Coolify vs Sandstorm
| Tagline | Self-hostable Heroku/Netlify alternative for apps, databases, and services | Personal server platform for running self-hosted web apps with strong sandboxing |
| Category | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS |
| Replaces | Heroku, Vercel, Netlify, Render | Heroku, Render, Netlify |
| GitHub stars | 57k | 7k |
| Language | PHP | C++ |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 4/5 Involved |
| Deploy options | One-Click Docker Docker Compose Manual | Manual |
| 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.
Sandstorm
- App ecosystem is very small; most popular self-hosted apps are not packaged for Sandstorm
- Project has limited active development; community and update cadence have slowed significantly
- No Docker support; apps must be specially packaged in Sandstorm's proprietary SPK format
- No horizontal scaling, load balancing, or modern cloud-native deployment patterns
Bottom line
Choose Coolify if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Coolify for the larger community and ecosystem. Sandstorm has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.