Self-Hosting Guide: Deploy Coolify as Your Own PaaS

Coolify is your own Vercel, Netlify, and Heroku — an open source PaaS with a beautiful web UI. Deploy any app from Git, provision databases with one click, get automatic SSL, and manage multiple servers. All self-hosted.

Requirements

• VPS with 2 GB RAM minimum (4 GB recommended)
• Ubuntu 22.04+ or Debian 12+
• Root access
• Domain name (e.g., coolify.yourdomain.com)
• 30+ GB disk

Step 1: One-Line Install

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash

This installs Docker, Docker Compose, and Coolify. Takes ~2 minutes.

Step 2: Access Dashboard

1. Open http://your-server-ip:8000
2. Create your admin account
3. Add your SSH key (for server management)

Step 3: Configure Domain

In Settings → Configuration:

• Set instance URL to https://coolify.yourdomain.com

DNS: Add an A record: coolify.yourdomain.com → your server IP

Coolify automatically provisions SSL for all domains.

Step 4: Deploy Your First App

From GitHub:

1. Projects → New Project → New Resource → Public Repository (or connect GitHub)
2. Enter repository URL
3. Coolify auto-detects the framework:

Framework	Auto-Detection
Next.js	✅ Nixpacks
Nuxt	✅ Nixpacks
SvelteKit	✅ Nixpacks
Remix	✅ Nixpacks
Astro	✅ Nixpacks
Django	✅ Nixpacks
Rails	✅ Nixpacks
Go	✅ Nixpacks
Rust	✅ Nixpacks
Static	✅ Nginx
Dockerfile	✅ Docker
Docker Compose	✅ Docker Compose

4. Set your domain (e.g., myapp.yourdomain.com)
5. Configure environment variables
6. Click Deploy

DNS for each app: Add A records for each domain pointing to your Coolify server.

Step 5: Provision Databases

One-click databases:

Database	Command
PostgreSQL	New Resource → Database → PostgreSQL
MySQL	New Resource → Database → MySQL
MariaDB	New Resource → Database → MariaDB
MongoDB	New Resource → Database → MongoDB
Redis	New Resource → Database → Redis
ClickHouse	New Resource → Database → ClickHouse

Each database gets:

• Auto-generated credentials
• Internal network connectivity to your apps
• Backup configuration
• Connection string ready to paste

Step 6: Deploy One-Click Services

Coolify has 100+ one-click services:

Service	What It Is
Plausible	Privacy analytics
Uptime Kuma	Monitoring
Mattermost	Team chat
n8n	Workflow automation
Gitea	Git hosting
MinIO	Object storage
Listmonk	Newsletter
Ghost	Blog
WordPress	CMS
Supabase	Backend

To deploy: New Resource → Service → Select from list → Configure → Deploy

Step 7: Connect Multiple Servers

Coolify can manage apps across multiple servers:

1. Servers → Add Server
2. Enter server IP and SSH key
3. Coolify installs Docker on the remote server
4. Deploy apps to any connected server

Use cases:

• Separate production and staging servers
• Geographic distribution
• Dedicated database server
• Resource isolation

Step 8: Configure CI/CD

Automatic deployments on push:

1. Connect your GitHub/GitLab account
2. Enable Auto Deploy on your app
3. Every push to your branch triggers a rebuild

Webhook deploys:

• Copy the webhook URL from your app settings
• Add it to your CI pipeline:

curl -X POST "https://coolify.yourdomain.com/api/v1/deploy?uuid=YOUR_APP_UUID&force=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"

Preview deployments:

• Enable Preview Deployments in app settings
• Each PR gets its own deployment URL
• Auto-deleted when PR is merged/closed

Step 9: Monitoring and Logs

• Real-time logs: Click any app → Logs tab
• Resource usage: Dashboard shows CPU, RAM, disk per app
• Notifications: Settings → Notifications → Discord/Slack/Email

Production Hardening

Backups:

# Coolify stores config in /data/coolify
# Backup the entire directory
tar czf /backups/coolify-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /data/coolify

# Database backups are configured per-database in the UI

Updates:

# Coolify auto-updates (configured in Settings)
# Or manually:
curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash

Security:

• Set up 2FA for admin account
• Restrict dashboard access by IP (firewall)
• Use SSH keys only (disable password auth)
• Keep Docker and Coolify updated

SSL:

• Automatic via Let's Encrypt
• Wildcard certificates supported
• Custom certificates can be uploaded

Resource Usage

Apps	RAM	CPU	Disk
1-5	2 GB	2 cores	30 GB
5-15	4 GB	4 cores	60 GB
15-30	8 GB	8 cores	120 GB

Note: These are for Coolify itself. Each app uses additional resources.

VPS Recommendations

Provider	Spec (10 apps)	Price
Hetzner	4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM	€8/month
DigitalOcean	4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM	$48/month
Linode	4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM	$48/month

vs Vercel Pro ($20/user/month): A $8/month Hetzner server replaces $100+/month in PaaS costs for a 5-person team.

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