Own your stack. Skip the SaaS bills.
One flagship course, plus free step-by-step guides to run, secure, and monitor your own infrastructure — from Coolify and MinIO to your own SMTP server.
Self-Hosting Mastery with Coolify
Take Control of Your Hosting, Cut Costs, With No Limits!
- Step-by-step video tutorials
- Configuration files & command snippets
- Security hardening training
What to run, and where to run it
Two live boards, both re-verified automatically: the open-source apps worth self-hosting, and the VPS providers worth putting them on.
Best Self-Hosted Apps
A live directory of open-source apps worth self-hosting — real GitHub stars, current version and an honest maintenance signal on every one.
Open the board
Top VPS Hosting Providers
Compare 13 providers on price, RAM-per-dollar, SMTP port 25 policy, GPU/ARM/Windows, DDoS and a 6-axis trust score.
Open the boardGuides
Step-by-step, tested walkthroughs for self-hosting the tools you actually use — Coolify, MinIO, Postal SMTP, and more.
Zero-Downtime Deployments on Coolify: Measured, Explained, Fixed
Coolify showed "no available server" on every deploy. I measured it from outside at 10 req/s, found the causes, and fixed it to zero failed requests.
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How to Self-Host Supabase: The Parts the Docker Compose Skips
A real self-hosted Supabase run on a 4 GB VPS: the secrets to set first, auth email that fails silently, connection pooling, HTTPS, a timed upgrade, and a restore-tested backup.
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Self-Host GitLab: What It Actually Needs (Real RAM Numbers)
I deployed GitLab CE on an 8GB droplet and measured what it really uses: idle, under load, and after every tuning step. The honest sizing table.
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Self-Host an LLM with Ollama on a VPS: Real Numbers From 6 Servers
I installed Ollama on 6 servers, CPU and GPU, and measured everything: tokens/sec, concurrency, cost per 1M tokens vs the APIs, plus a secured API setup.
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Self-Host Sentry on Coolify: The Whole Path, Measured
You cannot one-click Sentry on Coolify, and the compose paste fails. I installed it the way that works, behind Coolify's proxy, and measured everything.
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Install Docker on Ubuntu
Install Docker + Compose on Ubuntu 24.04 the right way: official apt repo, non-root setup, and the common errors reproduced and fixed on a real box.
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What Is Self-Hosting? A Real Answer, With a Real $4 Server
What self-hosting actually means, why people do it, what it really costs, and a first app taken live on a $4/mo server, with real screenshots.
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Backup Docker Volumes: Destroyed, Restored, and Timed
I destroyed a live app's Docker volume and restored it with Duplicati, restic, and Kopia, timed. The restore-tested way to back up self-hosted apps.
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Keep Docker Containers Updated (Without Breaking Things)
Manual pull/recreate, Watchtower (the maintained fork), and Diun, tested on a real server. Including what happens when auto-update hits a database.
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Reverse Proxy Explained: One Domain, Many Containers
A reverse proxy explained, then proven: three Docker apps on one server behind nginx, subdomains, free HTTPS. Real configs and numbers from a live build.
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Free SSL Certificates with Let's Encrypt: HTTPS on Everything, Auto-Renewed
Get a free SSL certificate with Let's Encrypt: certbot on a real server, HTTP-01 vs DNS-01 explained, wildcard certs, and renewal proven with a forced run.
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Docker Volumes and Networking: Where Data Lives, How Containers Talk
Where container data actually lives on disk, what survives rm and updates, and why containers can't reach each other. Every claim proven on a real VPS.
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How to Self-Host n8n on a $12 VPS (Full Setup + Real Cost Math)
Deploy n8n on your own VPS with Docker and HTTPS, measured start to finish, then see what it costs against Zapier, Make, and n8n Cloud at real volumes.
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Self-Host WordPress on Your Own VPS: 3 Tiers, Deployed and Measured
Self-host WordPress on your own VPS with Coolify: template deploy, a tuned custom image, then nginx caching. Every tier deployed and benchmarked for real.
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How to Secure a Coolify VPS Without Breaking Coolify
I probed a real Coolify server from the internet. Ports 6001 and 6002 answered with ufw set to deny. Here is the fix, and proof Coolify survives it.
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Coolify Says "Server Is Not Reachable" After You Hardened Your VPS
I broke a live Coolify server 5 ways on purpose: disabled root login, added 2FA, a UFW limit rule. Here is the exact error each one gives, and the fix.
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How to Self-Host Plausible Analytics on Coolify in 2026 (Community Edition)
Deploy Plausible Community Edition on your own VPS with Coolify: real resource numbers, honest gotchas, and the savings math vs Plausible Cloud.
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How to Self-Host MinIO on Coolify in 2026 (With the Full Admin UI Back)
Coolify dropped MinIO and the community console lost its admin UI. Deploy a patched MinIO on Coolify with the full console back, verified with boto3.
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Install Mautic 7 on Coolify in 5 Minutes (2026 Setup)
Working docker-compose.yml for Mautic 7 on Coolify v4: web, cron, worker, MariaDB. Coolify killed the one-click; here's the fix. ~5 minutes.
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How to Install PyRunner on Coolify (3-Minute Setup)
Deploy PyRunner on your own Coolify v4 server with HTTPS, persistent storage, and one-click updates. Paste three env vars and ship in ~3 minutes.
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How to Install Coolify in 2026: Your Starter Guide to Self-Hosting
Install Coolify on a Contabo VPS, spin up Postgres, Redis, and MongoDB in three clicks each, secure it with HTTPS, and update safely. ~30 minutes start to finish.
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How to Self-Host Postal SMTP Server: Easy Mode (2026)
Ship a real, production-ready Postal SMTP install in ~30 minutes. Strong DB password, firewall, HTTPS, SPF/DKIM, and daily backups. Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.
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