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Coming from Dokku
Dokku is a free, open-source git-push PaaS you run yourself on one server. Railyard keeps the git-push workflow and adds the day-two tooling Dokku doesn't have.
Why teams leave Dokku
Dokku is a genuinely good single-server, open-source PaaS: free, simple, and git-push to deploy. The friction shows up on day two: no teams or roles, no managed database backups, no multi-server failover, and you are the one who patches and monitors the box it runs on.
Railyard keeps the git-push feel but adds backups, teams, zero-downtime releases and the ability to add a second server without rebuilding anything.
What comes with you
- Your repo, built from a Dockerfile, buildpacks, or a Procfile — the same formats Dokku supports.
- Your environment variables and secrets.
- Dokku’s Postgres, MySQL or Redis plugins map directly to Railyard’s managed addons, with scheduled backups added.
- Your existing server: attach it over SSH rather than rebuilding it.
The move
- Attach your server: the one already running Dokku, or a new one Railyard provisions in your cloud account.
- Add your repo and select the build method that matches how Dokku builds it today.
- Bring your config and attach the datastores your app expects.
- Deploy to a temporary URL. Run your release task and verify.
- Migrate data with a dump and restore into the managed addon.
- Move DNS. Dokku keeps serving until the cutover; there is no outage.
What’s different
Backups, teams and zero-downtime releases that Dokku doesn’t provide on its own, without losing the single-command deploy feel.