Dokku
by Dokku · Open source, self-hosted PaaS that deploys Heroku-compatible apps over Git
BenchRank score
Screenshots of Dokku
Homepage
Overview
Dokku is an open source platform-as-a-service you install on your own host. Heroku-compatible applications are pushed to it over Git, built with Heroku buildpacks and run in isolated containers on Docker, giving a single-host equivalent of Heroku. Its core is built from plugins, and further plugins can be written in any language to add features.
- Best for
- Developers who want Heroku-style git push deploys on a single server they own and run themselves.
- Pricing
- The captured page shows no prices; it offers an open source version alongside a separate Pro version without figures.
- Runs on
- Self-hosted
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- No vendor lock-in: runs on any hardware via Docker
- Deploy by git push, built with Heroku buildpacks
- Plugins can be written in any language and shared
- Official install notes for Azure, DigitalOcean, DreamHost
Trade-offs
- You provide and maintain the server yourself
- Described as a single-host PaaS, not a multi-server cluster
- Default install is a curl-and-bash bootstrap script
- Anything beyond the open source version points to a separate Pro version
How Dokku markets itself
A structured read of the promise, proof and page design on Dokku’s captured homepage.
Homepage capture
“An open source PAAS alternative to Heroku.”
- Angle: Contrarian / anti-incumbent
- Hero: Terminal / CLI
Pricing
Published plans and prices from Dokku’s own pricing page.
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
MCP support
Whether an agent can drive the product through the Model Context Protocol, and how much setup that takes.
API quality
Public API surface: machine-readable spec, official SDKs, documented auth, errors, rate limits and versioning.
Documentation
Publicly reachable docs — coverage, freshness, code samples and machine readability.
Agent friendliness
How readable the site is to an automated client: llms.txt, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access.
Changelog
A public, dated record of what shipped and when — the clearest signal that a product is still alive.
Marketing site structure
Whether the site answers a buyer's questions: clear positioning, the pages that matter, and accessibility.
Page speed
How fast the site loads for real visitors: Chrome UX Report 75th-percentile LCP, INP and CLS, with a Lighthouse mobile run standing in where a site has too little traffic for field data.
Operational trust
Status page and incident history, security disclosure, compliance and data-processing documentation.
Measured, but not part of the score
Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.
Openness
Source availability, self-hosting, data export and open standards. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — paid SaaS is not worse for being paid SaaS.
Maintenance
Release cadence and repository activity. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — it is only measurable for open repositories.
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Where this comes from
The Dokku pages BenchRank reads when it scores the product — its documentation, release notes, status and security pages, and its repository where there is one.
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Is this your product?
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