Dokploy vs SWAG (Secure Web Application Gateway)
| Tagline | Self-hosted PaaS to deploy apps and databases with Docker and Traefik | Nginx reverse proxy with built-in Let's Encrypt SSL and fail2ban protection |
| Category | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS |
| Replaces | Heroku, Vercel, Netlify, Render | Netlify, Vercel, Render |
| GitHub stars | 37k | 3.7k |
| Language | TypeScript | Docker |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 4 days ago | 3 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Dokploy
- Licensing has proprietary portions (not fully permissive for all uses), unlike a pure OSS PaaS.
- No managed edge CDN or global anycast network; you supply the infrastructure.
- Relies on Docker Swarm, which is less actively developed than Kubernetes for large-scale orchestration.
- Observability and team/RBAC features are thinner than commercial platforms.
SWAG (Secure Web Application Gateway)
- No CI/CD pipeline or git-push-to-deploy workflow like Netlify/Vercel.
- No edge CDN or global distribution; traffic is served from a single host.
- No serverless functions or build system; it is purely a reverse proxy and SSL terminator.
- Dashboard and observability are minimal compared to managed PaaS platforms.
Bottom line
Choose Dokploy if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Dokploy for the larger community and ecosystem. SWAG (Secure Web Application Gateway) has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
SWAG (Secure Web Application Gateway)
Nginx reverse proxy with built-in Let's Encrypt SSL and fail2ban protection