website VS Dokku

Let's Encrypt

cert-manager is a CRD (Custom Resource Definition) that dynamically generates TLS/SSL certificates for our applications using Let's Encrypt (although it also supports other issuers).

Install Certbot Certbot is a CLI that helps to obtain and maintain Let's Encrypt cert.

Let's Encrypt. CapRover automatically configures each service with nginx. SSL certificates (on multiple domains too) are just the click of a button.

you should look at free services like https://letsencrypt.org/

Let's Encrypt Let's Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority brought to you by the nonprofit Internet Security…letsencrypt.org

Today, you will learn how to deploy your node.js project to the internet via an Amazon Web Services EC2 Instance at little or no cost. You will learn how to create an AWS EC2 Instance and work in Amazon Linux 2, create and manage services with SYSTEMD, use NGINX as a reverse proxy and obtain an SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt to ensure your website is secure via HTTPS protocol. So let’s get to it and deploy your project to your EC2 Instance.

Luckily you can get the https easily. I’ve been using https://letsencrypt.org/ to get it encrypted. Was fast and free. No real barrier just a bunch of setup.

It is able to get them via requests to Let's Encrypt with acme-client. (See: How to conifugre OpenBSD acme-client).

When I came across Coolify, I thought of giving it a try. I am aware of Dokku, but I never really tried it because it doesn't have a UI. I work primarily as a UI developer, so having a nice UI to work with is a plus for me.

I run all my projects on Dokku. It’s a sweet spot for me between a barebones VPS with Docker Compose and something a lot more complicated like k8s. Dokku comes with a bunch of solid plugins for databases that handle backups and such. Zero downtime deploys, TLS cert management, reverse proxies, all out of the box. It’s simple enough to understand in a weekend and has been quietly maintained for many years. The only downside is it’s meant mostly for single server deployments, but I’ve never needed another server so far.

https://dokku.com/

Yeah there are a bunch of selfhostable things:

Caprover (https://caprover.com/)

Dokku (https://github.com/dokku/dokku)

But people still choose Netlify and Vercel for ease of use I think.

Maybe we need something that's just Netlify. The closest I've seen to the "right" UX is Ness:

https://ness.sh

The modern iteration of these tools has taken the developer experience learnings from the Platform as a Service (PaaS) category, and will bring them to your own VM, giving you your own personal PaaS. Example of this include Dokku, Coolify, Caprover, Cloud66 and many more!

Based on the fact that your ideal is to have a similar experience to heroku than managing your own server setting up reverse proxies take a look at these options:

1) https://dokku.com - lets you turn your light sail instance basically into heroku

2) https://render.com

3) https://fly.io

4) If you have aws credits this is their heroku equivalent: https://aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk

above is not what I do but would be the options I would pursue if I understand your preference and requirement correctly.

All in all, I really recommend trying out Dokku if you are a developer interested in hosting your own projects. It makes it super easy to get everything you need to get up and running without having to worry about the specifics. And the price is impossible to beat!

The installation instructions are on the frontpage of our site. Thats basically all you need to do to install Dokku. As far as using it, we have a simplified tutorial here.

Dokku is a lightweight and open-source PaaS platform that simplifies application deployment by leveraging Docker. With Dokku, developers can easily push their applications using Git, allowing Dokku to build and run them in isolated containers. Its CLI-only approach and plugin architecture make it highly extensible. Dokku's modular plugins enable features like database integration, Let's Encrypt SSL certificates, and automated Slack notifications, giving developers flexibility and control over their PaaS environment.

Also https://dokku.com/