Today I want to share why Dokku changed how I think about deployments. This isn’t a tutorial—you can find those anywhere. This is about why you should consider it.

What is Dokku?

Dokku is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that runs on a single server. Think of it as your own personal Heroku, but self-hosted, open source, and lightweight.

It started as a collection of bash scripts. Now it uses Go too, but the philosophy remains the same: keep deployment simple.

My Experience

I’ve deployed these with Dokku:

• WordPress sites, Moodle instances, Ruby applications, Node.js projects, Kanboard, Grafana

All running on one small server. No complexity, no container orchestration nightmares.

The Dokku team puts it perfectly: “Use it on inexpensive cloud providers. Use the extra cash to buy a pony or feed kittens. You’ll save tens of dollars a year on your dog photo sharing website.”

Why Dokku Over Competitors?

Simple answer: Dokku is the simplest one.

It gives you more control than other platforms. The documentation is excellent and AI tools understand Dokku well.

Personally, Dokku feels like home. I’m still new to the deployment world—maybe I should try other options too. But Dokku abstracts less than its competitors, which means I can interact with the server and Docker directly when needed.

Since Dokku is simple and built with bash and Go, I can read the source code directly to understand what’s happening under the hood.

Ready to Get Started?

If you’re convinced and want to try Dokku yourself, check out my deployment guides where I share step-by-step instructions for deploying various applications.