Coolify
Self-Hosting Platforms (PaaS)Self-hosted platform-as-a-service alternative to Heroku
Replaces Heroku, Netlify
Best Free Self-Hosting Platforms (PaaS) for self-hosting
The 8 best Free self-hosting platforms (paas) you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
PocketBase
Self-Hosting Platforms (PaaS)Open-source backend in a single file
Replaces Firebase
Dokploy
Self-Hosting Platforms (PaaS)Open-source deployment platform for apps and databases
Replaces Vercel, Heroku
Dokku
Self-Hosting Platforms (PaaS)Smallest open-source PaaS implementation you can run
Replaces Heroku
CapRover
Self-Hosting Platforms (PaaS)Scalable PaaS built on Docker Swarm and Nginx
Replaces Heroku
TrailBase
Self-Hosting Platforms (PaaS)Open, sub-millisecond, single-executable FireBase alternative
Tsuru
Self-Hosting Platforms (PaaS)Extensible open-source application platform
Replaces Heroku
Kubero
Self-Hosting Platforms (PaaS)Self-service developer platform for Kubernetes
Replaces Heroku
No apps match these filters.
At a glance
| App | Deploy effort | Difficulty | Min. RAM | License | ★ Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolify | ≈5-minute setup | Easy | 2,048 MB | Apache-2.0 | 62,953 |
| PocketBase | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 64 MB | MIT | 61,400 |
| Dokploy | ≈5-minute setup | Easy | 2,048 MB | Apache-2.0 | 37,780 |
| Dokku | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 1,024 MB | MIT | 32,179 |
| CapRover | ≈5-minute setup | Easy | 1,024 MB | Apache-2.0 | 15,184 |
| TrailBase | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | OSL-3.0 | 5,655 |
| Tsuru | Under-an-hour setup | Hard | 2,048 MB | BSD-3-Clause | 5,319 |
| Kubero | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 1,024 MB | GPL-3.0 | 4,435 |
Quick picks
- Most adopted: Coolify (62,953 GitHub stars).
- Lightest footprint: PocketBase (from 64 MB RAM, against 2,048 MB for the heaviest here).
- Fastest to deploy: Coolify (one-click platform packages).
- Licensing: 3 of 8 use Apache-2.0; check the rest individually if you plan to modify and redistribute.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Free within the self-hosting platforms (paas) category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.