Comparison
Coolify and Dokploy are deploy platforms with their own engines, which you host or rent. KamalCloud is a service that runs Kamal on your cloud.
Not portable-because-it-is-Docker. Your repository's own config/deploy.yml, plus a destination file KamalCloud writes in Kamal's own format, both run by the official Kamal image.
Creating a server is no longer rare: Coolify now does it too. Fixing it is. KamalCloud applies twelve named hardening fixes one at a time, and estimates the whole estate from each provider's own price list, with a spend trend and idle resources flagged.
Reads of servers, apps and requests answer directly. Every change asked for through the API or CLI is proposed and waits for an admin to approve it in the browser. Hand the CLI to a script, or to an agent, without handing over the estate.
| Feature | KamalCloudA service that runs Kamal | CoolifyOpen source, self-hosted or cloud | DokployOpen source, self-hosted or cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the control plane runs | Hosted for you. Self-hosting is possible — billing is optional in the code. | You install and maintain it, or rent Coolify Cloud | You install and maintain it, or rent Dokploy Cloud |
| Deploy engine | Kamal — the official image, pinned to v2.12.0 | Its own: Nixpacks, Railpack, Dockerfile or Compose, behind Traefik or Caddy | Its own: Nixpacks, Railpack, Buildpacks, Dockerfile or Compose, behind Traefik |
| The config you end up owning | Standard Kamal config: your deploy.yml plus a destination file in Kamal's format | Stored in Coolify's database, with no export format | Stored in Dokploy's database. Export is an open feature request |
| Creates servers for you | YesHetzner, DigitalOcean and AWS, over their APIs | YesHetzner, DigitalOcean and Vultr, over their APIs | NoServers are added over SSH |
| Bring a server you already have | YesOver SSH, with a custom user and port | Yes | Yes |
| Server hardeningKamalCloud's fixes that change the machine need it to accept a root login. | Yes12 named fixes, applied one at a time: host and cloud firewall, fail2ban, SSH lockdown, automatic updates, swap | PartlyInstalls OS updates from the dashboard. Firewall and SSH are left to you | PartlyA security check reports on UFW, SSH and Fail2Ban. You apply the fixes |
| Cost dashboard | YesEstimated from each provider's price list, spend trend, idle resources flagged | NoNothing in its docs | NoNothing in its docs |
| AI | YesAn MCP server built from the caller's own role, with OAuth 2.1 and a preview before anything costly | PartlyAn MCP server that can deploy, not built from the caller's role | PartlyAn assistant that writes Compose files, and an MCP server |
| Approval-gated API | YesThe API and CLI read servers and apps. Turn on human-approval mode and every change they ask for is a request an admin approves | NoScoped tokens act at once | NoTokens act with their user's permissions |
| Backups to your own S3 | YesDatabases and volumes, scheduled, to one or more buckets, with restore and download | YesDatabases with restore. Volumes are scheduled, but not restored from the dashboard | YesDatabases and volumes, scheduled, with restore |
| Git providers | GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Bitbucket | GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Bitbucket | GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Bitbucket, and any Git URL |
| Push to deploy | YesBranch or tag triggers, with path filters | YesWith watch paths | YesWith watch paths, except on Gitea |
| Docker Compose apps | NoKamal-shaped apps only | Yes | Yes |
| Preview and PR environments | No | YesRemoved when the PR closes | PartlyGitHub only |
| Multiple hosts per environment | YesSeveral hosts and Kamal roles per environment. More than one proxy host needs a supplied certificate or a load balancer — Kamal's constraint, not ours. | PartlySeveral servers behind your own load balancer. Swarm is deprecated | YesSeveral servers, or a Swarm cluster |
| One-click apps | 5: WordPress, Directus, Stalwart, Vaultwarden and Runwell | About 370 | About 530 |
| Notification channels | Email, Slack, Discord, webhook | Email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Mattermost, Pushover, webhook | Email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Gotify, Ntfy, Lark |
| Pricing | 7-day trial, then one plan: $29 a month for unlimited servers and people | Free to self-host. Cloud is $5 a month for 2 servers, $3 per extra server | Free to self-host. Cloud starts at $4.50 a month per server |
| Maturity | New | Since 2021, about 62k GitHub stars, Apache-2.0 | Since 2024, about 37k GitHub stars, Apache-2.0 with proprietary parts |
Last verified: 14 September 2026, against KamalCloud's code and Coolify's and Dokploy's own docs, pricing pages and changelogs. Both move quickly. Tell us where we have it wrong and we will correct it here.
If you want a long catalog of one-click applications, if your apps are Compose files you would rather not reshape, if you need preview environments per pull request, or if running the control plane yourself is something you actively want — Coolify is the better tool and it is free. It has years of work and a large community behind it, and neither of those is something we can claim yet.
Choose KamalCloud when the machine matters as much as the deploy: when you want the servers hardened for you, the bill in the same place, and an API that cannot change anything without a person saying so — on top of a Kamal config that stays yours.
That is the hardest question on this page and the sticker prices are not comparable. Self-hosted Coolify is free software that you host, patch, back up and debug at two in the morning, on a server you are also paying for. Coolify Cloud takes that away for a few dollars a month, and it is a fair answer. What neither gives you is the machine hardened, the bill in view, or an API that waits for a person. If those do not matter to you, Coolify is a genuinely good choice.
Five: WordPress, Directus, Stalwart, Vaultwarden and Runwell, against roughly 370 and 530. Ours are production-shaped — volumes that stand their container down for a consistent backup, and honest version notes each — but five is five. If you are shopping for a catalog, we are not it yet.
No. KamalCloud deploys Kamal-shaped applications. If your app is a Compose file and you want it to stay one, this is the wrong tool and we would rather you knew before you signed up than after.
It is possible — billing is optional in the code — but it is not the product we support or document. The hosted control plane is the thing we run, watch and patch.
The comparison that counts is the one you run. Connect a machine and see what the hardening panel says about it.
Sign-ups are paused while the app is in maintenance.