Who each one suits
Choose Codara Cloud if
- You do not want to run a server. With Coolify, SSH access, the firewall, upgrades, monitoring and backing up Coolify’s own encryption keys are your job, as its installation guide says.
- You want managed database backups and restores. Codara stores supported database backups with a separate provider for up to 7 days and restores to a new database; with Coolify you configure S3 storage and check your own restores.
- You do not want to be the one who repairs or replaces the server when it fails. Codara Cloud runs your apps on a Kubernetes cluster that Codara operates.
- You want your AI coding agent to deploy with development-only access by default, through the codaracloud CLI and MCP server.
Choose Coolify if
- You want the most resources for your money. A €5.49 Hetzner server has 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM, far more than Codara’s €5 Starter plan with its shared 0.5 vCPU and 512 MiB.
- You want root access, any provider, any location, or your own hardware. Coolify runs on your servers, and your data stays on machines you control.
- You run Docker Compose stacks or want one-click services: Coolify offers more than 280.
- You are happy to operate Linux servers, or you already do. Coolify is free for every feature, with no limits from Coolify itself.
Side by side
| Feature | Codara Cloud | Coolify |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fixed monthly price per organization: Starter €5, Standard €20, Pro €50, Scale €100, before tax. Several projects share one plan’s capacity. | Free and open source (Apache-2.0), with every feature. You pay for your servers. Coolify Cloud, a hosted control panel, costs $5/month for 2 servers plus $3/month per extra server; your apps still run on your own servers. |
| Small app: web service + Postgres + daily cron | €5/month on Starter if the web service and job fit in its shared 0.5 vCPU / 512 MiB and one shared Postgres database is enough (it reserves 10 GiB, all of Starter’s storage). €20/month on Standard for 1 vCPU / 2 GiB and 20 GiB. | The server’s price: a Hetzner CX23 (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB disk) is €5.49/month before VAT in Helsinki, Falkenstein or Nuremberg, which meets Coolify’s minimum of 2 cores and 2 GB. Add S3 storage for backups, and your time. |
| Usage above the plan | No automatic usage overage. An action past a plan limit is refused, not billed. Outgoing transfer is included under fair use. | Coolify charges nothing. Your server provider’s terms apply: a Hetzner CX23 includes 20 TB of traffic a month, then €1 per TB before VAT. |
| Free tier or trial | No free tier. Beta by invitation: the first month is free on any plan, or the first 3 months if you join our Discord (card required); Starter adds a 7-day trial first. | Self-hosted Coolify is free forever, with no feature limits. |
| Databases | Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis and MongoDB inside the plan. Supported backups are kept for up to 7 days. | PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, Dragonfly, KeyDB and ClickHouse, running on your server. Scheduled backups to S3-compatible storage for PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB and ClickHouse. |
| Cron and background work | Scheduled (any cron expression) and one-off jobs, plus always-on workers. They use the plan’s capacity. | Scheduled tasks with cron expressions. |
| Regions and data location | One region: Helsinki, Finland (Hetzner Cloud). Apps, databases and backups are stored in the EU. | Wherever you rent or run the server. You choose the provider and the location. |
| Deploy from | GitHub repository, container image, or a folder, ZIP or HTML file through the MCP tools. Dockerfile, Railpack, Nixpacks or static builds. | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea and other Git providers. Nixpacks, Railpack (beta), Dockerfile, Docker Compose or static builds, pull request previews and 280+ one-click services. |
| CLI, MCP and AI agents | codaracloud CLI, HTTP API and a local MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and other MCP clients. Agent tokens are development-only by default. | A REST API with tokens, and a built-in MCP server at /mcp that you enable. |
| Availability | Beta, by invitation. A new product from Codara Solutions SL (Madrid). | Open-source software you install and run yourself. Coolify Cloud includes community and limited email support. |
What a small app costs
Take a small app: one web service running all month, a small Postgres database and a cron job that runs a few minutes a day.
On Codara Cloud it costs €5 a month on Starter if the web service and the job fit within Starter’s shared 0.5 vCPU and 512 MiB, and one shared Postgres database is enough. That database reserves 10 GiB, all of Starter’s persistent storage. With more headroom it costs €20 on Standard. Neither price grows with traffic.
With Coolify, the software is free and the server is the bill. A Hetzner CX23 with 2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM and a 40 GB disk costs €5.49 a month before VAT, and Coolify itself runs on it next to your app, database and cron. On raw resources per euro, the server wins clearly. Add object storage if you want backups off the server.
The difference is the work. On your own server you keep the operating system and Coolify up to date, secure SSH and the firewall, watch disk and memory, test restores and replace the server if it fails. Codara Cloud’s price includes that work for the platform; it does not include your application code.
How to move a project over
An app that Coolify builds with Railpack, Nixpacks or a Dockerfile moves over most directly: connect the same repository. Codara builds a root Dockerfile as written, and uses Nixpacks only when nixpacks.toml is present. Codara does not run docker-compose.yml files, so create each service of a Compose stack as its own app, and use managed databases instead of database containers.
- Write down what runs today: each service with its start command and port, the database, cron schedules, volumes and environment variables. The deployment inventory in our guide is a good template. Full steps in the docs
- Get access. Codara Cloud is in beta: request an invitation, then create a project; it comes with a production environment. Full steps in the docs
- Create the app from the same GitHub repository or container image. A root Dockerfile is used as written; otherwise Codara detects Railpack, Nixpacks or a static build. Full steps in the docs
- Copy runtime environment variables and secrets. Build arguments are never for secrets. Full steps in the docs
- Create the database, export your data with pg_dump (or your engine’s dump tool) and import the dump from an HTTPS URL through the API or MCP tools. Postgres and MariaDB imports are supported. Full steps in the docs
- Recreate scheduled tasks as Codara jobs with the same cron expression, usually running the same image as the app. Full steps in the docs
- Test on a staging environment with test data, then point your custom domain at Codara. Keep the old service running until the new one is verified. Full steps in the docs
Questions
- Is Coolify really free?
- Yes. Self-hosted Coolify is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence and free, with every feature. You pay for the servers it runs on, and for your own time to operate them. Coolify Cloud, which hosts only the control panel, costs $5 a month for 2 servers.
- Is a VPS with Coolify cheaper than Codara Cloud?
- On raw resources, yes: about €5.49 a month before VAT buys a Hetzner server with 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM. Codara Cloud’s €5 Starter plan has a shared 0.5 vCPU and 512 MiB, but Codara runs the servers, database backups and upgrades for you. Choose based on whether you want to do that work.
- Can I use both?
- Yes. You can keep experiments or heavy workloads on your own server and put the apps you do not want to operate on a managed platform. Both can build from the same GitHub repository.
Sources
Prices checked on 27 September 2026.
Coolify
- Coolify pricing (self-hosted and Cloud)coolify.io/pricing
- Coolify installation and server requirementscoolify.io/docs/get-started/installation
- Coolify source code and licencegithub.com/coollabsio/coolify
- Coolify build packscoolify.io/docs/applications/build-packs/overview
- Coolify databasescoolify.io/docs/databases/
- Coolify database backupscoolify.io/docs/databases/backups
- Coolify cron syntax for scheduled taskscoolify.io/docs/knowledge-base/cron-syntax
- Coolify MCP servercoolify.io/docs/integrations/mcp
- Coolify featurescoolify.io/
- Hetzner Cloud cost-optimized serverswww.hetzner.com/cloud/cost-optimized/