How to install Coolify on your VPS

Coolify is a free, self-hosted platform to deploy websites, apps and databases from Git or Docker with a web interface, similar to Heroku, Vercel or Netlify, but running on your own VPS. This guide installs it on a fresh VPS from jetguard.

What you need

• A VPS with at least 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM and 30 GB of disk. Coolify itself uses about 1 GB of RAM; every app you deploy needs more on top, so 4 GB is more comfortable.
• A fresh install of Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04, or Debian 12 (other systems work too, but these are the most tested). Install Coolify on a clean server: it installs Docker and takes over ports 80 and 443.
• Root access over SSH.
• Optional: a domain pointing to your server's IP, for HTTPS on the dashboard and your apps.

1. Update the server

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y curl

2. Install Coolify

The official installer sets up Docker, Coolify and everything it needs:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | sudo bash

It takes a few minutes. When it finishes, it prints the address of your dashboard.

3. Create your admin account right away

Open http://YOUR-SERVER-IP:8000 in your browser.

Register immediately. The first account created becomes the administrator, so do not leave the page unclaimed: anyone who finds it first could take over your server.

4. Open the ports

Coolify needs these ports reachable from the internet:

• 22 SSH (or your custom SSH port)
• 80 and 443 for your apps and HTTPS certificates
• 8000 for the dashboard (you can close it once the dashboard has its own domain)
• 6001 and 6002 for live updates and the terminal in the dashboard

With UFW:

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw allow 8000/tcp
sudo ufw allow 6001:6002/tcp

Note that Docker publishes container ports directly, so UFW rules alone do not hide them.

5. Put the dashboard on your domain (recommended)

1. Create a DNS A record, for example coolify.example.com, pointing to your server's IP.
2. In Coolify, go to Settings, enter https://coolify.example.com as the instance domain and save.
3. Coolify requests a free HTTPS certificate. After a minute, open the dashboard at your domain.

You can then close port 8000.

6. Deploy your first app

1. Go to Projects and create a project.
2. Add a resource: a public or private Git repository, a Docker image, a Docker Compose file, or a one-click service (WordPress, Ghost, n8n, databases and many more).
3. Set a domain for the app and click Deploy.

Updating Coolify

Coolify tells you in the dashboard when a new version is out and can update itself from Settings. You can also run the install command again; it upgrades in place and keeps your data.

Troubleshooting

• The dashboard does not load: check that Coolify is running with sudo docker ps (look for coolify, coolify-db, coolify-redis and coolify-proxy) and that port 8000 is open.
• Port 80 or 443 already in use: another web server (Apache, Nginx) is running. Stop and disable it, or better, install Coolify on a clean server.
• Docker Hub rate limit (toomanyrequests): wait a few hours, or log in to a free Docker Hub account with docker login.
• Out of memory, apps stop: move to a plan with more RAM; open a ticket and we will help.

Full documentation: coolify.io/docs