Dokku Has a Free API: Build Your Own Heroku on a $5 VPS

wget -NP . https://dokku.com/bootstrap.sh
sudo DOKKU_TAG=v0.34.8 bash bootstrap.sh

# On your local machine:
git remote add dokku dokku@your-server:my-app
git push dokku main

# Create app
dokku apps:create my-app

# List apps
dokku apps:list

# Destroy app
dokku apps:destroy my-app

# View logs
dokku logs my-app -t  # Follow logs

# Run one-off command
dokku run my-app python manage.py migrate
dokku run my-app rails console

# Add domain
dokku domains:add my-app myapp.com
dokku domains:add my-app www.myapp.com

# Auto SSL with Let's Encrypt
dokku letsencrypt:enable my-app

# Auto-renewal
dokku letsencrypt:cron-job --add

# Set env vars
dokku config:set my-app DATABASE_URL=postgres://... SECRET_KEY=abc123

# View env vars
dokku config:show my-app

# Unset
dokku config:unset my-app DEBUG

# Install PostgreSQL plugin
sudo dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-postgres.git postgres

# Create database
dokku postgres:create my-db

# Link to app (sets DATABASE_URL automatically)
dokku postgres:link my-db my-app

# Backup
dokku postgres:export my-db > backup.sql

# Redis
sudo dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-redis.git redis
dokku redis:create my-cache
dokku redis:link my-cache my-app

# Scale processes
dokku ps:scale my-app web=2 worker=1

# Set resource limits
dokku resource:limit my-app --memory 512m --cpu 1

# Mount volumes
dokku storage:mount my-app /var/lib/dokku/data/storage:/app/uploads

# Set Docker options
dokku docker-options:add my-app deploy "--restart=always"

# Set port mapping
dokku ports:add my-app http:80:3000
dokku ports:add my-app https:443:3000

# View ports
dokku ports:list my-app

# Use buildpacks (auto-detect)
# Just push code — Dokku detects Node.js, Python, Ruby, etc.

# Use Dockerfile
# Just include a Dockerfile in your repo — Dokku uses it automatically

# Use Docker image
dokku git:from-image my-app myorg/my-image:latest

# Enable zero-downtime checks
dokku checks:enable my-app

# Custom health check
# In your app root, create CHECKS:
# /health  200  OK