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CapRover

Free, self-hosted app platform built on Docker Swarm and nginx

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Our verdict

#4 of 4 in Self-hosted app deployment platforms · For a dashboard on a 1 GB server

Pros

  • Runs on 1 GB of RAM and still gives you a dashboard
  • Adds servers to its Swarm cluster from the dashboard
  • Rolls an app back to an earlier image in a few clicks

Cons

  • No built-in database backups; the documentation leaves them to you
  • One shared password; two-factor sign-in and build-failure alerts need the paid CapRover Pro
  • No buildpacks or automatic language detection, and Docker Compose import is experimental
  • Needs a public IPv4 address and a domain with wildcard DNS

Who should skip:Teams where each person needs their own login.

Read the full review →

Rankings and alternatives

Self-hosted app deployment platforms scores

Evaluated Nov 7, 2026 Evidence ↓
  • Free web dashboard 4

    4/5 means: A free dashboard that does four of the five.

    The dashboard deploys apps, manages environment variables and ports, shows app logs and opens NetData server charts; no terminal into containers is documented.

  • Ways to build an app 2

    2/5 means: Two of the five.

    Builds from a Dockerfile or deploys a prebuilt image. Docker Compose import is experimental and limited to a subset of settings, and no buildpack or automatic language detection is documented.

  • One-click app catalog 4

    4/5 means: 300 to 499 apps.

    The official one-click catalog lists 363 apps.

  • Database backups 1

    1/5 means: No built-in database backups; the documentation leaves them to you.

    The documentation leaves database backups to you; CapRover's own backup covers its configuration, not database contents.

  • Running on several servers 5

    5/5 means: One app run as several copies across a cluster of servers (such as Docker Swarm or Kubernetes) that the platform sets up, which places the copies and routes traffic to them.

    Runs on Docker Swarm; you add worker nodes, Swarm spreads app instances across them and CapRover handles load balancing.

  • Pull request previews 1

    1/5 means: No pull request previews documented.

    No pull request previews appear anywhere in the English documentation; the official GitHub workflows deploy source, images and archives to one app.

    Rests partly on what the sources don't mention, which is a weaker signal than what they say.

  • Accounts and sign-in 1

    1/5 means: One shared admin login, with no separate accounts.

    Sign-in is a single dashboard password with no separate accounts; two-factor sign-in needs the paid CapRover Pro subscription.

  • Deployment alerts 1

    1/5 means: No deployment alerts.

    Build-failure alerts by email or webhook are part of the paid CapRover Pro subscription, not the free platform.

  • Hardware needs 4

    4/5 means: The documented minimum is 1 GB of RAM.

    The documented minimum is 1 GiB of RAM and 5 GiB of free disk.

  • License and paid features 2

    2/5 means: An open source license with added terms that limit how the code may be modified or redistributed.

    Apache 2.0 with an appendix that overrides it, forbidding changes to paid features and requiring changes to free features to stay open source.

Evidence and sources

Self-hosted app deployment platforms scores

Free web dashboard 4 quotes
  • “Manage ports, persistent directories, environment variables, and instance counts from one place.”
    caprover.com · checked
  • “In the dashboard, open Monitoring and enable NetData to inspect server CPU, memory, disk, and network activity.”
    caprover.com/docs/server/netdata · checked
  • “Add simple search filter for app logs in the web UI”
    github.com/caprover/caprover/issues/2100 · checked
  • “Create an app in Apps, open its Deployment tab, and choose the input appropriate for your project.”
    caprover.com/docs/deployments · checked
Ways to build an app 3 quotes
One-click app catalog 1 quote
Database backups 2 quotes
  • “Schedule database-aware backups and test a restore. The CapRover configuration backup does not contain the database records.”
    caprover.com/docs/data-persistence/deploy-databases · checked
  • “It does not automatically include Docker volumes, host bind mounts outside that directory, database contents stored in those locations, uploaded files there, or locally built Docker images.”
    caprover.com/docs/server/backup · checked
Running on several servers 3 quotes
  • “CapRover uses Docker Swarm. The manager runs CapRover's control services; workers run app tasks.”
    caprover.com/docs/scaling/multi-node · checked
  • “Swarm schedules stateless tasks across available nodes based on constraints and capacity.”
    caprover.com/docs/scaling · checked
  • “Add nodes to your Docker Swarm cluster and let CapRover handle load balancing.”
    caprover.com · checked
Pull request previews 1 quote
  • “Use caprover/deploy-from-github for the maintained workflows covering source, Docker images, prepared archives, and monorepos.”
    caprover.com/docs/deployments/ci-cd · checked
Accounts and sign-in 3 quotes
  • “Login with POST /api/v2/login and JSON {"password":"..."} plus the x-namespace: captain header.”
    caprover.com/docs/reference/api · checked
  • “CapRover Pro adds subscription-backed features configured through the dashboard with a Pro API key.”
    caprover.com/docs/server · checked
  • “Available controls include two-factor authentication, login alerts, build-success and build-failure alerts, and email or webhook actions.”
    caprover.com/docs/server · checked
Deployment alerts 2 quotes
  • “CapRover Pro adds subscription-backed features configured through the dashboard with a Pro API key.”
    caprover.com/docs/server · checked
  • “Available controls include two-factor authentication, login alerts, build-success and build-failure alerts, and email or webhook actions.”
    caprover.com/docs/server · checked
Hardware needs 1 quote
License and paid features 3 quotes

Facts

License 3 quotes
Runs on 2 quotes
Needs 3 quotes

Notability

Our estimate: Docker pulls overstate its users. It is smaller than Coolify, which publishes 529K+ self-hosted instances.

Users 1 quote

Other quotes

Not cited by a score or fact 3 quotes