The same git-push simplicity, without owning the box underneath
Dokku is a lovely piece of open-source software: a single-host, Docker-powered mini-Heroku you self-host and deploy to with a git push. The catch is that you also become the sysadmin, patching the OS, renewing certificates and keeping the one box alive. Ruust keeps the connect-a-repo feel but runs it for you, at a flat price per Egg per month in GBP, with unmetered egress and every Egg kept warm around the clock.
Flat price per Egg, in GBP · unmetered egress · no cold starts
Both take a git repo and turn it into a running container on HTTPS. The real split is who operates the platform: with Dokku that is you, on your own server, for the cost of the machine plus your time. Ruust is fully managed for a flat monthly price per Egg. Here is how they line up.
| Ruust | Dokku | |
|---|---|---|
| Who operates it | Fully managed. We run the control plane, ingress, TLS and hosts. You just ship Eggs. | You do. You provision, secure, patch and maintain the server and the platform yourself. |
| Pricing model | Flat per Egg, per month, in GBP. Nano £3, Small £6, Standard £12, Large £24. No plan fee. | The software is free and open source; you pay for the VM you run it on, plus your own time. |
| Egress | Unmetered on every tier. No egress bill from us, ever. Fair-use rate caps only. | Whatever your host or VM provider charges; some meter bandwidth beyond an allowance. |
| High availability | Managed hosts and a dedicated ingress tier. An Egg can run replicas behind health checks. | Single-host by design, so the one box tends to be a single point of failure. |
| Always-on | Every Egg kept warm 24/7. No cold starts, no scale-to-zero, no spin-up lag. | Your apps stay up for as long as you keep the box healthy and running. |
| Databases | Managed Postgres and Redis database Eggs with a persistent volume, private to your Coop. | Official plugins add Postgres, Redis and more; you run and back them up yourself. |
| TLS and domains | Custom domains with automatic TLS, issued in about 90s and renewed for you. | Let's Encrypt via a plugin, configured and renewed by you on your host. |
| Own hardware | BYOH: run our open-source Apache-2.0 agent on your Linux boxes, £2/Egg capped £20/host. | Your own hardware is the whole model; the whole stack lives on your machine. |
Dokku details are as we understand them and can change. Always check Dokku's current pricing and features for the latest.
What you get by switching.
Managed, so there is no box to babysit
With Dokku you own the server: the kernel updates, the disk that fills up at 3am, the certificate that quietly expires. Ruust runs all of that for you across managed hosts and a dedicated ingress tier. You connect a repo and ship Eggs, and the platform underneath is somebody else's pager.
A flat price that includes the operating, in GBP
Dokku the software is free, but a self-hosted platform is never free: you pay for the VM and, more expensively, for the hours spent keeping it healthy. Ruust folds hosting and operating into one flat price per Egg per month, the same in every region, so a Standard Egg is £12 whether it is quiet or busy.
Unmetered egress on our pipe
On a self-hosted box your bandwidth bill is whatever your VM provider decides, and some meter transfer beyond an allowance. Ruust never meters egress on any tier. A launch day, a viral weekend or a chatty API produces no egress line, with per-Egg fair-use rate caps only to stop abuse.
Beyond a single host
Dokku is single-host by design, which is elegant but tends to make that one machine a single point of failure. Ruust spreads Eggs across managed hosts, puts a dedicated Caddy ingress tier in front, and lets any Egg run replicas behind health checks with zero-downtime rolling deploys. You get resilience without wiring it together yourself.
Where Dokku is the better fit.
Free, open source and fully yours
Dokku costs nothing to licence and its source is right there. You can read every line, fork it, and run it on the cheapest VM you can find. For hobby projects, learning, or anyone who wants total ownership of the stack, that freedom is a genuine and hard-to-beat advantage.
Complete control on your own box
Because Dokku runs entirely on your server, you decide everything: the kernel, the Docker version, the plugins, the exact network setup. If you need that level of control, or you have data that must never leave a machine you own, a self-hosted PaaS is the honest right answer.
Lightweight and refreshingly simple
Dokku is deliberately small: a thin, well-loved layer over Docker with a healthy plugin ecosystem and years of community recipes. For a single app on a single box, its git-push flow is quick to learn and pleasantly uncomplicated, and plenty of people run it happily for years.
Ruust vs Dokku, the common questions.
Isn't Dokku free, so how can Ruust compete on price?
Dokku the software is free, and we would never pretend otherwise. What is not free is running it: the VM, the backups, the patching and the hours you spend keeping one box alive. Ruust charges a flat GBP price per Egg (Standard is £12 a month) that includes the hosting and the operating, so you are trading your time for a predictable line on an invoice. If your time is cheap or the project is a hobby, Dokku can genuinely be the better deal.
Do I still get the git-push-to-deploy feel?
Yes. You connect a repo and Ruust autobuilds it with Nixpacks or your own Dockerfile, then it is live on HTTPS in about two minutes with TLS issued in roughly ninety seconds. You set a start command, a root directory for monorepos and build-time env vars, much as you would configure a Dokku app, but without running the platform yourself.
What do I give up by not self-hosting?
Chiefly, total control of the machine. On Dokku you own the kernel, the Docker version and the network down to the last detail. On Ruust that layer is managed for you, which is the point, so if you specifically need low-level control of the host, or data that must stay on hardware you own, self-hosting remains the honest choice. Bring Your Own Host is a middle path: our panel and control plane, your Linux boxes.
How does high availability compare?
Dokku is single-host by design, so that one server tends to be a single point of failure and its uptime is on you. Ruust runs Eggs across managed hosts behind a dedicated ingress tier, and any Egg can run replicas with health checks and zero-downtime rolling deploys. You get resilience as a default rather than something you have to build and maintain.