# Dokku

> MIT Docker-powered mini-Heroku on one server

**Category:** DevOps  
**Pricing:** open-source  
**URL:** https://dokku.com  
**GitHub:** https://github.com/dokku/dokku  
**Added:** 2026-10-18

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## The Hook

Dokku turns a single Ubuntu or Debian VM into a git-push PaaS: push your app over SSH and it builds it with buildpacks or a Dockerfile, runs it in containers and routes a domain to it.

## What's Good

MIT (dokku/dokku), release v0.38.31 (2026-09-27), maintained since 2013. Runs on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/26.04 and Debian 11+ (amd64 and arm64). Apps deploy with `git push`, and a long-lived plugin ecosystem adds Postgres, Redis, Let's Encrypt and more. Everything is driven from the `dokku` CLI over SSH, so it scripts well. ★~32.2k.

## The Catch

It is a single-host PaaS by design: no built-in multi-node scheduling or high availability, so one VM is one failure domain. There is no web dashboard in the core project; you work in the CLI. Database plugins are convenient, but you still own backups and upgrades on that box.

## Verdict

The simplest self-hosted Heroku for one server — boring in the good way.