How to Deploy Dokku on a VPS: Your Own Heroku with Git Push Deploys and Buildpacks

Dokku is a self-hosted Platform as a Service that replicates the Heroku deployment experience on your own VPS — git push dokku main deploys your application, Buildpacks auto-detect the language and build the app, environment variables work like Heroku config vars, and plugins add databases with one command. Dokku is CLI-first and lightweight: ~50 MB RAM overhead versus Coolify’s 750 MB+, and no web UI to maintain.

Dokku vs Coolify vs Kamal

Step 1: Install Dokku

# Supports Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04
wget -NP . https://dokku.com/install/v0.35.8/bootstrap.sh
sudo DOKKU_TAG=v0.35.8 bash bootstrap.sh

dokku version   # Verify installation

Step 2: Initial Server Configuration

# Add your SSH public key (enables git push authentication)
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | sudo dokku ssh-keys:add admin

# Set your server's global domain (apps become app.yourdomain.com)
dokku domains:set-global yourdomain.com

Step 3: Create and Deploy Your First App

# On the VPS: create the app
dokku apps:create myapp

# On your LOCAL machine: add Dokku as a git remote and push
git remote add dokku dokku@YOUR_VPS_IP:myapp
git push dokku main

Dokku auto-detects the language via Heroku Buildpacks:

• Node.js: detects package.json → npm install && npm start
• Python: detects requirements.txt → runs gunicorn
• Ruby/Rails: detects Gemfile
• PHP: detects composer.json
• Go: detects go.mod
• Docker: uses Dockerfile if present (overrides Buildpacks)
• Static: index.html at root

Step 4: Add Databases via Plugins

# Install database plugins
sudo dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-postgres.git postgres
sudo dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-redis.git redis

# Create PostgreSQL database
dokku postgres:create myapp-db

# Link database to app (sets DATABASE_URL environment variable automatically)
dokku postgres:link myapp-db myapp

# Create and link Redis
dokku redis:create myapp-cache
dokku redis:link myapp-cache myapp

# Verify environment variables
dokku config myapp

Step 5: Set Environment Variables

# Set multiple variables at once
dokku config:set myapp \
  NODE_ENV=production \
  SECRET_KEY=your_secret_here \
  SENDGRID_API_KEY=your_key \
  REDIS_URL=redis://...

# View current config
dokku config myapp

# Unset a variable
dokku config:unset myapp OLD_VAR

Step 6: Custom Domain and Let’s Encrypt SSL

# Install Let's Encrypt plugin
sudo dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-letsencrypt.git

# Configure email for certificate notifications
dokku letsencrypt:set --global email admin@yourdomain.com

# Add custom domain
dokku domains:add myapp myapp.yourdomain.com

# Issue SSL certificate
dokku letsencrypt:enable myapp

# Set up automatic renewal for all apps
dokku letsencrypt:auto-renew

Essential Dokku Operations

# View app logs (tail mode)
dokku logs myapp -t

# Run one-off command (like Heroku run)
dokku run myapp node -e "console.log(process.env.DATABASE_URL)"
dokku run myapp python manage.py migrate
dokku run myapp rails db:migrate

# Scale processes
dokku ps:scale myapp web=2 worker=1

# View running processes
dokku ps:report myapp

# Restart app
dokku ps:restart myapp

# Enter running container
dokku enter myapp web

# List all apps and their status
dokku apps:list

Procfile Support

Dokku reads a Procfile in your repository — identical to Heroku syntax:

# Procfile
web: node server.js
worker: node worker.js
release: node scripts/migrate.js   # Runs before web starts on each deploy

Zero-Downtime Deployments

# Enable zero-downtime deploys (health check before switching traffic)
dokku checks:enable myapp

# Create CHECKS file in repo root to define health check:
# (CHECKS file content)
WAIT=5
ATTEMPTS=5
/api/health    200

Getting Started

Dokku’s 50 MB overhead means it fits on any VPS plan. The 2 vCPU / 2 GB RAM Ubuntu VPS at VPS.DO runs Dokku with multiple applications and their databases comfortably. For teams migrating from Heroku, Dokku is the most natural migration path — Buildpacks work unchanged, Procfiles work unchanged, and config vars work identically.

Conclusion

Dokku brings the Heroku developer experience to your own VPS: git push to deploy, Buildpacks for multi-language support, plugins for databases, Let’s Encrypt SSL, and process scaling — all via familiar CLI commands. At 50 MB RAM overhead and a mature 10+ year codebase, it is the lightest-weight self-hosted PaaS and the most direct Heroku alternative for developers who prefer CLI workflows over web dashboards.