Dokploy server holds many apps for one price, so the fair measure is a server's worth of always-on memory: the 3 GB of our Starter plan, at each host's own plan prices.
| Host | Price a month |
|---|---|
| Pethost Starter | €9.99 |
| Elestio, at Netcup | $16.06 |
| Railway, memory alone | $30.00 |
| Sliplane | €28.80 |
| Render | $39.00 |
Railway meters $10 a month for a gigabyte of memory and $20 for a vCPU, so CPU, disk and traffic come on top. Render prices each service: here one of 2 GB and two of 512 MB. Sliplane charges a flat price per server, as we do, and the first that holds 3 GB has 3 vCPU and 4 GB. Elestio's 2 vCPU, 4 GB virtual machine is $16.06 at Netcup, $19.71 at Hetzner. Our €9.99 is the whole machine, with disk, traffic, backups and logs inside.
Three always-on web services of 512 MB each, a worker and a Postgres come to €9.99 on Pethost, $19.71 on Elestio, $23.15 on Railway (memory only, on our assumption of use), €28.80 on Sliplane and $34.75 on Render.
The Compose file you wrote for Dokploy comes along: we run it as written, or refuse it and say what to write instead. Railway converts each service into one of its own, and Render reads only its render.yaml: see managed Docker Compose hosting. Postgres on Pethost is a container in your project, as on a Dokploy server: in the nightly backup, and not a managed database with replicas or point-in-time recovery.
What €9.99 a month buys: the Dokploy admin's list, done
Self-hosting Dokploy leaves a list with you: update the panel after each advisory, patch the server, rent and wire an S3 bucket. On Starter, for €9.99 a month without VAT, that list is done:
- 2 vCPU, 3 GB, 30 GB a virtual machine of your own
- 14 nights of encrypted backups, off the machine
- 30 days of request logs
- 13 MCP tools for your agent
Security updates install themselves, and there is no panel to update. Also in the price: an HTTPS address for every project, a deploy on every push to GitHub with an earlier commit one step back, SSH into any container, and as many projects and databases as fit. Nothing is metered, and there is no free tier: €9.99 rents a real machine.
That is the best value we found among the alternatives to Dokploy: the most memory for the money, with the admin's list already done. Grow, a machine twice the size, is €17.99.
An AI agent on Dokploy and on Pethost
Dokploy has an official MCP server too, so the difference is design. It mirrors Dokploy's API: 508 tools in 49 categories, run on your computer with an API key you copy. Ours has 13 tools made for an agent: each does one clear thing, every error says what to do next, and one call waits for a deploy. It is hosted, and the agent signs in through your browser. Hosting with an official MCP server compares the others.
You say: The shop fails since my last push. Roll it back.
- QueryHttpTraffic POST /checkout: 31 requests, all 500
- ListCommits c41d9e2 new checkout · 7be02d4 fix cart
- DeployProject commit 7be02d4
- GetOperation succeeded
The agent answers: Back on “fix cart”. Pushes will not deploy until you say so.
What if I just rent a VPS and install Dokploy?
You can, and two things are worth knowing first.
An agent on a bare server works as root over SSH. Nothing tells it what runs there, every command is open to it, and a wrong one takes down the proxy, a database or the firewall. On Pethost an agent works through 13 tools. Its shell is inside a project's containers, never on the machine, and billing and the account are out of its reach.
A server is not sure to cost less. Hetzner is the server that guides and AI assistants name first, at prices it no longer has. It raised them on 1 April and again on 15 June 2026, and its cheap Cost-Optimized range has long been out of stock. Those servers are hardware it bought at good prices, before the RAM shortage, and on 5 October every plan of the range was marked “not available”. The 2 vCPU, 4 GB server it does sell, CPX22, is €19.49 a month, up from €7.99, and €23.89 with an IPv4 address and Hetzner's backups. DigitalOcean's 2 vCPU, 4 GiB Droplet is $24 a month. On top come the panel, which asks for at least 2 GB of RAM, an S3 bucket for backups, and your hours. Starter is €9.99 a month with all of it done.
Who Pethost is for
Pethost is the best pick for
- Developers tired of looking after a server, who wanted Dokploy's panel and not its updates and advisories
- Solo developers with several side projects: each a Compose project, all on one bill of €9.99
- People who build with Claude Code, Codex or Cursor and want the agent to deploy, read logs and roll back
- Early startups that want one fixed bill and a Compose file that runs anywhere Docker does
Look elsewhere if
- Your team's applications need several servers, several regions or autoscaling, or an enterprise's SSO and audit logs: here one machine is the limit
Questions
What is the best Dokploy alternative in 2026?
For people who came to Dokploy to get their apps online, the best alternative is the one that removes the server. Pethost runs the same Docker Compose project on a machine it looks after: €9.99 a month for 2 vCPU, 3 GB and 30 GB, with HTTPS, nightly backups and request logs included.
Is the Dokploy license still open source, and what is the proprietary directory?
Dokploy is under the Apache License 2.0, except its /proprietary directory. Since 21 January 2026 that directory is under the Dokploy Source Available License 1.0, which allows production use only with a commercial agreement. The paid features today are custom roles, SSO, SCIM, application authentication, audit logs and whitelabeling.
Dokploy vs Coolify vs Easypanel: what is the difference?
Dokploy and Coolify are open source: Dokploy with paid enterprise features in a source-available directory, Coolify with every feature under Apache-2.0. Easypanel is closed source, at $14.9 a month per server past 3 projects. All three run on a server that you rent, update and back up yourself.
What does a server for Dokploy cost in 2026?
Dokploy asks for at least 2 GB of RAM and 30 GB of disk. Hetzner's cheap Cost-Optimized plans have long been out of stock, and on 5 October 2026 its 2 vCPU, 4 GB server, CPX22, was €19.49 a month before backups. Pethost Starter is €9.99 a month for 2 vCPU and 3 GB, with backups, logs and updates included.
Read from each vendor's own pages on 5 October 2026. Prices are as each vendor lists them, in its currency; ours are without VAT.
- Dokploy: licence
- Dokploy: DSAL 1.0
- Dokploy: licence change
- Dokploy: editions
- Dokploy Cloud: pricing
- Dokploy: installation
- Dokploy: Compose domains
- Dokploy: rollbacks
- Dokploy: backups
- Dokploy: releases
- Dokploy: advisories
- Dokploy: issue 2028
- Dokploy: MCP server
- Coolify: pricing
- Coolify: self-hosted and Cloud
- Coolify: installation
- Coolify: Docker Compose
- Coolify: backups
- Coolify: changelog
- Coolify: advisories
- CapRover: Docker Compose
- CapRover: backups
- Dokku Pro
- Dokku: builders
- Easypanel: pricing
- Easypanel: volume backups
- Railway: pricing
- Render: pricing
- Sliplane: pricing
- Elestio: pricing
- Hetzner: Cost-Optimized
- Hetzner: price adjustment
- DigitalOcean: Droplets
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