Install Coolify, a self-hosted alternative to Heroku and Vercel

Coolify is an open-source platform for deploying your own apps, websites and databases, much like Heroku, Vercel or Netlify, but running on your own VPS. Connect a Git repository and Coolify builds and deploys your app, sets up free SSL certificates, and redeploys whenever you push. It also has one-click installs for hundreds of popular services, such as WordPress, Ghost, PostgreSQL, Redis, Plausible and n8n.

Coolify supports every operating system we offer: Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 and 26.04, Debian 12 and 13, AlmaLinux 8, 9 and 10, and Rocky Linux 9 and 10. The installer sets up Docker and everything else it needs for you.

Before you start

• Use a fresh VPS. Coolify takes over ports 80 and 443 with its own proxy, so don't install it on a server that already runs websites, cPanel or another control panel.
• At least 2 vCPU, 2 GB of RAM and 30 GB of disk. Building apps uses a lot of memory, so 4 GB of RAM or more is recommended if you'll deploy several apps.
• Root access over SSH. The installer must run as root.
• Optional but recommended: a domain for the Coolify dashboard, for example coolify.example.co.nz, with an A record pointing to your VPS IP address.

Step 1: Open the firewall

Coolify needs these ports:

• 22/tcp: SSH
• 80/tcp and 443/tcp: your apps, and SSL certificates
• 8000/tcp: the Coolify dashboard, when accessed by IP address
• 6001/tcp and 6002/tcp: real-time updates and the web terminal, when accessed by IP address

Ubuntu/Debian with UFW enabled:

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw allow 8000/tcp
sudo ufw allow 6001:6002/tcp

AlmaLinux/Rocky with firewalld:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=ssh --add-service=http --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8000/tcp --add-port=6001-6002/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

A note on Docker and firewalls: Coolify runs everything in Docker, and Docker manages its own firewall rules. Ports published by your apps can be reachable from the internet even if UFW or firewalld would normally block them, so don't rely on your firewall alone to hide them.

Step 2: Run the installer

Log in as root (or run sudo -i first), then run:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash

The installer takes a few minutes. When it finishes, it shows the address of your dashboard.

Step 3: Create your admin account straight away

Open http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8000 in your browser and register your admin account immediately. The first person to reach this page becomes the administrator, so don't leave it unclaimed.

Then back up the file /data/coolify/source/.env somewhere safe, off the server. It holds the encryption keys you'd need to restore Coolify later.

Step 4: Put the dashboard on your own domain

1. In Coolify, go to Settings.
2. Set the Instance's domain to your full address, including https, for example https://coolify.example.co.nz, and save.
3. Coolify gets an SSL certificate for it automatically. Open the new address to check it works.
4. Once the dashboard works on your domain, you can close ports 8000, 6001 and 6002 in your firewall.

Step 5: Deploy your first app

1. Go to Projects and create a project, for example "Production".
2. Click + New to add a resource. You can deploy from a public Git repository, connect a private GitHub or GitLab repository, use a Dockerfile or Docker Compose file, or pick a one-click service.
3. Set the app's domain, for example https://app.example.co.nz, and point that domain's A record at your VPS.
4. Click Deploy. You can follow the build logs live.

Tip: add a wildcard DNS record such as *.apps.example.co.nz pointing to your VPS, and you can give each new app its own subdomain without touching DNS again.

Backups

Coolify can take scheduled backups of the databases it manages and send them to S3-compatible storage. Set this up in each database's Backups tab. Also keep your own copy of /data/coolify/source/.env, and back up any app data stored in volumes.

Keeping it up to date

Coolify updates itself automatically by default. You can change this, or update manually, under Settings. Keep the server's operating system updated as well, with sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade or sudo dnf upgrade.

Troubleshooting

• The installer fails: make sure you're running it as root on a fresh server, and read the error it shows. A partly installed or older Docker can cause problems.
• The dashboard won't load on port 8000: check that port 8000 is open, and that Coolify is running with docker ps.
• SSL certificates aren't issued for an app: check that the app's domain points to your VPS and that ports 80 and 443 are open.
• Builds fail or the server becomes slow: building apps is memory-hungry. Upgrade your VPS, or add swap space.

Need help?

Our Cloud VPS plans are self-managed, so you're responsible for installing, securing and maintaining the software on your server. If something on our side isn't working, such as the network, or your VPS won't boot, open a support ticket. New to your VPS? Start with our Cloud VPS Getting Started Guide. For more on Coolify itself, see the Coolify documentation.