Application Hosting
Your own Heroku — Docker apps on a VPS you control
Coolify, Dokploy, CapRover, Portainer, or just docker compose — a git-push PaaS and a one-click app store on hardware that's yours, for the price of a coffee a month.
Why VPSoto for application hosting
Git-push deploys, self-hosted
Coolify and Dokploy give you the Heroku/Vercel/Netlify flow — push to a branch, it builds and deploys — on a box you own. No build-minute meters, no bandwidth surprises, no 'sleeping' free tier.
One-click open-source
n8n, Plausible, Umami, Uptime Kuma, Ghost, Outline, Vaultwarden, Nextcloud, Supabase, Listmonk, Cal.com, Penpot — point-and-click installs from Coolify/CapRover/Easypanel, or compose files for everything else.
All cores, no noisy neighbours
Container builds are CPU-spiky. Dedicated vCPUs mean your `docker build` doesn't get throttled because someone else on the box is busy.
Snapshot before every deploy
Snapshot the VPS, deploy, roll back in seconds if a migration or a base-image bump breaks production.
NVMe everywhere
Image pulls, layer caching, and volume I/O all live on NVMe — `docker build` and database containers feel it.
What you'll need
- cpu
- 1–2 vCPU for a couple of small apps + a database; 4+ vCPU once you're running a dozen containers or building on the box frequently
- ram
- 2 GB to comfortably run Coolify/Dokploy + a few apps + Postgres; 4–8 GB for a busier stack with several databases and a Redis
- storage
- 40–80 GB NVMe — Docker images and volumes add up faster than you'd think; 160 GB+ if you self-host media or large databases
- bandwidth
- 1–3 TB covers most self-hosted SaaS workloads; bump it if you serve media or big assets
Recommended cities
Pick the city closest to your users — every plan listed below is the cheapest qualifying VPS for that location.
$3.80/mo
1 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 15 GB SSD
See plans$3.80/mo
1 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 15 GB SSD
See plans$3.80/mo
1 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 15 GB SSD
See plans$3.80/mo
1 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 15 GB SSD
See plans$3.80/mo
1 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 15 GB SSD
See plans$8.00/mo
2 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 20 GB SSD
See plansThe honest take on application hosting
The 'PaaS but self-hosted' wave — Coolify, Dokploy, CapRover, Easypanel, Dokku — turned a $5 VPS into something that feels like Heroku or Render: connect a Git repo, it builds the container, deploys it, gives you a URL with automatic HTTPS, handles rollbacks. No build-minute pricing, no per-app fee, no cold starts. Your box, your apps.
The same box is a one-click app store. Coolify, CapRover, and Easypanel ship catalogs of self-hostable open-source apps: n8n (workflow automation), Plausible / Umami (privacy analytics), Uptime Kuma (status monitoring), Ghost (publishing), Outline (wiki), Vaultwarden (passwords), Nextcloud (files), Listmonk (newsletters), Cal.com (scheduling), Supabase (backend), Penpot (design), and dozens more — each a click away, all on infrastructure you control.
For everything not in a catalog, full root means it's a `docker compose up -d` away: any image on Docker Hub or GHCR, any compose file from a project's README, any custom Dockerfile. Reverse-proxy it behind Caddy or Traefik (Coolify/Dokploy do this for you) and you've got HTTPS on a subdomain.
Pick a city near your users for low latency, or near your team for low-latency `docker exec`. When one box isn't enough, Coolify and Dokploy both support multiple servers — add a second VPSoto VPS as a worker node. Need bare-metal build power for heavy CI? Jump to a dedicated server.
Frequently asked questions
- Coolify, Dokploy, or CapRover?
- Coolify is the most full-featured (databases, multi-server, a big app catalog, active development) — most people start there. Dokploy is a lighter, newer alternative with a similar feel. CapRover is the veteran (Docker Swarm under the hood, solid one-click apps). Easypanel is the most polished UI. Dokku is the most minimal (closest to bare Heroku-style git-push). All install on a fresh VPS in a few minutes; a 2 GB plan runs Coolify + a handful of apps comfortably.
- How much RAM to run Coolify plus some apps?
- Coolify itself wants ~1 GB; budget another ~1–2 GB for a few small apps + a Postgres + a Redis. So 2 GB is a workable floor for a hobby setup, 4 GB is comfortable, 8 GB if you're running several databases or a heavier app like Supabase or a big Nextcloud.
- Can I run multiple apps on one VPS?
- Yes — that's the point. Coolify/Dokploy/CapRover route each app to its own subdomain with automatic HTTPS, all from one box. The limit is RAM and CPU, not licensing — there's no per-app fee.
- What about backups?
- Snapshot the VPS before risky deploys (free), and use the panel's built-in database backups (Coolify can back up Postgres/MySQL to S3-compatible storage on a schedule). For a managed off-box backup of the whole server, our backup add-on covers it.
- Will `docker build` be slow on a small plan?
- Builds are CPU- and I/O-spiky. On a 1–2 vCPU plan a typical Node/Python build is fine (a minute or two); heavy multi-stage builds on big images benefit from 4+ vCPU. Either way it's NVMe-backed, so layer caching and image pulls are fast. For really heavy CI, run builds on a dedicated server.
Ready to deploy?
Pick a plan, pick a city, your server is live within 1–2 hours. Pay by card or crypto in your currency. 7-day money-back, cancel any time.