Deployment platforms: Part 4 — Dokploy on a self-hosted server

What is Dokploy

Dokploy is a panel for deploying applications to your own server. It is installed on a VPS, runs on top of Docker and Docker Swarm, and takes on what Vercel and Netlify do in their cloud: building from Git, running, issuing certificates, and routing requests by domain. Additionally, Dokploy deploys databases on the same server.

A step-by-step deployment of an application is covered in the article Dokploy: Simple Management of Docker Applications on Your Server. Here — Dokploy’s place among deployment platforms: license, requirements, installation, backups and common mistakes.

License and pricing

The main Dokploy code is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. Code in the /proprietary directories is under a separate license: it contains enterprise features — single sign-on via OIDC and SAML, automated user management (SCIM), custom roles, audit log, pre-application authorization and custom branding. These are enabled only by a key issued by the developers.

For use without the enterprise features, including commercial use, the developers say no additional license is needed: the core under Apache 2.0 is used.

There is also a cloud option, Dokploy Cloud: the panel is hosted by the developers, while applications run on your servers. As of September 2026 the Hobby plan costs $4.50 per month per server, Startup — from $15 per month for up to three servers, Enterprise — by agreement.

Requirements

• at least 2 GB of RAM and 30 GB of disk;
• Ubuntu 18.04–24.04, Debian 10–12, Fedora 40 or CentOS 8–9;
• open ports 80 and 443 for Traefik and 3000 for the web interface.

Application builds run on the same server and require memory. For Next.js projects or projects with many dependencies, 2 GB may not be enough; it’s wiser to start with 4 GB. With Russian providers such a server costs about 1,000 ₽ per month: for example, the Cloud-50 plan at Timeweb Cloud (2 vCPU, 4 GB, 50 GB) — 1,080 ₽ per month when billed annually.

Installation

On a clean server one command from the official docs is enough:

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

The script installs Docker if it’s missing and initializes Docker Swarm. After installation the panel opens at http://SERVER_IP:3000, where an administrator account is created.

First steps after installation:

1. Bind a domain to the panel and enable HTTPS for it.
2. Restrict access to port 3000 in the provider’s firewall. Docker rules bypass ufw, so closing the port only with ufw is not enough.
3. Configure storage for backups (see below).
4. Connect a Git provider and deploy the first application.

What Dokploy can do

• Apps from Git — via Dockerfile or with automatic builds without it; automatic deploy on every change in a branch.
• Docker Compose — multi-service projects are described with the familiar docker-compose.yml.
• Databases — PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB and Redis are deployed from the panel.
• Domains and certificates — Traefik routes requests and obtains Let’s Encrypt certificates.
• Monitoring and logs — server and application load, real-time logs.
• Multiple servers — remote servers can be connected to a single panel.

Backups

Dokploy stores backups in S3-compatible storage, so it must be configured in advance. In Russia, object storage providers such as Selectel, VK Cloud and Yandex Cloud are suitable.

• Databases. Each database has a schedule in cron format; backups are uploaded to the storage.
• The panel itself. A separate backup includes the panel’s PostgreSQL database and the configuration directory /etc/dokploy, packed into a single archive. Without it, after a server failure you will have to reconfigure all applications, domains and environment variables from scratch.

A backup that has never been restored cannot be considered reliable: you should test restoration on a staging server.

When to choose Dokploy

• You need a backend, databases and several services together.
• Data must be stored in Russia, including personal data.
• A predictable budget is important: the server cost does not depend on traffic or number of deploys.
• The team has someone who will update the server and monitor backups.

If there is no such person, and the project is a static site without data collection, the cloud platforms in this series will be cheaper in terms of time.

Common mistakes

• The panel is open to the Internet on port 3000. Access should be only via HTTPS through a domain or from trusted addresses.
• No backup of the panel itself. Only databases are backed up, and application configuration is lost along with the server.
• Server without updates. Dokploy does not update the OS or Docker.
• One server for everything. Panel, builds, applications and databases on one machine: a server failure stops everything at once. For critical projects it’s better to separate builds and application runtime across servers.
• Builds on a 2 GB server. A build may run out of memory and stop running applications.