Dokploy - Self-Hosted Platform for Web Apps

Mishal Abdullah | Apr 30, 2025 min read
Dokploy - Self-Hosted Platform for Web Apps

Goodbye Vercel | Hello Dokploy

Like many React developers, I’ve always leaned toward Next.js as my go-to React-based framework. Thanks to its tight integration with Vercel, deploying a Next.js app was as simple as pushing to Git.

But lately, Vercel has introduced several limitations on their free tier:

  • Private Git repositories now require a paid plan
  • There’s a time limit on serverless API routes
  • Additional restrictions that make the platform less appealing for indie devs and hobbyists

To be clear, I don’t blame Vercel — businesses need to make money. But it’s simply not the path I want to follow.

So I began exploring open-source alternatives, and that’s when I found Dokploy — a powerful, self-hosted platform that offers nearly all the features of Vercel, and in some cases, even more.

In this post, I’ll walk you through:

  • How I use Dokploy to deploy my web apps
  • How I host my databases (MongoDB, SQL, PostgreSQL)
  • How I self-host services like search engines and RSS readers

dockploy home

🛠️ Prerequisites

To get started with Dokploy, you’ll need access to a Virtual Private Server (VPS). Here are a few providers to choose from:

Minimum recommended VPS specs:

  • 2GB RAM
  • 30GB disk space

⚙️ Installation

The installation process is surprisingly simple.

✅ Before you begin:

Ensure the following ports are open on your server:

  • 80 – HTTP
  • 443 – HTTPS
  • 3000 – Dokploy Dashboard

Then, install Dokploy using the one-liner script:

curl -sSL https://dokploy.com/install.sh | sh

You’ll be prompted to create an admin account. Be sure to save your credentials securely — this will be your access to the Dokploy dashboard.

dokploy-signup

🚀 Why I Chose Dokploy

Dokploy offers a wide range of features, but I primarily use it for:

  • Deploying Next.js apps easily with Docker containers
  • Hosting MongoDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL for personal projects
  • Running self-hosted services like:
    • My own search engine
    • Custom RSS reader dashboard

There are tons of other features Dokploy provides — like integrated CI/CD, Git deployments, SSL by default — but honestly, I don’t even use all of them yet.

📚 Official Setup Documentation

Dokploy supports multiple Linux distributions and popular VPS providers:

Supported Distros:

  • Ubuntu 24.04 / 22.04 / 20.04 / 18.04
  • Debian 12 / 11 / 10
  • Fedora 40
  • CentOS 8 / 9

🌐 Alternative: Dokploy Cloud

Don’t want to manage your own server? Try Dokploy Cloud — the hosted version of Dokploy, where you don’t need to worry about installation, updates, or security patches.

🏁 Final Thoughts

Dokploy has been a game-changer for me. It gave me full control of my deployments, helped me avoid vendor lock-in, and aligned perfectly with my preference for open-source tooling.

If you’re looking to break free from platform limitations and embrace self-hosted devops, Dokploy is worth a shot.