How to Migrate from Heroku to Dokku

Dokku was built as a mini-Heroku. Same buildpacks, same Procfile, same git push workflow — running on your own VPS. The migration is the smoothest of any Heroku alternative.

Step 1: Install Dokku

# On a fresh Ubuntu VPS (22.04+)
wget -NP . https://dokku.com/install/v0.34.8/bootstrap.sh
sudo DOKKU_TAG=v0.34.8 bash bootstrap.sh

# Set your domain
dokku domains:set-global yourdomain.com

# Add your SSH key
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | dokku ssh-keys:add admin

Step 2: Create App and Services

# Create app (same name as your Heroku app)
dokku apps:create myapp

# Install and create database
sudo dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-postgres.git
dokku postgres:create myapp-db
dokku postgres:link myapp-db myapp

# Install and create Redis (if needed)
sudo dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-redis.git
dokku redis:create myapp-redis
dokku redis:link myapp-redis myapp

Step 3: Set Environment Variables

# Export from Heroku
heroku config -a myapp --shell > heroku-env.txt

# Set in Dokku (one by one)
dokku config:set myapp NODE_ENV=production
dokku config:set myapp SECRET_KEY=your-secret
dokku config:set myapp SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com

# Or bulk set
dokku config:set myapp $(cat heroku-env.txt | xargs)

Step 4: Deploy

# On your local machine
cd your-project

# Add Dokku remote
git remote add dokku dokku@your-server:myapp

# Push to deploy
git push dokku main

Your Procfile works unchanged. Your buildpacks work unchanged. Same deployment experience.

Step 5: Set Up SSL

# Install Let's Encrypt plugin
sudo dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-letsencrypt.git

# Configure email
dokku letsencrypt:set myapp email admin@yourdomain.com

# Enable SSL
dokku letsencrypt:enable myapp

# Auto-renewal
dokku letsencrypt:cron-job --add

Step 6: Set Up Domain

# Add custom domain
dokku domains:add myapp myapp.yourdomain.com

# Remove default domain
dokku domains:remove myapp myapp.yourdomain.com

Point DNS A record to your Dokku server.

Step 7: Migrate Database Data

# Export from Heroku
heroku pg:backups:capture -a myapp
heroku pg:backups:download -a myapp

# Import to Dokku Postgres
dokku postgres:import myapp-db < latest.dump

Heroku → Dokku Command Mapping

Heroku	Dokku
heroku create	dokku apps:create
git push heroku main	git push dokku main
heroku config:set	dokku config:set
heroku logs --tail	dokku logs myapp -t
heroku ps:scale web=2	dokku ps:scale myapp web=2
heroku run bash	dokku run myapp bash
heroku addons:create	dokku plugin:install + dokku <service>:create
heroku domains:add	dokku domains:add
heroku maintenance:on	dokku maintenance:enable

Cost Comparison

Dynos	Heroku	Dokku (VPS)	Savings
1 Basic	$7/month	$5/month (shared VPS)	$24/year
1 Standard	$25/month	$10/month	$180/year
2 Standard + DB	$75/month	$20/month	$660/year
Production setup	$250+/month	$40/month	$2,520/year

Migration Timeline

Day	Task
Day 1	Install Dokku, create app, set up services
Day 2	Migrate env vars, deploy, test
Day 3	Set up SSL, domain, migrate database
Week 2	Monitor, verify everything works
Week 3	Switch DNS, cancel Heroku

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