How to self-host your Heroku alternative
Self-hosting a Heroku alternative isn't self-hosting an application — it's self-hosting the platform that will deploy and manage all of your future applications. That difference changes what you need to know before installing any of the catalog's 4 options.
Tools that meet this intent
Alternative to Vercel, Netlify, Heroku
Self-hosted PaaS with a Vercel-like experience, a free alternative.
Alternative to Heroku, Render
Lightweight PaaS on Docker Swarm, a simple alternative to Heroku.
Alternative to Heroku
Open source mini-Heroku, deploy with git push.
Alternative to Heroku, Vercel
Self-hosted Heroku-like PaaS on Docker Swarm, an alternative to Heroku.
Real server requirements
Between 256MB and 4GB of RAM depending on the tool — never a single number.
None of the 4 installs with a simple docker-compose.yml — all 4 install via their own official script, which takes control of Docker across the whole server (Coolify and Dokploy say so explicitly: inspect the script before running it, never pipe it directly and blindly). That's shared across all 4, and it's the first thing to understand: you're trusting this software with managing everything you deploy afterward, not just one app.
Coolify is the most polished and broadest in scope — one-click Git deploys, managed databases, multi-server management from one panel. CapRover is the lightest: a Docker Swarm-based PaaS built for modest VPS specs, with a one-click app marketplace and automatic HTTPS. Dokku is the original "mini-Heroku": a single command line, deploys with git push, no official web panel — the most minimalist of the group. Dokploy is the newest: Docker Swarm with native Traefik integration for domains and HTTPS, one-click templates for dozens of apps — its community is growing fast but it has fewer years in production than Coolify or CapRover.
What you gain and lose versus the SaaS
Two of the four (Coolify and Dokploy) also cover Vercel-like use cases besides Heroku — not because Heroku and Vercel are the same thing, but because these two specifically support the pattern of deploying frontend apps with per-branch preview well. If that's exactly what you're after, it's worth knowing; if you're specifically looking to replace Heroku for deploying backend apps with classic buildpacks, Dokku is the option closest to the original model.