What is Appliku
Appliku is a Bring-Your-Own-Server Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that gives teams the convenience of Heroku with the control and cost savings of running their own infrastructure.
Deploy from Git, manage databases, scale processes, and handle SSL — all without hiring a DevOps engineer.
How It Works
- Connect a server — Provision a DigitalOcean droplet or AWS EC2 instance directly from Appliku, or bring any Ubuntu/Debian server via SSH
- Connect your code — Link your GitHub, GitLab, or any Git repository
- Deploy — Push to your branch and Appliku automatically builds a Docker image, deploys it, provisions SSL, and runs your release commands
Every push to your branch triggers an automatic build and deployment. No CI/CD configuration needed.
Key Features
- Git push to deploy — Automatic builds from GitHub, GitLab, or any Git repo
- Multiple languages — Python, Node.js, Ruby, and custom Dockerfile support
- Managed databases — PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, Elasticsearch — provisioned with one click
- Automatic SSL — Free Let's Encrypt certificates for all custom domains
- Process management — Run web servers, workers, schedulers, and release commands
- Docker Swarm clusters — Scale across multiple servers when you outgrow a single machine
- Team collaboration — Invite team members with role-based access (Owner, Admin, Developer)
- Scheduled tasks — Cron jobs that run inside your app's container
- Database backups — Automated backups to local storage or S3
How Appliku Differs from Other Platforms
| Appliku | Heroku | Render / Railway | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server ownership | You own your servers | Platform-managed | Platform-managed |
| Server cost | Your cloud provider pricing (e.g., $6/mo on DO) | $25+/mo per dyno | Platform markup on compute |
| Multi-cloud | Mix any cloud provider | AWS only | Single provider |
| Database engines | 7+ (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, etc.) | PostgreSQL only (managed) | Limited |
| Docker Swarm | Built-in cluster orchestration | N/A | N/A |
| App sleeping | Never — your server, your uptime | Free tier sleeps after 30min | Varies |
Supported Stacks
Appliku supports a wide range of languages and runtimes through build images:
- Python — 3.10 through 3.13, with pip or uv, optional Node.js combos
- Node.js — 14 through 20, with npm or yarn
- Ruby — 3.3 and 3.4, with Rails support
- Custom Dockerfile — Full control over your build environment
See Supported Languages & Runtimes for the complete list.
Two Deployment Modes
Server Mode — Deploy to a single server. Simple, fast, perfect for most applications. Each app runs via Docker Compose with Nginx reverse proxy and Let's Encrypt SSL.
Cluster Mode — Deploy to a Docker Swarm cluster across multiple servers. Scale horizontally, distribute traffic, and achieve high availability without Kubernetes complexity.
Next Steps
- Quickstart Guide — Deploy your first app in 10 minutes
- Core Concepts — Understand teams, servers, apps, and processes
- Deploy Django — Step-by-step Django deployment tutorial
- Deploy Next.js — Step-by-step Next.js deployment tutorial