Dokku vs. Vercel

If you have your own in-house servers or have a cloud server with the freedom to configure any PaaS that you want, then Dokku is for you. So far, I have never run into a scenario where Dokku was not able to fit my needs, after deploying many different types of applications with varying frameworks, languages, and connected services. If you already have a PaaS available, however, Dokku may not be for you.

Incentivized

For me personally, Vercel was the best choice for website deployment. As I said, it automatically detects every push to my GitHub repository and redeploys it. No overhead of manually reconfiguring every setting. The cloud features are limited but good. The scenario where I would say it lacks is the option to deploy one's backend. Engineers like me mostly prefer to deploy their frontend on Vercel.

• Dockerfile deployments are an incredibly simple and straightforward way to spin up applications.
• The docker-options plugin allows endless direct configuration of options passed to different docker lifecycle stages.

Incentivized

• Static Hosting
• Serverless Functions
• Deployment
• Integration
• Developer Experience

Incentivized

• Dokku might overreach on its assumptions about how you want to host your app, using its own VHOSTS plugin by default. This may be a pro or a con depending on what you want.
• Proxy port configuration can be somewhat difficult, with Dokku resetting any pre-deployment configuration to "smart" defaults on the first deployment.

Incentivized

• Interface Revamp
• Cost reduction

Incentivized

Most of the website deployment work is handled by Vercel, especially for the frontend. It currently lacks backend code hosting, which makes me look for additional infrastructure or cloud providers that may not be as generous as Vercel and can be costly. This is the reason for an 8-out-of-10 rating.

Dokku is incredibly well documented and also takes advantage of the documentation and community of Heroku, being essentially the same thing, but in the case that you encounter an actual bug or issue, it can take time for a fix to make it into a new version. Since you manage Dokku yourself, there is no support team to call for help.

Incentivized

Dokku is essentially the same thing as Heroku, except maintained by you on the platform of your choice. If you have any experience using Heroku, then you will feel right at home using Dokku. Dokku is an entirely free to use PaaS, requiring only that you have a platform to deploy it on, making it far more versatile than Heroku in my opinion.

Incentivized

Vercel beats Heroku and DigitalOcean by a mile with pricing. Since Vercel uses serverless infrastructure, we don't pay for servers that don't get used, which is great for smaller platforms. Vercel Support is also very quick to respond, unlike DigitalOcean who took a while to get back to me after they didn't honor platform credits they sent me.

Incentivized

• Since there's no investment besides a little time to set up, the return has been overwhelmingly positive.
• Deploying a new app is incredibly quick and easy.

Incentivized

• Good clients.
• Faster delivery.
• Less overhead of DevOps.