Coolify vs Pangolin
| Tagline | Self-hostable Heroku/Netlify alternative for apps, databases, and services | Identity-aware tunneled reverse proxy with WireGuard and access control |
| Category | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS |
| Replaces | Heroku, Vercel, Netlify, Render | Heroku, Netlify, Render |
| GitHub stars | 57k | 21k |
| Language | PHP | Docker |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | One-Click Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Docker Compose |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 2 days ago | yesterday |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Coolify
- No managed global edge/CDN network; you run on your own VPS so global latency and DDoS protection are your responsibility.
- Scaling is largely single-server by default; multi-node clustering is less mature than cloud autoscalers.
- Built-in observability (logs/metrics/tracing) is basic compared to Heroku/Render dashboards.
- Some advanced features and polish still in flux; occasional breaking changes between releases.
Pangolin
- Requires a publicly accessible VPS to act as the tunnel endpoint, adding infrastructure overhead
- No managed global edge network; latency depends on your VPS location
- Ecosystem and third-party integrations are much smaller than Cloudflare Tunnel or Tailscale
- Mobile client support and device management are limited compared to Tailscale
Bottom line
Choose Coolify if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Coolify for the larger community and ecosystem. Pangolin has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Coolify
Self-hostable Heroku/Netlify alternative for apps, databases, and services