Cloudways vs Dokku
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Cloudways and Dokku.
Cloudways Managed cloud hosting on your choice of provider | Dokku Self-hosted mini Heroku on your own VPS | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.4 (513 reviews) | 4.7 (251 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | free |
| Starting price | From €14/mo | Free✓ |
| Best for | Agency developers and freelancers who want managed hosting flexibility without paying Kinsta prices | Developers who want Heroku-style deployments at VPS pricing on infrastructure they own and control |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 1 vCPU | — |
| RAM | 1 GB | — |
| Storage | 25 GB | — |
| Bandwidth | 1 TB/mo | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.9% | — |
| Data-center count | 65 | — |
| €/vCPU/mo | €14.00 | — |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €14.00 | — |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | United StatesUnited KingdomGermanyNetherlandsSingaporeAustralia+1 | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | managed optionddos protectionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter | free tieropen sourceself hostable |
| Visit Cloudways → | Visit Dokku → | |
Cloudways
Pros
- + Choose your underlying cloud provider
- + Excellent price-to-managed-value ratio
- + One-click staging environments
Cons
- - Adds markup on top of underlying provider cost
- - Less control than raw VPS for advanced users
Dokku
Pros
- + Free and open source — just need a VPS
- + Heroku buildpack compatible
- + Full control over your data and costs
Cons
- - Self-managed — you handle updates and maintenance
- - Requires Linux server knowledge
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