Goodbye Heroku: How I Built My Own PaaS on Linode for $5

Source: Dev.to

Overview

We all love the “git push to deploy” magic of platforms like Vercel, Netlify, and Heroku. But once your hobby project scales or you need a backend database, the pricing tiers can get scary fast. I recently decided to take back control: the developer experience of a PaaS without the price tag of a raw VPS.

Enter the power couple: Linode (for the hardware) and Coolify (for the magic). Linode is reliable, straightforward, and Linux‑centric. A standard “Shared CPU” Nanode starts at $5/month, which is plenty for a few containerized apps and a small database.

Coolify is an open‑source, self‑hostable Heroku alternative. It provides a beautiful dashboard to manage applications, databases, and services, handling:

• Reverse proxies (Traefik) automatically
• SSL certificates (Let’s Encrypt) automatically
• Databases (Postgres, Redis, MySQL) with one click
• Deployments from GitHub/GitLab
• Optional self‑hosted Gitea

The Setup Process

Step 1: Spin up the Server

• Image: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (always bet on LTS).
• Region: Choose the location closest to your users.
• Plan: Nanode 1 GB (or higher if you plan to host heavy apps).

Step 2: DNS Configuration

Create a DNS A record (e.g., paas.yourdomain.com) pointing to your new Linode IP address. This will be the dashboard for your Coolify instance.

Step 3: Secure the Server

SSH into the new Linode instance (add your SSH key during creation for password‑less login):

ssh root@

Update the package repositories:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Configure the firewall (UFW) to allow only the required ports:

ufw allow 22/tcp   # SSH
ufw allow 80/tcp   # HTTP
ufw allow 443/tcp  # HTTPS
ufw allow 8000/tcp # Coolify dashboard (can be closed later)
ufw allow 6001/tcp # Optional: real‑time service feature
ufw enable

Press y when prompted.

Step 4: Install Coolify

Coolify works best on a fresh server; ensure no other web server (Nginx/Apache) is listening on port 80.

Run the official install script:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | bash

What the script does

1. Installs Docker Engine (if missing).
2. Creates a data directory at /data/coolify.
3. Pulls the necessary Docker images for Coolify’s database and API.
4. Sets a restart policy so the PaaS survives reboots.

The installation usually takes 2–5 minutes depending on your Linode plan.

Step 5: Verify Installation

Check that the containers are running:

docker ps

You should see coolify, coolify-db, and coolify-proxy listed.

Step 6: The Dashboard

Open http://:8000 (or the DNS name you configured) to access the Coolify dashboard.

1. Select your repository (GitHub, GitLab, etc.).
2. Choose a build pack (Node, Docker, Rust, Go, …).
3. Click Deploy.

Coolify will pull the code, build the container, set up internal networking, generate an SSL certificate, and expose the app to the internet.

Pros & Cons

Building your own PaaS might sound like overkill, but tools like Coolify have lowered the barrier to entry significantly. For the price of a coffee, you get a powerful, private, and professional deployment environment.

If you have a spare domain and $5, give it a try—you might never go back to managed hosting again.