Deploy with Coolify: Turn Any VPS Into Your Own Heroku

Heroku killed its free tier. Vercel has limits. Railway bills surprise you. What if you could get the same push-to-deploy experience on a server you actually own? Coolify is an open-source platform-as-a-service that runs on your VPS. It handles SSL, reverse proxying, databases, and Git-based deployments—without the vendor lock-in. This guide shows you how to deploy with Coolify, from a bare server to a running application.

If you want to see Coolify in action with a specific app, check out our n8n Coolify Deployment: Self-Host Workflow Automation in 20 Minutes.

What You Will Build

By the end of this guide you will have:

• Coolify installed on a fresh VPS
• A domain pointing to your server with automatic SSL
• A project containing a deployed service from a Git repository
• Environment variables and persistent storage configured
• A working CI/CD pipeline that redeploys on every Git push

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

• A fresh VPS (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 LTS recommended) with at least 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM, and 30 GB disk
• Root or sudo SSH access to the server
• A domain name with DNS control (for SSL and subdomains)
• Basic familiarity with Docker, Git, and the command line
• Ports 22, 80, and 443 open in your firewall

Verify your server is ready:

ssh root@your-server-ip
uname -a
free -h
df -h

Update the system:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Step 1: Install Coolify

Coolify provides an official install script that handles Docker, networking, and directory setup automatically.

Run the installer:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | sudo bash

The script does the following:

• Installs Docker Engine 24+ and Docker Compose
• Creates directories under /data/coolify
• Generates SSH keys for server management
• Downloads and starts the Coolify stack

When finished, the script prints your Coolify URL:

Coolify is available at: http://your-server-ip:8000

Open that URL in a browser and create your admin account immediately. The registration page has no protection until the first user is created.

Step 2: Configure Your Domain and SSL

Coolify can run on an IP address, but production use demands a domain and HTTPS. Coolify uses Let's Encrypt automatically—no manual certificate management.

Set Up DNS

In your DNS provider, create these records:

Type: A
Name: coolify
Value: your-server-ip

Type: A
Name: *
Value: your-server-ip

The wildcard * record lets Coolify auto-create subdomains for every app you deploy. For example, deploying an app called api automatically gets api.yourdomain.com.

Add the Domain to Coolify

1. In the Coolify dashboard, go to Settings → General
2. Under Instance Domain, enter coolify.yourdomain.com
3. Save and wait for Coolify to provision the certificate

If you use Cloudflare, disable the orange proxy cloud temporarily. Let's Encrypt needs direct access to your server for the HTTP-01 challenge.

Step 3: Create a Project and Deploy Your First App

Coolify organizes everything into projects. Each project contains resources—your applications, databases, and services.

Create a Project

1. Click Projects in the sidebar, then Add New Project
2. Name it production
3. Select the server you just set up

Add a Resource from Git

1. Inside the project, click Add New Resource
2. Select Public Repository (or Private if you have a GitHub/GitLab token)
3. Enter your repository URL, e.g., https://github.com/yourname/your-app
4. Select the branch (usually main)
5. Coolify auto-detects the buildpack based on your files (Dockerfile, package.json, etc.)

If your repo has a Dockerfile, Coolify uses it directly. If not, it falls back to Nixpacks or Heroku buildpacks.

Configure Environment Variables

Before deploying, set your environment variables:

1. Go to the Environment Variables tab in your resource
2. Add keys like NODE_ENV=production, DATABASE_URL, API_KEY
3. Coolify injects these into the container at runtime

Click Deploy. Coolify pulls the code, builds the image, and starts the container.

Step 4: Add a Database

Most apps need a database. Coolify can provision PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, and more as managed services.

1. In your project, click Add New Resource
2. Select PostgreSQL (or your preferred database)
3. Coolify creates the container and generates credentials automatically

View the connection details:

Host: postgresql-container-name
Port: 5432
Database: postgres
Username: coolify
Password: auto-generated

Copy these into your app's environment variables. Because both containers run on the same Docker network, they can reach each other by container name.

Step 5: Configure Persistent Storage

Containers are ephemeral. If your app writes files—uploads, logs, caches—you need persistent storage.

1. In your resource settings, go to Storage
2. Click Add New Storage
3. Set the container path, e.g., /app/data
4. Coolify creates a host volume and mounts it automatically

For example, if you run a file upload service:

Container path: /app/uploads
Host path: /data/coolify/applications/your-app/uploads

Files written to /app/uploads inside the container persist on the host disk across redeploys.

Step 6: Enable Auto-Deploy from Git

The real power of Coolify is automatic redeployment. Push to Git, and Coolify rebuilds and deploys.

Configure a GitHub Webhook

1. In your resource settings, go to Webhooks
2. Copy the webhook URL (e.g., https://coolify.yourdomain.com/webhooks/github/...)
3. In your GitHub repository, go to Settings → Webhooks → Add webhook
4. Paste the URL, set content type to application/json, and select Just the push event

Now every git push triggers a new build in Coolify. No manual deploys, no SSH sessions.

For a concrete example of this workflow with n8n, see n8n Coolify Deployment: Self-Host Workflow Automation Without the DevOps Headache.

Tips and Troubleshooting

SSL certificate fails to provision

• Verify DNS A records point to your server IP with dig yourdomain.com +short
• Ensure port 80 is open for the Let's Encrypt HTTP-01 challenge
• If using Cloudflare, disable the proxy (grey cloud) until the certificate is issued

Build fails with "out of memory"

• Coolify builds images on the server. Large builds need RAM
• Add swap space as a temporary buffer:
  Copy

  fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
  chmod 600 /swapfile
  mkswap /swapfile
  swapon /swapfile

App shows 502 Bad Gateway

• The container may have crashed or failed to start. Check the resource logs in Coolify
• Verify the app is listening on the correct port (usually 3000, 8080, or 80)
• Ensure the health check path returns a 200 status

Database connection refused

• Confirm the database container is running in the same project
• Use the container name as the host, not localhost or 127.0.0.1
• Check that the database password in your environment variables matches

Webhook not triggering deploys

• Verify the webhook URL is reachable from the internet
• Check the webhook payload format matches what Coolify expects
• Test manually with curl:
  Copy

  curl -X POST https://coolify.yourdomain.com/webhooks/github/your-token \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"ref":"refs/heads/main"}'

Server becomes unresponsive during builds

• Monitor resource usage with htop or docker stats
• Consider separating the build server from the production server, or upgrading your VPS

Next Steps

You now know how to deploy with Coolify on your own VPS. You have a working PaaS with SSL, databases, persistent storage, and Git-based auto-deployment. That is a powerful foundation. From here, consider:

• Adding multiple servers to Coolify for distributed deployments
• Setting up preview environments for every pull request
• Using Coolify's service catalog to deploy n8n, Plausible, Uptime Kuma, and more
• Configuring backup schedules for your databases and volumes
• Integrating Coolify with your CI/CD pipeline for advanced deployment strategies

Self-hosting does not have to mean manual server administration. With Coolify, you get the convenience of a managed platform and the freedom of owning your infrastructure.

For another real-world Coolify deployment example, read Deploy n8n on Coolify: Self-Hosted Workflow Automation Without the SaaS Bill.

Need Help Scaling This?

If you are running production workloads and need multi-server orchestration, custom build pipelines, database clustering, or migration from Heroku / Vercel / Railway, we can help. Contact the Sysbrix team and we will architect a self-hosted platform that fits your team.