Is Dokploy really free?

Yes. Dokploy is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. Vercel Pro, on the other hand, costs €17 a month.

Do I need to code to install Dokploy?

No. The level is intermediate and the install takes about 20 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.

How is it different from Vercel Pro?

Dokploy does most of what Vercel Pro does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.

Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.

Free alternative

Free alternative to Vercel Pro

Vercel Pro costs €17 a month. Dokploy does the same job for free, in open source: you install it on your machine or a small server, and you stop paying.

Public entry price, taken from Vercel Pro’s website (vercel.com). Over a year, that is €204 that stays in your pocket.

What replaces Vercel Pro

The main alternative

Dokploy

🟡 Intermediate⏱️ ~20 min to installSave €17/mo

Dokploy is the dashboard that turns any Linux server into a personal Vercel, Netlify or Heroku. You connect GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket, it builds your app on every push (Nixpacks, Buildpacks or your Dockerfile), deploys it, gives it a domain over HTTPS with an automatic certificate, and you follow logs and load live. It also handles Docker Compose for multi-service apps, creates Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB or Redis databases in one click with backups to S3 storage, and offers a catalogue of ready-to-deploy templates, including quite a few tools from this library. It drives several servers from a single interface. The install fits in one line on a fresh VPS. The core is Apache 2.0 licensed, the repo is past 37,000 stars, and the team sells a cloud version for those who do not want to run the master server.

Loucash’s verdict on Dokploy

8/10

If you build apps with Claude or Cursor, you always end up with the same question: where do I put this online? Vercel opens its arms, and as soon as it is commercial or grows, the Pro plan kicks in, €17 per person, plus overages. Dokploy gives you that freedom back: a €5 VPS, one command, and you deploy as many apps, databases and tools as you want, with domains and HTTPS handled. What I like: it really is the Vercel experience, the push that deploys, the live logs, but at your place. Native Docker Compose and the template catalogue also make it the best way to host the rest of this library. What to know: you become responsible for the server. Updates, backups, access security: Dokploy helps, but does not do it for you. And for a free static site with no commercial use, Vercel's Hobby plan remains unbeatable. Dokploy makes full sense from the second app, or the first one that earns money.

Who it is for: You regularly put apps online, you have several or they make money, and you accept to maintain a VPS.

See the full page →See the tool ↗

Dokploy versus Vercel Pro: the match

Price
Dokploy
€0, plus a VPS from €5 a month for all your apps
Vercel Pro
€17 a month per person, as soon as it is commercial
Number of apps
Dokploy
As many as your server can carry
Vercel Pro
Unlimited, but every usage is billed
Databases
Dokploy
Postgres, MySQL, Mongo, Redis included, with backups
Vercel Pro
Separate services, billed separately

Vercel Pro ↗

VS	Dokploy	Vercel Pro ↗
Price	€0, plus a VPS from €5 a month for all your apps	€17 a month per person, as soon as it is commercial
Number of apps	As many as your server can carry	Unlimited, but every usage is billed
Databases	Postgres, MySQL, Mongo, Redis included, with backups	Separate services, billed separately
Bandwidth	The VPS's, often unmetered	1 TB included, then €0.13 per GB
Multi-service apps	Native Docker Compose	Not built for it, you need other services
Maintenance	Yours: server updates	Handled by them

The prompt that installs Dokploy

Paste this prompt into Claude: it checks the repository, asks you its questions and installs the tool step by step.

Installe Dokploy sur mon serveur (la plateforme de déploiement open source, alternative à Vercel, Netlify et Heroku, repo GitHub Dokploy/dokploy) en suivant la doc officielle docs.dokploy.com. Pars de zéro : il me faut un VPS neuf sous Ubuntu avec au moins 2 Go de RAM, connecté en SSH, sans autre service qui occupe les ports 80, 443 et 3000. Lance le script d'installation officiel curl -sSL https://dokploy.com/install.sh | sh, puis ouvre l'interface sur le port 3000 et crée mon compte administrateur. Dans les réglages, associe un sous-domaine à Dokploy lui-même pour y accéder en HTTPS et ferme ensuite l'accès direct au port 3000. Connecte mon compte GitHub, crée un projet, déploie ma première application depuis son dépôt (détecte toi-même s'il faut Nixpacks ou un Dockerfile), donne-lui un nom de domaine avec certificat HTTPS automatique, et vérifie qu'elle répond. Si elle a besoin d'une base de données, crée-la dans Dokploy et branche la variable de connexion. Explique chaque étape simplement, je débute.

Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.

Frequently asked questions

Is Dokploy really free?: Yes. Dokploy is open source: the code is public and installing it costs nothing. At most you pay for hosting if you put it on a server, often a few euros a month. Vercel Pro, on the other hand, costs €17 a month.
Do I need to code to install Dokploy?: No. The level is intermediate and the install takes about 20 minutes with the prompt from the page: Claude does the work, you answer its questions.
How is it different from Vercel Pro?: Dokploy does most of what Vercel Pro does, without a subscription, and your data stays with you. The point by point comparison is on the page.
Do I own my data?: Yes. With an open source tool installed on your side, your files stay on your machine or your server. Nobody can close your account or change the price.