Servers live in your own cloud account
Connect DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr, OVH or AWS and Railyard provisions and deploys straight onto a server in that account.
Dokku · yes
The Dokku alternative that runs on your own servers
Dokku is a free, open-source git-push PaaS you install yourself on one server, with none of the day-two tooling: no teams, no managed backups, no multi-server orchestration. Here's what switching actually looks like.
Who this is for
Outgrowing Dokku's pricing or its limits
Same git-push deploys, the same managed databases and zero-downtime releases. The difference is where it runs: a server in your own DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr or OVH account, at that provider's price, instead of Dokku's infrastructure.
Cost
One flat price per team. Your servers at your provider's price.
No per-seat tax, no bandwidth surcharge, no usage meter to watch. The Free plan needs no card.
Free
$0 /mo per team
For a side project or trying Railyard on a real server.
Pro
$19 /mo per team
For a product in production.
Team
$99 /mo per team
For a company with several products and a security review.
Why teams switch
What's different from Dokku
No markup on compute
You pay your cloud provider directly, at their price. Railyard's fee is a flat amount per team, not a cut of your server bill.
Dokku · yes
Apps keep running if you cancel
Your apps are plain containers on servers you own behind a standard proxy. Cancel Railyard and they keep serving traffic; you just lose the dashboard.
Dokku · yes
Moving over
How teams move off Dokku
01
Deploy next to Dokku
Point Railyard at a new server and deploy a copy of your app. Nothing on your current setup changes yet.
02
Prove it on a temporary URL
Test the new deploy end to end before anyone else sees it.
03
Switch DNS when you're ready
Move traffic over in minutes. Your app was never offline during the move.
Questions
Questions people ask before switching
Is there a free Dokku alternative?
Railyard's Free plan covers 1 server plus a database server and 3 apps, no card required. You still pay your cloud provider directly for the server itself, usually a few dollars a month.
Can I run a Dokku alternative on my own server?
Yes. Point Railyard at a server you already have over SSH, or connect a DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr, OVH or AWS account and let it create one. Either way, the server stays yours.
How long does moving off Dokku take?
For a typical app: under an hour to deploy next to Dokku and prove it on a temporary URL, then a DNS change when you're ready. Your app stays online the whole time.
Will my app work without changes?
If it already has a Dockerfile or a Procfile, that's read as it is. Without one, Railyard detects your framework and builds it automatically — no config needed for most Rails, Node, Python, Go, PHP and Elixir apps.
Try it next to Dokku, before you decide.
The Free plan needs no card.
Free plan, no card, and 14 days of Pro for every new team. One flat price per team.