Buddy vs Dokku
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Buddy and Dokku.
Quick Verdict
3.9/5
Buddy
0 reviews
4.2/5
Dokku
0 reviews
Dokku is rated higher (4.2 vs 3.9). Buddy is a DevOps automation platform with 150+ actions for building, testing, and deploying to any server or cloud. Visual pipeline builder, Docker support, and good free tier. Dokku is an open source PaaS you deploy on any VPS. Heroku-compatible buildpacks, Git push deployments, Let's Encrypt SSL, and Docker support. Run your own Heroku on a $5 Hetzner server.
Buddy DevOps automation with 150+ deployment actions | Dokku Self-hosted mini Heroku on your own VPS | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.9 (0 reviews) | 4.2 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | freemium | free |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free |
| Best for | Small-to-mid teams, especially in Europe, that want visual CI/CD with mixed Linux/Windows/macOS runners and prefer per-minute metering over YAML maintenance | Developers comfortable with Linux who want Heroku-style deployments at VPS pricing on infrastructure they own and control |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ✓ | |
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierapi accessteam features | free tieropen sourceself hostable |
| Visit Buddy → | Visit Dokku → | |
Buddy
Pros
- + Visual pipeline builder with YAML pipelines as an escape hatch — editable by both terminal and non-terminal users
- + Transparent usage metering with worked cost examples on the pricing page
- + Free plan includes all features except SSO and advanced permissions, with $1/month usage credit
- + Linux, Windows, and macOS VM runners on Intel and ARM cover desktop and mobile builds in one tool
- + Sandbox previews with custom domains, plus Terraform, tunnels, CLI, and API across all plans
Cons
- - Free workspaces are frozen after 60 days of inactivity and permanently terminated 30 days later
- - SSO and advanced permissions gated behind the $299/month Team plan
- - Seats, concurrency slots, and compute usage are three separate meters that stack on busy teams
- - Smaller action ecosystem than GitHub Actions; no self-hosted runners on your own hardware
- - macOS VM usage is billed at 6x the memory rate — iOS builds get expensive quickly
Dokku
Pros
- + Free MIT-licensed software — you only pay for the underlying server
- + Heroku-compatible buildpacks and git push workflow make migration from Heroku straightforward
- + Mature project (since 2013) with 353 releases and a large plugin ecosystem
- + Full control over data, costs and where your apps physically run
- + Optional Dokku Pro is a one-time $849 lifetime license, not a subscription
Cons
- - Self-managed: OS updates, security, backups and monitoring are your responsibility
- - Single-host design — no built-in failover, autoscaling or multi-host scheduling
- - Support is community-only (GitHub issues, Slack) unless you buy Dokku Pro
- - Plugin quality and upgrade compatibility vary across the community ecosystem
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