They run their 8-person agency's tooling on 2 cheap VPS managed through Coolify and call it one of their favourite tools, handling deployments and infrastructure. They have also moved client workloads from AWS and Vercel to it.
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Freelancer here. I run 11 small client WordPress sites on one Hetzner VPS with the Essentials plan. Unlimited web apps on a single server is what makes the maths work for me. The panel takes care of the dull parts: setting up the stack, free SSL, picking the PHP version per app, scheduled backups, and one staging site where I test plugin updates first. Keep in mind you still pay Hetzner for the server, RunCloud only manages it. Prices have gone up more than once since I signed up, and API access is now only on the Business tier, which annoyed me. One time an agent update failed and I had to update it by hand over SSH. Support is ticket based, they answered within a day and were polite but it's not instant.
They run one Coolify on a single VPS for a Next.js app and find day to day deploys are just git push. The proxy being Traefik cost them debugging time because many older guides use Caddy labels.
View original sourceThey run Coolify across two servers for side projects and client sites and like its one-click services and template library. They find it heavy on resources and say the UI gets confusing as servers are added.
View original sourceThey ran Coolify on a single VPS for small apps and internal tools and stayed because it needed so little attention day to day. They could drop down to plain compose when a tweak was needed.
View original sourceThey found Coolify extremely resource hungry for how little it does, with critical bugs in persistent storage handling for compose services, and would not use it in production.
View original sourceAfter more than three years of use, steep upcoming price increases could no longer be justified and prompted a move to CloudPanel.
View original sourceSeems stable enough now that little is left besides security updates, but it isn't used often because you eventually outgrow it and need stronger security than giving a third party full server access.
View original sourceMoved from Envoyer to Forge's zero-downtime deployment, though it is not as well supported for multi-site setups.
View original sourceKeeps a project with a lot of self-hosted setup running without moving to cloud, which would be a huge undertaking with no return; it just works as is for now.
View original sourceThey are a long-time Coolify user who finds it robust but says it eats too many resources compared with alternatives.
View original sourceMoved off because it only supported Ubuntu and they did not want Ubuntu 26.04; they now run AI-written config scripts and use Caddy instead of nginx for flexibility.
View original sourceThey say Coolify makes system updates easy and even notifies them when an update is due. They add that the main overhead is keeping project dependencies current.
View original sourceThey say they just love Coolify for deployments.
View original sourceThey tried Coolify but dependencies would not start after deployment and they filed a GitHub issue.
View original sourceThey ran Coolify and Dokploy in low-stakes production and found Coolify has a larger community, built-in S3 backups and multi-server support. They say the cost is more surface area, with upgrades occasionally touching unexpected things.
They tried Coolify and Dokploy, had problems with Dokploy, and found Coolify more stable. They like its recently refreshed UI and constant updates, and plan to keep using it.
View original sourceLack of SQLite support and rigid cloud constraints required too many workflow changes compared to a traditional server setup.
View original sourceClean user interface and reliable operation prompted a move back after trying an alternative panel.
View original sourceStraightforward and easy to set up when hosting a WordPress site.
View original sourceHappy with it and sees no need to migrate dozens of servers; starting on it made an alternative panel's UI feel confusing.
View original sourceWorks well for tiny side projects or full-scale businesses, but pricing shifts made mid-sized projects too expensive and custom processes are restricted.
View original sourceThey used Coolify and replaced it with Dokploy because they wanted lower resource usage on their server.
View original sourceUsing Cloudways with Vultr for a while with solid performance and no need to move.
View original sourceThey ran Coolify on 4GB of RAM without problems and later moved to 8GB for headroom. They say it has some overhead but has been fine for them.
View original sourceThey run Coolify on a VPS managing a dozen docker apps auto-deployed from GitHub pushes. They do not feel locked in, are moving off Vercel and have had no RAM issues.
View original sourceThey use Coolify for most of their deployments and fall back to manual docker compose for the finicky ones.
View original sourceUsed at work for Laravel apps, with automatic zero-downtime deployments, auto-deploy on new releases, and management of workers and queue jobs, and considered probably the best way to get it just working.
View original sourcePlatform stability has improved since launch and migrating from Vapor was fast, though support responses across paid tiers can still be slow.
View original sourceThey moved from Vercel to self-hosted Coolify and have never looked back.
View original sourceWorks great for managing VPS servers with zero downtime.
View original sourceAuto-scaling eliminated server maintenance and weekend provisioning worries for five e-commerce apps, though a stuck 20-hour deployment exposed slow support.
View original sourceBrief trial ended quickly because the platform did not support running Puppeteer for the project.
View original sourceThey use ServerPilot on their DigitalOcean droplets and find it makes server setup simple.
View original sourceHas been with Cloudways for years and never felt any reason to leave.
View original sourceA great product but RunCloud means friction: server commands to add disk space and failed agent updates needing manual installs.
View original sourceRuns around 100 sites across 9 Linode and Vultr servers on RunCloud and calls it flawless.
View original sourceThey deployed a client web platform with Next, MongoDB and Redis managed via Coolify and say it ran like clockwork.
View original sourceTen days and nine Cloudways support agents could not resolve a Google InspectionTool "blocked by robots.txt" error, finally calling it out of scope.
View original sourceThey could not get Coolify installed on Ubuntu 24.04: they had to change the DB password manually and the real-time service and localhost were unreachable, a very frustrating experience.
View original sourceThey run a couple of Node apps on a cheap VPS with Coolify. They found setup painless, with GitHub repo builds and deploys handled automatically.
View original sourceEarly adopter preparing to leave the platform because current pricing has become extortionate.
View original sourceAutomated server backups work without needing external WordPress plugins after switching over from RunCloud.
View original sourceUsing Linode servers with the control panel for a handful of clients has never brought a server down, and a good VPS with a server panel is seen as unbeatable on price and performance.
View original sourceRidiculous API pricing prompted a move of their servers away from RunCloud to an alternative panel.
View original sourceShips apps super quickly, though from India the nearest Singapore region adds noticeable request latency compared to a local VPS.
View original sourceAfter years of nightmare hosts, found Cloudways a godsend: fast, affordable with great tech support.
View original sourceThey have been using Coolify and so far really like it. They have not tried Dokku.
View original sourceTheir software company chose Coolify to run client deployments and found it great for the most part. They wish it had better metrics, logs and observability and docker volume backups, since only database backups are automated.
They run Coolify on a Hetzner server with three Supabase instances, Appwrite, PocketBase, Grafana and more in about 23 GB, using less disk than a Dokploy server with the same specs.
View original sourceRan a MemberPress and LMS site with about 8,000 paid members on a 16 GB Cloudways server with 100% uptime and engineers reachable by chat.
View original sourceHosts several dozen sites on Cloudways for years without issue and found WP Engine slower in testing.
View original sourceCloudways has good tech support; WP Engine support is friendly but not better.
View original sourceCloudways support chat works directly through problems and has been very helpful for client sites.
View original sourceSix months of running mid-sized projects delivered solid stability, fast node scaling during traffic spikes, and quick support replies, though usage costs can sneak up fast.
View original sourceOver a year on the platform and the paid plan's auto-updates and firewall rules save tons of development time.
View original sourceThey ran their apps on Coolify before moving back to Kubernetes, finding debugging poor and docs basic-only, and worried about the single-maintainer bus factor, though they say Coolify is not bad.
View original sourceThey run a lot of their self-hosting on Coolify with no stability issues and quick setup, though the GUI options are limited and need workarounds.
View original sourceThey mostly use Ploi to manage their servers.
View original sourceStaging environments run dead slow even on the most expensive instance tiers compared to running the exact same app and database on AWS.
View original sourceOn Cloudways, CPU spikes to 100% whenever working in WordPress or WooCommerce admin, crippling the site and slowing the backend.
View original sourceCloudways with Varnish and its Breeze plugin solves caching mostly well with odd breakages and ties into Cloudflare Enterprise.
View original sourceUsed to host hundreds of sites at Cloudways but calls its Varnish bad and the stack mediocre; upgraded to GridPane.
View original sourceCloudways forces its Varnish handling and only the Breeze plugin connects properly, making granular caching frustrating.
View original sourceThey have used Coolify for a while on some deployments as an open-source Heroku/Netlify alternative and say they have been loving how easy it makes self-hosting.
View original sourceThey run Coolify on a private server and find it surprisingly good enough, but note minor issues when adding team members.
View original sourceThey say Coolify works decently well though a bit clunky, liking the automatic PR preview setup but disliking the lack of snapshot and clone options before deploy.
View original sourceThey reinstalled Coolify multiple times but domain resolution was always buggy and clashed with their other non-Coolify apps.
View original sourceAs a Docker beginner they had odd problems with Dokploy templates but never had issues spinning up a template in Coolify.
View original sourceFantastic tool for managing over 200 deployed sites across multiple servers, though it lacks a native way to migrate sites between servers.
View original sourceRepeated critical bugs including provisioning errors, broken server toggles, phantom background workers, and outdated AWS gp2 defaults make production use risky.
View original sourceYears of use, and the new command palette is loved.
View original sourceRunning an entire agency on the platform since 2016 has been great, and small UI improvements like matching Cloudflare SSL field order are helpful.
View original sourceAn agency runs 140+ WordPress sites on Cloudways and automates updates, caching and server tasks through the Cloudways API.
View original sourceCloudways is set-and-forget for personal sites, but Redis setup caused errors on larger client sites and support is not great.
View original sourceAfter a few months Cloudways felt overpriced at scale, managed features were subpar (PHP limits) and credit card management was locked by design.
View original sourceThey call Coolify really good but too unstable, with new features breaking old ones and regressions such as broken status checks or DB SSL permissions lingering for months.
View original sourceTransitioned over from CloudPanel after a vulnerability got 20 WordPress sites hacked, and paying for a proper management panel has been well worth it.
View original sourceSays Cloudways uses decade-old consumer-grade CPUs; moving a customer from its premium offering to a custom server loaded the site 5x faster.
View original sourceSaves enough setup and maintenance time to be the default choice for all client projects.
View original sourceManages about 40 sites across two Cloudways servers with no overload issues, calling it simple but feature packed with amazing support.
View original sourceHas worked well enough for several years and keeps slowly adding new features, running on a server in Azure thanks to sponsorship credits.
View original sourceAbout 16 live sites with staging on Cloudways for over a year; amazing experience and support is a huge reason to stay.
View original sourceCloudways was the clear winner for front-end loading in tests, but the lowest-tier Autonomous backend took 10-25 seconds per page versus 3-6 on other hosts.
View original sourceMoved to Cloudways on a DigitalOcean server: saved money, better performance, and no hacked-site incidents since.
View original sourceThey ran Coolify on the cheapest Hetzner box and every Next.js build spiked CPU and froze the server until reboot. They fixed it by building the image on GitHub Actions and having Coolify pull it.
View original sourceThey run dozens of services including some react and node apps on a 4 CPU 8 GB box and never had a problem. Only an unoptimized react frontend briefly froze the server before it recovered.
View original sourceA WordPress developer always hosts on Cloudways and likes its features, great support and ease of use.
View original sourceThey compared the self-hosted options a while ago and settled on Coolify, saying none are perfect but it suits them.
View original sourceDuring a bot attack that caused 503 errors, Cloudways chat support blocked the malicious IPs and rebooted the server.
View original sourceThey are a long term GridPane customer as an agency and call it great. They note the primary market is agencies running their own hosting.
View original sourceSwitched from WP Engine to Cloudways about a year ago with more transparent resource usage and easier scaling.
View original sourceMoved about 100 client sites from WP Engine to Cloudways, scaling easily and saving a fortune.
View original sourceExperienced WordPress host says Cloudways support sucks.
View original sourceCloudways premium support at 500 dollars a month is decent with senior techs on Slack, but there is no root access or stack customization.
View original sourceMoved an enterprise client from WP Engine to Cloudways and found it easy for budget, caching and speed, though there is no root access.
View original sourceAgency uses Cloudways with Cloudflare Enterprise; support is quick with the agency add-on though it sometimes only bumps memory, and the Breeze plugin is limited.
View original sourcePersonally loves Cloudways. Expressed as a plain personal opinion about the hosting provider in a thread about WP Engine alternatives.
View original sourceUses Cloudways and is very happy.
View original sourceA Cloudways customer of years never has problems and finds support very responsive, paying about $120 a month for an 8GB server.
View original sourceLiked Vultr and Cloudways VPS hosting but neither was really that fast; moving clients to managed dedicated servers.
View original sourceRunning the control panel alongside Linode servers and Wasabi storage for years has been rock solid.
View original sourceFelt outdated and basic with little innovation, though it was nice and worked.
View original sourceTrouble-free experience managing WordPress sites with zero issues and a helpful Circle community.
View original sourceDashboard operations and even simple WordPress installs sometimes fail with no error, needing support, and there is no real staging while pricing feels a bit expensive.
View original sourceThey ran a tiny API and test website and were surprised by a $70 bill, saying it was their last time.
View original sourceWhile trying Coolify, a deploy failed and took down both Coolify and their site.
View original sourceThey have used Coolify for a year and like it a lot despite a rough GUI. Multi-server was smooth and moving to another server only needed copying data directories.
View original sourceEasier to use than Ploi with better WordPress site cloning, though backups can be finicky and some backup destinations require the top-tier plan.
View original sourceSolid server management panel with fast customer support responses, though the support staff is not deeply technical.
View original sourceThey have used Laravel Forge, along with Appliku, and say both are pretty good paid options for automated deployments.
View original sourceIn a one-month test with two Livewire apps they saw databases failing to wake, apps dropping mid-session, daily restarts, wonky logs and weak support. They found it expensive versus Forge with DigitalOcean.
View original sourceManages five Laravel apps, TanStack/Next.js frontends, Postgres, and mail across multiple VPS instances for three years with zero problems.
View original sourceForge was used previously, but VPS problems took a lot of time and meant constantly being online to fix things, which led to a move to Laravel Cloud.
View original sourceWants to move a few sites off Cloudways because it got quite expensive, though migration to it was easy.
View original sourceA Cloudways customer on a DigitalOcean server reports a lot of downtime, about every two weeks.
View original sourceWorks pretty good for their small VPS with web apps, so they considered it for a bare metal box to avoid a complex server setup.
View original sourceThey run Coolify on their own VPS and say it takes care of certificate management for them automatically.
View original sourceThey deployed their app stack on Coolify (on a Hetzner Cloud instance) and found it a smooth layer on Docker. Webhooks give automatic deployments on push and one-click PostgreSQL.
View original sourceSmall attack surface and well-tuned Nginx page caching keep basic servers fast and lean, though built-in email, country blocking, and scheduled restarts are missing.
View original sourceUsed for a SaaS, mainly for VPS management, and the developer they work with liked it a lot; they say it is full of features, though they use few of them.
View original sourceThey left ServerPilot about 4 years ago for RunCloud while managing over 50 WordPress sites, and found it excellent with very quick support and steady improvements.
View original sourceChosen because weekend outages and failed failover used to cause stress on vacation; having a service that just works is worth the few extra dollars.
View original sourceLaravel projects were moved from cloud hosting to a local VPS configured with Ploi; everything works so far and bills are much lower.
View original sourceThey have used GridPane since 2020 and like the performant stack, easy provisioning, reliable backups and staging. They feel the vendor is dishonest, with features stuck in beta for years while prices rose and plans were changed.
Moved all projects away because of unpredictable pricing; a proof of concept with sporadically two test users cost as much as a dedicated DigitalOcean server.
View original sourceThey used ServerPilot with DigitalOcean for years and found it stable, but it has had no new features in over 5 years apart from price changes. They miss basic features like easy backups, site cloning and team management.
They used RunCloud in the past for managing agency sites and liked it overall. Support was quick and everything worked almost perfectly.
View original sourceThey tried Coolify in November and liked its customizability, but found it too beta and buggy to trust with live customer projects.
View original sourceThey deployed a bare test app on the $0 sandbox plan, forgot it, and got a $6.31 invoice. Support said nothing could be done, so they will not use or recommend it.
View original sourceThey migrated away from Coolify because CPU usage was stuck at 100%. They reported the problem and say it was never fixed, and they now run the same apps at half the cost on Dokku.
View original sourceThey had a bad experience and removed it after a test period. Their reports and issues were ignored.
View original sourceThey tried it about 6 months earlier on a 1 vCPU test server. Base resource usage was too high for them to consider it.
View original sourceA user switched from Bluehost to Cloudways, which is so much better and costs no more than Bluehost's second-year renewal.
View original sourceA user says Cloudways is good for hand-holding, with excellent chat support that is patient and knows its stuff.
View original sourceAfter migrating from WP Engine, images offloaded to an S3 bucket went missing and Cloudways support had no idea how to help.
View original sourceThey found their initial experience smooth and enjoyable, but the shared MySQL credentials at cluster level are a non-starter for them.
View original sourceAfter a few months they still find the product good and deployments easy, but backups on a 30 GB Postgres database gave their client a surprise invoice over $300. They switched to MySQL.
View original sourceThey set up two sites on Laravel Cloud in under two minutes and found it easy, but noted 8-18 second wake-ups from hibernation, high cost and limited control.
View original sourceThey have found it great so far, flexible and easy to use.
View original sourceThey use Forge and Envoyer, which cost more than their DigitalOcean droplets, but like the convenience; Forge feels hacked together yet highly functional.
View original sourceThey tried the free tier with little cost and liked it, but publicly exposed databases are a dealbreaker for them until private ones exist.
View original sourceAfter evaluating Forge they chose Ploi as much cheaper with good features, running EC2 for production and Lightsail for dev and testing.
View original sourceThey find Forge really excellent and see little reason to move to Laravel Cloud at this stage.
View original source