DollarDeploy is not a self-hosted PaaS. It combines a hosted control plane with application servers controlled by the customer.
Self-hosted platforms such as Coolify and Dokploy typically install the deployment platform itself on infrastructure you operate. They primarily deploy applications using Docker containers.
DollarDeploy operates the control plane separately. Supported applications can run directly as native systemd services, while Docker Compose remains available when containers are appropriate.
The architectural difference:
- Managed PaaS: provider operates control plane + application infrastructure
- DollarDeploy: provider operates control plane; customer controls application infrastructure
- Self-hosted PaaS: customer operates control plane + application infrastructure
- Manual VPS: customer operates infrastructure + deployment tooling manually
Why it matters: with DollarDeploy, the application server does not need to host the DollarDeploy control plane. Native application builds can also run outside the application server. This leaves more of the server's CPU and RAM available to applications and databases.
The trade-off: self-hosted platforms give you ownership of the control plane itself and can be open source. DollarDeploy instead trades control-plane ownership for a managed service while preserving control of the application infrastructure.