Coolify is popular for a reason. It's free, open-source, and lets you run a self-hosted PaaS on your own server. For hobby projects and developers comfortable with Linux administration, it works. But for production workloads, the operational picture is more complicated.
Eleven critical security vulnerabilities were disclosed in the Coolify codebase in January 2026. Command injection, root key leakage, and a default root-level process model are significant concerns for any team running real user data. Beyond security, the architecture imposes ongoing operational requirements that many teams underestimate before committing.
This guide compares Coolify against Out Plane across the factors that matter most for production use: security posture, operational burden, scaling, and total cost.
Why Developers Look for Coolify Alternatives
Coolify's value proposition is straightforward: you pay for a server, install Coolify, and get a Heroku-like experience without platform vendor fees. The trade-off is that you now own the infrastructure. That means:
Server procurement and configuration. You need a VPS or dedicated server with sufficient resources. You choose the provider, set up SSH access, and configure firewall rules. This is not a one-time task.
Security patching is your responsibility. Coolify runs on your server. When vulnerabilities are disclosed in Coolify itself, the underlying OS, or the Docker runtime it depends on, patching falls to you. The 11 critical vulnerabilities disclosed in January 2026 — including command injection via unsanitized input and unintended root key exposure — required manual intervention from every self-hosted operator.
Root-level process model. Coolify runs as root by default. This is a known security concern in self-hosted environments because a compromise of the application layer can yield full host access. Mitigating this requires deliberate hardening that many operators skip.
Scaling is constrained by architecture. Coolify uses Docker Swarm for multi-node clustering. Docker Swarm is stable but lacks the scheduling intelligence, resource efficiency, and ecosystem depth of Kubernetes-grade orchestration. Horizontal scaling requires manual cluster expansion and Swarm configuration.
Monitoring and backups require additional setup. Coolify provides basic deployment visibility, but production-grade metrics, alerting, and database backup verification require separate tooling. Grafana, Prometheus, and backup automation are not included.
Documentation gaps at troubleshooting depth. Coolify's documentation covers happy-path deployment well. When something goes wrong in production — a container won't start, a database connection pool exhausts, a deployment hangs — the troubleshooting guidance is thin. You often fall back to Docker and Linux debugging, which requires specific expertise.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Coolify | Out Plane |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting model | Self-hosted (your server) | Fully managed |
| Security patching | Manual, operator responsibility | Automatic, platform responsibility |
| Scaling | Docker Swarm (manual cluster setup) | Kubernetes-grade, automatic |
| Database management | Self-managed or external | Managed PostgreSQL and Redis |
| Monitoring | Basic (external tools needed) | Built-in metrics, HTTP logs, app logs |
| SSL certificates | Automatic via Let's Encrypt | Automatic, platform-managed |
| Backup automation | Manual setup required | Automated database backups |
| Support | Community (Discord/GitHub) | Professional support |
| Default process model | Runs as root | Isolated containers, non-root |
Pricing Comparison
Coolify is free software, but free software is not free infrastructure. To run Coolify in production, you need:
- A VPS or dedicated server: $5 to $20 per month for entry-level capacity, $40 to $100 per month for production-capable instances with adequate memory and CPU.
- Your time for setup, security hardening, OS updates, Coolify upgrades, and incident response. For a developer billing $80 to $150 per hour, even four hours per month of infrastructure work represents $320 to $600 in opportunity cost.
- Additional tooling for monitoring, alerting, and backups — either self-hosted (more infrastructure) or SaaS (additional cost).
The real cost of Coolify is not the software license. It is the infrastructure and the time.
Out Plane uses per-second billing. You pay for compute while your application runs, not for idle server capacity. Specifics:
- $20 in free credit, no credit card required to start.
- Hobby tier includes 3 free instances, sufficient for staging environments or small projects at zero cost.
- Managed databases, SSL, monitoring, and automatic backups are included in the platform.
- No infrastructure time overhead — deployments happen from git push, and the platform handles everything below the application layer.
For most production applications, the total cost difference between Coolify (server + time) and a managed PaaS is smaller than it initially appears, once operator time is factored in honestly.
Key Differences in Practice
Self-Hosted vs. Fully Managed
With Coolify, you own the host. Every kernel update, Docker engine upgrade, and Coolify release is a manual operation. If your server experiences hardware failure, disk corruption, or network issues, recovery is your responsibility. You need runbooks, backup procedures, and someone available to execute them.
With Out Plane, the platform owns the infrastructure. The compute, networking, storage, and container orchestration layer are all managed. Your team interacts with git, environment variables, and a web dashboard. Infrastructure failures are platform incidents, not your incidents.
Security Patching
The January 2026 Coolify vulnerability disclosures included CVEs covering command injection through inadequate input sanitization in deployment configurations, and root private key exposure via API endpoints accessible to authenticated users. Both required operators to manually pull updated Docker images and restart the Coolify stack.
On a managed platform, security patches at the orchestration and runtime level are applied automatically. Your application container security remains your responsibility, but the infrastructure layers beneath it are not.
Scaling
Docker Swarm, which Coolify uses for multi-node deployments, requires you to provision additional nodes, join them to the Swarm, and manage service placement rules. Scaling is manual and requires SSH access to multiple machines.
Out Plane scales automatically based on traffic load. You define minimum and maximum instance counts. The platform handles scheduling, load balancing, and traffic routing without configuration changes.
Database Management
Coolify does not provide managed databases. You run your database on the same host as Coolify, on a separate self-managed server, or you pay for an external managed database service separately. In either case, backups, replication, and failover configuration fall to you.
Out Plane provides managed PostgreSQL (versions 14 through 18) and Redis with automated backups, point-in-time recovery, and built-in monitoring. You get a connection string. The operational layer is handled.
Monitoring
Coolify shows container status and basic logs. For production observability — HTTP response time distribution, error rate tracking, resource utilization over time, and alerting on anomalies — you need to build a separate monitoring stack or pay for external tools.
Out Plane includes runtime metrics, HTTP request logs, and application logs in the platform dashboard. You get observability without standing up Prometheus and Grafana.
When Coolify Still Makes Sense
Coolify is a well-built tool that fits specific contexts well. Consider it when:
Data sovereignty requirements are strict. If your application handles data that must remain on infrastructure you physically control — specific regulatory frameworks, national data residency laws, or contractual requirements with enterprise customers — self-hosted is the correct model. Coolify gives you control over where your data lives.
You have existing server infrastructure. Teams with dedicated servers already in operation can use Coolify without additional infrastructure spend. If the server is already paid for and managed, the marginal cost of adding Coolify is low.
Hobby and learning projects. Coolify is excellent for developers learning containerized deployment, experimenting with self-hosted tooling, or running personal projects where downtime tolerance is high and security requirements are minimal.
Teams with strong DevOps expertise. If you have engineers who are comfortable administering Linux servers, hardening Docker deployments, and maintaining infrastructure reliability, Coolify's self-hosted model gives you flexibility that managed platforms don't. The operational burden is real, but manageable with the right expertise.
When Out Plane Is a Better Fit
Production workloads with real users. When downtime has business consequences and security vulnerabilities have compliance implications, managed infrastructure reduces operational risk. You get automatic patching, professional reliability, and a support path.
Teams without dedicated DevOps resources. Most engineering teams don't have dedicated infrastructure engineers. Developers who manage their own servers are developers not building product. The opportunity cost accumulates. Out Plane eliminates infrastructure work so your team focuses on application development.
Security-sensitive applications. Managed platforms apply security patches across their infrastructure layer automatically. Applications running on self-hosted Coolify require manual patching by operators who may not monitor vulnerability disclosures consistently.
Applications with variable traffic. Per-second billing and automatic scaling mean you pay for actual compute consumed, not reserved server capacity. For applications with traffic patterns that vary through the day or week, this is a meaningful cost advantage over fixed server costs.
Teams that need managed databases. If you want PostgreSQL with automated backups and point-in-time recovery without managing it yourself, Out Plane includes this. Coolify does not.
Out Plane Also Offers a Self-Hosted Option
Teams that need data sovereignty but want to avoid the full DIY burden of Coolify have a third path. Out Plane offers a self-hosted deployment option designed for teams with specific data residency requirements.
The Out Plane self-hosted option provides the same deployment workflow, managed database capabilities, and monitoring interface as the cloud-managed platform, but runs on infrastructure you control. You get data sovereignty without building infrastructure tooling from scratch. This is an alternative worth evaluating if your requirement is specifically about where data lives, not about running your own platform.
Details on the self-hosted option are available on the self-hosted page.
Summary
Coolify is a capable self-hosted PaaS. For developers who want to experiment with self-hosted infrastructure, have data residency requirements, or have existing server capacity and DevOps expertise, it is a legitimate choice.
For production applications, the operational model has meaningful costs. Security patching responsibility, manual scaling, the need for additional monitoring tooling, and the absence of managed databases all represent ongoing overhead. The 11 critical security vulnerabilities disclosed in January 2026 highlighted what happens when self-hosted operators don't patch promptly.
Out Plane provides a managed alternative with automatic security patching, Kubernetes-grade orchestration, built-in monitoring, and managed databases. Per-second billing keeps costs proportional to actual usage. The Hobby tier provides 3 free instances for development and staging environments.
For teams that specifically need data sovereignty, the Out Plane self-hosted option provides a middle path between full DIY and fully managed.
Ready for managed infrastructure? Get started with Out Plane and receive $20 in free credit. Need self-hosting? Check our self-hosted option.