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How to Self-Host Coolify on a VPS (2026)

Published October 7, 2026  ·  5 min read  ·  Galaxy Cloud Solutions

Coolify is an open source platform you install on your own server to get the parts of Heroku or Vercel that people actually like. You connect a Git repository, Coolify builds it and runs it, and it can give your app a domain with an SSL certificate. It also runs databases next to your apps.

The difference is where it runs. Instead of paying per app or per seat, everything lives on one server you rent for a flat monthly price. We have Coolify in our one-click installer, and we tested it on our current Ubuntu 24.04 and Rocky Linux 9 images this week before writing this.

⚡ Run Coolify from $10/mo, use code LAUNCH2026 for 50% off

Who Coolify suits

Coolify is a good fit if you:

• have a few side projects or small client sites and are tired of paying for each one separately,
• like the push-to-deploy workflow and don't want to write deploy scripts,
• are comfortable owning a Linux server, even if you'd rather not touch it every day.

It is probably not for you if you have never used a server and want someone else to handle every update and outage. With Coolify, you are the platform team. More on that below.

Which plan to pick

Coolify's own docs list a minimum of 2 CPU cores, 2 GB of RAM and 10 GB of free disk space. That minimum is for Coolify itself. Your apps and their builds need room on top of it.

Plan	Specs	Price	For Coolify
Nebula 2	2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB storage, 1 TB transfer	$10/mo	Meets the minimum. Fine for one or two small apps.
Galaxy 1	4 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB storage, 2 TB transfer	$20/mo	What I'd pick for a handful of apps and a database.
Galaxy 2	4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 160 GB storage, 3 TB transfer	$35/mo	Heavier builds or more apps.

I wouldn't put Coolify on Nebula 1. With 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM it is below what Coolify asks for.

Every plan comes with its own dedicated IP and full root access.

How to install it

1. Order a VPS. Ubuntu 24.04 is the default operating system and it's what I'd use. Rocky Linux 9 also passed our tests.
2. Log in to the client portal and open your VPS.
3. Open the One-Click App Installer section, find Coolify under DevOps & CI/CD (or type it into the search box) and click it.
4. Wait for the email telling you the install is done. In our tests it took about four minutes on Ubuntu 24.04 and about six on Rocky Linux 9.
5. On the same VPS page, under Firewall Rules, add a rule for port 8000, protocol TCP. Your server starts with everything closed except SSH. If you put your own IP address in the Source IP box, only you can reach the dashboard.
6. Open http://YOUR-IP:8000 in your browser, using your server's IP address.

What to do first

Create your admin account right away. This is the most important step. Coolify's docs say it plainly: "Anyone who reaches the registration page first can become the instance admin and gain root access to your server." So don't install it and come back tomorrow. Open the page as soon as the email arrives and register.

After that:

• Add the server. Coolify asks where to deploy. Pick this server, or add another one over SSH if you have one.
• Connect your Git provider. GitHub, GitLab and Gitea all work.
• Point a domain at the server. Once you have one, give it to your apps so Coolify can set up SSL for them, and set a domain for the Coolify dashboard too. That way you aren't logging in over plain HTTP on port 8000. Open ports 80 and 443 in Firewall Rules too, so visitors and Let's Encrypt can reach your apps.
• Deploy something small first. A simple site is a good way to see how builds and logs work before you move anything that matters.

What to watch out for

Your apps, their builds and Coolify itself all share one server. When Coolify builds an app, the build uses the same CPU and memory as everything else that's running. Coolify's docs warn about this: "monitor your resource usage. High resource usage could make your server unresponsive."

On a 2 GB plan, a big build can slow your live apps down while it runs. If that starts to happen, move up a plan, or add a second server in Coolify and build there.

The other half of this is that you're now the one looking after it. Updates, backups and anything that breaks at 2 AM are on you, not on a platform company. Coolify keeps its own data in /data/coolify, and your databases need backing up too. Our guide on how to back up a VPS covers the basics.

For a lot of people that trade is worth it. One flat bill, as many small apps as the server can hold, and nobody changing the pricing on you. If you're weighing it against the hosted options, I wrote about Heroku, Railway and Render from the other side.

If you want to try it, Nebula 2 and Galaxy 1 are both a good place to start.