Let’s be honest, if you are a developer, you have surely deployed an application using Vercel. It is that service that makes our lives easier by connecting to GitHub and making our frontends go to production super easily.
Vercel has a decent free tier if you want to upload lightweight applications to test things. But when you start doing more serious things and need more power, that’s when you have to move to the $20 monthly plan. So far, all good, it’s not too expensive for what it offers.
But here comes the trap: Vercel’s business is not really in those $20 monthly you pay. Their real business is charging you for data transfer. You have a limited amount and when you go over… BAM! That’s where they hit you hard.
You can exceed the limits because you have many clients visiting your website, or worse, because someone has done a DDoS attack that you didn’t know how to mitigate. And believe me when I tell you that the bill can be very, very expensive. We are talking about thousands of dollars that can appear out of nowhere.
Well, now imagine that for much less money you can mimic exactly the same behavior that Vercel does, but not only deploying frontends, but being able to deploy any type of application that can be dockerized. That is, anything: APIs, databases, complex applications, services like N8N… whatever comes to mind.
This is possible thanks to Coolify, and today I am going to tell you everything you need to know about this tool that can change the way you deploy applications forever.
What the hell is Coolify?
Okay, you probably already know Vercel and its super sleek interface that allows you to connect to GitHub and deploy your applications in seconds. Although it says it is for frontends, it is actually intended for full-stack applications, especially Next.js (which are the same creators), so it can handle both frontend and backend.
But now, what is Coolify? Basically, it is free software that facilitates the whole self-hosting issue. I’m not going to lie to you saying that the interface is prettier than Vercel’s, because that would be deceiving you. But I will tell you that it is much more practical and powerful.
In practice, everything you can do with Coolify you can do manually by connecting to your server via SSH, with pure Docker management and other tools. You can achieve exactly the same thing, but of course, for that you need to invest much more time and technical knowledge that perhaps you don’t have or don’t want to use.
With Coolify you forget about hassles. You have a very clear interface that allows you to create projects, separate them by environments, deploy any type of application that runs on Docker. And since Docker can practically run anything, the possibilities are endless.
But not only that. In addition to letting you use Docker in every possible way, Coolify already has presets to install existing applications super easily. Databases like PostgreSQL, Redis, Supabase… Also services, so many types of services that I can’t stop to name because otherwise I would never finish this post. Among them is N8N, which is so fashionable now, and even WordPress if you need something like that.
Plus, you can connect your GitHub account and run your repositories exactly like Vercel does. The experience is very similar, but with the difference that it is running on your own server.
One thing I think is great is that you can add multiple servers and connect them to each other via SSH. This is super practical if you have several servers: from one you have the Coolify panel, but you can deploy applications on other different servers. It’s like having a control center for your entire infrastructure.
It also includes a backup system that you can connect with AWS or Cloudflare (I prefer the latter because it’s free for me), and the backups are fully configurable. You can configure email notifications just like Vercel, you just need an SMTP server.
And if you want to use it in work teams, it is also designed for that, with user management, roles, teams, etc.
As you can see, it is a very, but very complete tool and it is free. However, you have to keep in mind an important difference: this is not a service like Vercel. You have to install it yourself on your own server.
What do you need to set up your own Coolify?
Getting to the point, what do you need to host your own server with Coolify? Well, as I always say, you need a computer. As simple as that.
Well, to be more specific, a VPS (that is, a server in the cloud) can serve you, a Raspberry Pi that you have at home can serve you, or an old PC that you have gathering dust and you are going to keep connected all the time can serve you.
The minimum requirements they recommend are 2 CPU cores, 2GB of RAM and at least 30GB of free space. But well, this is like everything: the better your hardware, the better it will work.
This reminds me that on the channel we already have a tutorial on how to get a server with 4 CPU cores, 24GB of RAM and 200GB of space totally free. Yes, as you hear it, free.
Although to be honest, when I tried to install Coolify on that Oracle Cloud server, because it was ARM architecture it gave me some problems. Today I see on the Coolify website itself that it has a specific section for installation on Oracle, so it is possible that it works well now. For my part, I have it installed on a server with AMD64 architecture and from there I have it connected to my free Oracle Cloud server.
I highly recommend that you first try Oracle Cloud since it is free, and if it works, great. If you have problems, you can always use any other provider.
The only thing I do recommend is that the server you use has enough storage space, because as soon as you start creating services, you will see how Docker consumes space like crazy.
Step-by-step installation (hassle-free!)
Okay, let’s go with the installation. I’m going to explain everything from scratch so you don’t have any problems.
First you need to get a server. You can use the free Oracle Cloud server I mention, or buy one from any provider like Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode… Whichever you prefer.
If you use a Raspberry Pi, you need to have Raspbian installed. If you use an old PC, have Linux installed (with Ubuntu is enough).
Once you have your server ready, you are going to connect via SSH. If you don’t know how, basically you open your terminal and write something like:
ssh user@server_ipWhere “user” is your username and “server_ip” is the IP of your server.
Once connected, installing Coolify is ridiculously easy. You just have to run a command that they give you on their website:
curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bashThis command downloads the installation script and executes it automatically. It takes care of installing Docker, configuring everything necessary and getting Coolify up and running.
When the installation finishes (it will take a few minutes), you can go to your server’s IP on port 8000. For example, if your server has the IP 123.456.789.0, you would go to http://123.456.789.0:8000.
There it will ask you to create an administrator user. Put a username and a secure password, because this will be the key to access your Coolify.
Once inside, you already have your own “Vercel” running. You can start connecting GitHub repositories, creating applications, deploying services… whatever you need.
If you have a domain, you can configure it to point to your server and thus access Coolify with a friendlier URL instead of using the IP directly.
Coolify vs Vercel: Which to choose?
Now that you know what Coolify is and how to install it, you are probably wondering when to use one or the other. The answer depends on your needs and your situation.
Vercel is perfect if:
You only want to deploy a couple of simple frontends as a test and you don’t even want to buy them a domain. Vercel’s free tier is very good for this. It is also great if you don’t want to worry about anything technical: they take care of security, updates, maintenance… You just upload your code and that’s it.
In addition, Vercel has a very polished ecosystem. Its interface is beautiful, integrations work wonderfully, and if you use Next.js, the experience is practically perfect.
Coolify is the best option if:
You want to have full control over your applications and not depend on unexpected bills. If you are growing as a developer and want to learn about infrastructure, Coolify is an excellent option.
It is also great if you need to deploy things beyond web applications. Databases, automation services, complex APIs, microservices… With Coolify you can deploy literally anything that works with Docker.
And certainly, if you have already had a scare with cloud service bills due to unexpected traffic, having your own server gives you much more peace of mind. You know exactly how much you are going to pay each month.
The issue of security:
It is true that with Vercel you don’t have to worry about server security. They have a whole team dedicated to that. With Coolify, although there is also a team behind it and vulnerabilities are updated, being your own server there is always the possibility that you leave some security hole where they can hurt you.
But well, if you keep your server updated and follow basic security best practices, you shouldn’t have major problems.
My personal recommendation
Honestly, if you want to grow as a developer and not depend completely on external providers that one day can send you a bill of thousands of euros, having your important projects on your own servers is the best decision. I don’t care if you use Coolify, if you do it manually with Docker, or if you use another similar tool.
Technological independence is something very valuable, especially when you start having projects that generate real income. There is nothing more reassuring than knowing that you completely control your infrastructure.
Coolify makes this process much simpler than it was before. You don’t need to be a DevOps expert to have a professional infrastructure running.
In addition, once you have it set up, you can use it for experiments, personal projects, clients… All in the same place, with the same workflow.
And you, what do you prefer? Have you already tried Coolify or are you still using Vercel? Is there any other tool that you find even more interesting and want us to bring to the channel?
Let me know in the comments. And if you found this tutorial useful, you know you can share it with other developers who may be in the same situation.
By the way, if you are interested in continuing to learn about self-hosting and tools for developers, I have another tutorial where I teach you how to set up your own ad blocker for your entire home network. It is amazing because it blocks ads, trackers and malware on all devices in your home without having to install anything. I am sure it will be useful to you.
What do you think?
Leave your opinion, question or suggestion. Comments are synced with GitHub Discussions .