Alternatives to Cloud Foundry
Enterprise-grade open-source platform for deploying and scaling apps on your own infrastru
Cloud Foundry ranks #7 of 11 in Self-hosted PaaS, with an Alt Score of 60. It is licensed under Apache-2.0, free from Free and available on Windows, macOS and Linux. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Cloud Foundry is a long-running open-source PaaS (backed by the Linux Foundation's Cloud Foundry Foundation) that gives enterprises a self-hosted 'cf push' deployment workflow with buildpacks, multi-tenant app isolation, and horizontal scaling across VMs or Kubernetes (via the Korifi runtime). It is used by large enterprises and regulated industries that need an on-prem or private-cloud PaaS with strong governance and multi-team support.
Platform teams and developers at organizations that want to self-host a PaaS layer, letting developers deploy applications without directly managing servers or Kubernetes manifests. It targets teams running on VM-based infrastructure (via BOSH) or on an existing Kubernetes cluster (via the Korifi project).
A CLI-driven workflow (cf push) that builds application source code into runnable containers using buildpacks, or runs a supplied Docker image, then routes HTTP traffic to app instances through the Gorouter. Organizations, spaces, and quota plans provide multi-tenant isolation and resource limits, and a Marketplace of Open Service Broker API-compatible services lets operators offer on-demand backing services such as databases.
Developers authenticate with cf login and run cf push to upload app code or a container image to a Cloud Foundry deployment; the platform stages the app (via a buildpack or the image) and schedules it onto a runtime layer, either Diego on BOSH-managed VMs or Korifi's Kubernetes custom resources. App updates can use rolling or canary deployment strategies to avoid downtime, and BOSH Backup and Restore (BBR) provides backup/restore for BOSH-based deployments.
Where Cloud Foundry stands out
Verified capabilities most alternatives don't have.
Why people leave Cloud Foundry
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
Sign in to add a reason — new reasons go through moderation before appearing.
Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
SwiftWave is an open-source (Apache-2.0), self-hosted PaaS for deploying applications from Git repos, Docker images, or uploaded source to bare metal, Raspberry Pi, or any VPS.
Easypanel is a self-hosted server control panel built on Docker that lets you deploy apps from a Dockerfile, Git repo, or Heroku buildpacks with a web UI.
Kubero is an open-source PaaS that runs natively on Kubernetes, letting developers deploy from Git without writing Helm charts or YAML by hand.
Tsuru is an open-source, extensible PaaS originally built and open-sourced by Globo.com, offering CLI source-code deploys, buildpack-based builds, and a pluggable router/backend architecture on top of.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Self-hosted PaaS checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Self-hosted PaaS checklist | Cloud Foundry | SwiftWave | CapRover | Coolify | Dokploy | Easypanel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| One-click app catalog | ||||||
| Git push deploys | ||||||
| Docker Compose support | ||||||
| Automatic SSL | ||||||
| Backups built in | ||||||
| Multi-server support | ||||||
| Web UI quality | ||||||
| Resource usage | ||||||
| Database provisioning | ||||||
| Zero-downtime deploys |
Every fact and feature listed for Cloud Foundry is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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License Apache-2.0 verified 2026-07-30
Same license text confirmed in cloudfoundry/cf-deployment LICENSE file.
Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cloudfoundry/cli/main/LICENSE -
Pricing model Free verified 2026-07-30
Foundation-governed upstream OSS project has no paid tier. Commercial distributions built on Cloud Foundry (e.g. Tanzu Application Service, SAP BTP, anynines) have separate pricing and are out of scop
Korifi is an open-source platform that simplifies the deployment and management of cloud-native applications on Kubernetes.
https://www.cloudfoundry.org/technology/korifi/ -
Starts at Free verified 2026-07-30
No paid upstream tier exists; self-hosting requires your own infrastructure (BOSH-managed VMs or a Kubernetes cluster for Korifi).
Korifi is an open-source platform that simplifies the deployment and management of cloud-native applications on Kubernetes.
https://www.cloudfoundry.org/technology/korifi/ -
Platforms Windows, macOS, Linux verified 2026-07-30
Reflects supported cf CLI client platforms; server-side runtime is deployed on Linux VMs (BOSH) or a Kubernetes cluster (Korifi).
You can install the cf CLI using a compressed binary on Windows, macOS X, and Linux operating systems.
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/cf-cli/install-go-cli.html -
Status active verified 2026-07-30
cf CLI v8.18.4 published 2026-07-02; core repos (cli, korifi, stratos) show ongoing commits/releases in July 2026.
Release v8.18.4 ... released this 02 Jul 21:15
https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cli/releases/tag/v8.18.4 -
One-click app catalog No verified 2026-07-30
Cloud Foundry has no catalog of pre-packaged one-click applications (e.g. WordPress/Nextcloud style templates). Its Marketplace (docs.cloudfoundry.org/services/overview.html) offers backing services l
The cf CLI command cf push pushes apps to Cloud Foundry.
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/devguide/deploy-apps/deploy-app.html -
Git push deploys No verified 2026-07-30
Deployment is a CLI upload of a local directory/tarball or Docker image via cf push, not a git-remote/git-triggered push-to-deploy workflow like Heroku's git push heroku.
The cf CLI command cf push pushes apps to Cloud Foundry. There are two main ways to run the cf push command: Run cf push APP-NAME to push an app using default settings.
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/devguide/deploy-apps/deploy-app.html -
Docker Compose support No verified 2026-07-30
Cloud Foundry pushes one Docker image per app; the docs describe no support for multi-container docker-compose.yml stacks.
You can use the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI) to push an app with a new or updated Docker image. Cloud Foundry then uses the Docker image to create containers for the app.
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/devguide/deploy-apps/push-docker.html -
Automatic SSL No verified 2026-07-30
TLS/SSL termination depends on an operator-supplied load balancer and certificates; no built-in automatic certificate issuance (e.g. ACME/Let's Encrypt) is documented.
use a highly available customer provided external load balancing solution that does the following: Provides load balancing to each of the Cloud Foundry router IP addresses. Supports SSL termination wi
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/concepts/high-availability.html -
Backups built in Yes verified 2026-07-30
BBR is a first-party CF Foundation tool for backing up/restoring a BOSH-deployed Cloud Foundry (config in docs.cloudfoundry.org/bbr/cf-backup.html).
This topic describes how to use BOSH Backup and Restore (BBR) to back up a BOSH deployment or BOSH Director.
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/bbr/backup.html -
Multi-server support Yes verified 2026-07-30
Cloud Foundry is architected as a distributed system deployed across many VMs/availability zones via BOSH.
Scaling horizontally means increasing the number of instances of VMs that run a functional component of a system. You can horizontally scale most Cloud Foundry component VMs to multiple instances for
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/concepts/high-availability.html -
Web UI quality Partial verified 2026-07-30
Stratos is an official but separately-installed CF Foundation project, not bundled with the core cf-deployment/Korifi install; day-to-day operation is CLI/API-first.
Stratos is an Open Source Web-based UI (Console) for managing Cloud Foundry. It allows users and administrators to both manage applications running in the Cloud Foundry cluster and perform cluster man
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cloudfoundry/stratos/develop/README.md -
Resource usage Yes verified 2026-07-30
Per-instance CPU, memory, and disk usage/quota metrics are emitted and viewable via cf CLI/Loggregator.
Diego containers emit resource usage metrics for the application instance. Diego averages and emits each metric every 15 seconds.
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/loggregator/container-metrics.html -
Database provisioning Yes verified 2026-07-30
Requires an operator to register a compatible Open Service Broker API broker; not bundled databases out of the box.
Cloud Foundry offers a marketplace of services that operators can use to provision reserved resources on demand. Marketplace services include resources such as databases on a shared or dedicated serve
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/services/overview.html -
Zero-downtime deploys Yes verified 2026-07-30
cf push --strategy rolling (cf CLI v7+) performs rolling/canary updates; an older blue-green deployment approach is also documented.
This page describes how to use the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI) or API (CAPI) to push apps to Cloud Foundry using rolling deployment or canary deployment strategies, which update apps
https://docs.cloudfoundry.org/devguide/deploy-apps/rolling-deploy.html
FAQ
Yes. SwiftWave, CapRover and Easypanel have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
SwiftWave, CapRover and Coolify — every license claim links its source.