# Coolify alternative for PHP hosting

Source: https://www.fortrabbit.com/alternatives/coolify
Created: 2026-08-14
Reviewed: 2026-08-14


## About Coolify

Coolify is an open-source, self-hostable PaaS. It is built by coolLabs around founder Andras Bacsai in Hungary, released under the Apache 2.0 license, and has grown into one of the most-starred hosting projects on GitHub, with a Discord community in the tens of thousands. That reach is deserved: Coolify does a lot, and it does it without a paywall.

The model is bring-your-own-infrastructure. Coolify runs as a control panel on top of VPS instances from providers of your choosing — Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, AWS and friends. You provision the instance, Coolify automates container orchestration, deployments, TLS certificates and a catalogue of several hundred one-click services. Deployments are Docker-based via Nixpacks, a Dockerfile or Docker Compose, covering PHP, Node.js, static sites, databases and self-hosted tooling.

There are two flavours. The self-hosted edition is free without feature gates. Coolify Cloud hosts the panel itself for a monthly fee while the app servers remain yours in every case — it removes the "who watches the watcher" problem for the panel, not the operations work for the servers.

## What Coolify does well

Credit where it is due. For a certain kind of project, Coolify is the right answer and no managed platform will beat it:

- Full ownership of the box, with Docker-native deployments and no vendor runtime in the way
- Any language, any service — hundreds of one-click templates, from databases to self-hosted apps
- No per-app or per-seat licensing on the self-hosted edition
- An active community, a fast release cadence and a workspace UI for many projects and environments
- Data and workloads stay on infrastructure chosen and controlled by the operator

:ContentQuote{text="Free software on a server you own is not the same thing as free hosting."}

## Where the responsibility sits

Coolify provisions and deploys, but it does not take the server off your hands. Once the instance is running, kernel and OS updates, security patches, disk pressure, log rotation, off-site backups, uptime monitoring and the 3 a.m. incident are all yours. Coolify makes the setup fast; it does not make the aftercare disappear.

The panel is itself a component to look after. It consumes resources on the same machine as the apps, it needs to be kept current, and a failed panel upgrade is an incident like any other. Multi-server setups and Docker Swarm are supported, but there is no managed multi-node orchestration, no automatic failover and no autoscaling — capacity is added by hand.

At fortrabbit the line sits in a different place. We abstract the AWS infrastructure underneath and take responsibility for keeping it patched, monitored and running, with one direct contact for both billing and technical questions. See the [legal section](/legal) for what that covers in writing.

## Free is not the same as cheap

The panel costs nothing, but a deployed project rarely stops at the panel. There is the VPS bill, object storage for backups, an external monitoring service once uptime starts to matter, and a second instance the day one box is no longer enough. Coolify Cloud adds a subscription on top of that VPS bill rather than replacing it.

The larger line item is usually time. Upgrades, container debugging, PHP image maintenance and incident response are unbilled but not free, and they arrive at inconvenient moments. With fortrabbit, one price covers the app, MySQL and the infrastructure underneath. Entry [components](/pricing) start at €2.50 per month and fit small sites; scaling stays predictable instead of fanning out across vendors.

:ContentButton{property="dashboard" text="Start a free trial — no credit card" route="/signup"}

## Running PHP on Coolify

Coolify is language-agnostic by design, which is a strength everywhere except in the details of a PHP stack. PHP on Coolify means assembling a container: Nixpacks with a build configuration, or a Dockerfile pinning the PHP version, the extensions, FPM or Nginx Unit, an `opcache.ini`, buffer sizes for the web server, a supervisor config for queue workers and a cron entry for the scheduler.

All of it is documented and all of it works. It is also a stack that has to be maintained — the image drifts, the PHP version needs bumping, and the tuning lives in a repository somebody has to own.

fortrabbit ships that layer as the product. The PHP runtime is pre-tuned and version-pinned, MySQL is a native isolated component rather than a container next to the app, long-running workers and cron jobs are dashboard settings, and TLS is issued automatically. Nothing to assemble, nothing to re-tune after an upgrade.

## When to choose what

Neither option is a strict upgrade on the other. The split is mostly about how much of the stack you want to own:

| Scenario                   | Coolify                                  | fortrabbit                 |
| -------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | -------------------------- |
| Full server ownership      | ✅ Full control, Docker native            | ⚠️ Opinionated              |
| Any language or service    | ✅ Hundreds of containers                 | ⚠️ PHP only                 |
| PHP runtime                | ⚠️ Build and tune the image               | ✅ Pre-tuned, pinned        |
| Deployment                 | ✅ Git and Docker based                   | ✅ Composer-first git push  |
| OS patching and monitoring | ⚠️ Yours after provisioning               | ✅ Managed                  |
| Databases                  | ⚠️ Containers on the same box             | ✅ Managed MySQL            |
| Billing                    | ⚠️ Panel, VPS, storage, monitoring        | ✅ One plan, one invoice    |
| Support                    | ⚠️ Community first, Cloud plans add some  | ✅ Human support            |

## Migrating from Coolify to fortrabbit

Moving a PHP project off a Coolify-managed server is mostly subtraction — the Docker image, the proxy rules and the certificate handling do not travel:

1. Create the app on fortrabbit and add a MySQL component. The free trial is enough to validate the move.
2. Point the git remote at the new app and deploy. Composer install runs as part of the deploy, so no image build is involved.
3. Copy environment variables out of Coolify into the fortrabbit dashboard.
4. Dump the database on the old server and import it through the SSH tunnel — see the :ContentLink{href="/guides/general/mysql-import" text="MySQL import guide" prefix="docs"}.
5. rsync uploads from the VPS into the app's persistent storage.
6. Recreate queue workers and scheduled tasks as processes and cron jobs in the dashboard.
7. Move the domain, watch the certificate issue automatically, then retire the server.

## Why fortrabbit

**Responsibility**: We aim for less yak-shaving. fortrabbit abstracts the plumbing and gives one point of contact for billing and technical questions.

**App hosting**: The platform is service-oriented. You launch and scale apps, not servers. Read about our [app hosting architecture](/platform/architecture).

**Composer-first deploys**: Real PHP code is deployed via git push — no image wrapper between the repository and what runs in production.

**Predictable pricing**: One plan covers the app, MySQL and the infrastructure, with no second bill for the box underneath.

**Human support**: Talk to us in the support chat, not a bot. See our [support features](/benefits/get-support).

Projects that want the server, the containers and the freedom to run anything are in good hands with Coolify. Projects that are PHP first and would rather not own an operating system tend to land better here. Not sure which side of that line a project sits on? :ContactUs{text="Ask us"} — we will say so honestly.

## FAQ

### Is fortrabbit a control panel like Coolify?

**No** — Coolify is software that configures servers rented somewhere else — the VPS stays yours to own, patch and pay for. fortrabbit is a managed hosting platform: there is no separate server to provision. Code gets pushed, we run the infrastructure underneath.

### Coolify is free. Why pay for fortrabbit?

**The server is not free** — The self-hosted edition costs nothing and has no feature gates, which is genuinely rare. The VPS underneath it does cost money, and so do off-server backups, monitoring and the hours spent on upgrades and incidents. fortrabbit bundles the app runtime, MySQL and the managed infrastructure into one plan, so the total is easier to predict than a free panel plus everything around it.

### Who handles OS updates and security patches on fortrabbit?

**We do** — Kernel and OS patches, monitoring and the underlying AWS infrastructure are our responsibility. On Coolify that work stays with the server owner — Coolify automates deployments, not operating system maintenance.

### Can Docker images or Node.js services run on fortrabbit?

**No** — Coolify deploys any container and ships a large catalogue of one-click services; fortrabbit runs PHP. Projects that need arbitrary Docker workloads, self-hosted tooling or a polyglot stack on one box are better served by Coolify. Projects that are PHP first are better served by a runtime tuned for PHP.

### How does an app move from Coolify to fortrabbit?

**Git push and a dump** — Point the git remote at the fortrabbit app and deploy — Composer install runs as part of it. The database moves with a standard mysqldump and an import through the SSH tunnel, uploads move into persistent storage via rsync. Docker images, proxy rules and certificate renewals do not need to come along.

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- [All alternatives](/alternatives)
- [App hosting architecture](/platform/architecture)
- [Laravel install guides](/guides/laravel)