# Alternatives to Piku Piku is a tiny (~1000 line) open-source PaaS inspired by Dokku that lets you `git push` to deploy apps directly to your own server via SSH, using nginx/uWSGI instead of full containerization. It targets hobbyists, schools, and anyone who wants Heroku-style deploys on very low-resource hardware, including a Raspberry Pi. Piku ranks #11 of 11 in Self-hosted PaaS, with an Alt Score of 32. It is licensed under MIT, free from Free and available on Linux. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/piku/ Category: Self-hosted PaaS ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Piku is for developers and hobbyists who want a Heroku-like deploy workflow on their own hardware, including low-resource devices like a Raspberry Pi, without running a full container platform such as Docker or Dokku. - **What you get**: You get git-push deployment of your own application code, automatic runtime detection and dependency installation for Python, Node, Ruby, Java, Clojure and Go, Procfile-based process management (web, worker, cron, static and release worker types), virtual-host support for multiple apps on one server, and automatic SSL via Let's Encrypt or a private certificate. - **How it works**: You set up a dedicated piku user on a Linux server over SSH, then add a git remote pointing at that server and run git push; piku inspects the pushed code for runtime-specific files (requirements.txt, package.json, Gemfile, pom.xml/build.gradle, etc.), installs dependencies, reads the app's Procfile to start uWSGI-managed worker processes, and applies settings from an ENV file to configure the app and nginx. All ongoing management (logs, config, scaling, restarts) happens through a CLI over SSH rather than a web dashboard. ## Profile - **License**: MIT (verified 2026-07-30) - **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-30) - **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-30) - **Platforms**: Linux - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-30) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [SwiftWave](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/swiftwave.md) | 91 | Apache-2.0 | Linux, Web | | 2 | [CapRover](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/caprover.md) | 86 | Apache-2.0 | Web | | 3 | [Coolify](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/coolify.md) | 86 | Apache-2.0 | Web | | 4 | [Dokploy](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/dokploy.md) | 86 | Apache-2.0 | Web | | 5 | [Easypanel](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/easypanel.md) | 86 | Proprietary | Linux | | 6 | [Kubero](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/kubero.md) | 73 | GPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web | | 7 | [Cloud Foundry](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/cloud-foundry.md) | 60 | Apache-2.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 8 | [Dokku](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/dokku.md) | 46 | MIT | Linux | | 9 | [Tsuru](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/tsuru.md) | 46 | BSD-3-Clause | Linux, macOS, Windows | | 10 | [Kamal](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/kamal.md) | 42 | MIT | Linux | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | Self-hosted PaaS checklist | Piku | SwiftWave | CapRover | Coolify | Dokploy | Easypanel | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | Free | Free | Free | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | Freemium | | Starts at | Free | Free | Free | Free | $4.50/mo | $10.9/mo | | License | MIT | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary | | Platforms | Linux | Linux, Web | Web | Web | Web | Linux | | One-click app catalog | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | | Git push deploys | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Docker Compose support | No | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Automatic SSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | | Backups built in | No | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Multi-server support | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | | Web UI quality | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Resource usage | Partial | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | | Database provisioning | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Zero-downtime deploys | No | Partial | Partial | ? | Yes | ? | ## Sources Sources for Piku. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **License**: MIT — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “The MIT License (MIT)” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: GitHub shows real commit activity as recently as 2026-07-09 (repo pushed_at 2026-07-09 per the API). Docs (features.html) self-describe the project as 'STABLE' with the feature set 'pretty much done', - Quote: “Commits on Jul 9, 2026” - **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: No paid tier exists; the software itself is the only 'product' and it is MIT-licensed and free to download and self-host. - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software” - **Pricing model**: Free — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Piku has no commercial offering, pricing page, or paid tier anywhere on piku.github.io or the GitHub org; it is MIT-licensed self-hosted software you run on your own server. - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software” - **Platforms**: Linux — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Piku is a self-hosted server daemon; primary target is Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/Raspbian/CentOS per the install docs). The page also mentions FreeBSD, Cygwin and WSL, which aren't in the fixed platform vo - Quote: “it has been deployed on Linux, FreeBSD, Cygwin and the Windows Subsystem for Linux” - **One-click app catalog**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: The full features page enumerates the workflow (git push), virtual hosts/SSL, caching/static paths, supported platforms and supported runtimes -- there is no app catalog, marketplace, or one-click ins - Quote: “piku supports a Heroku-like workflow” - **Git push deploys**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “Push your code: git push piku master” - **Docker Compose support**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Piku deploys via git push using a Procfile plus auto-detected runtime files (requirements.txt/pyproject.toml, Gemfile, package.json, pom.xml/build.gradle, deps.edn/project.clj, Godeps -- see configura - Quote: “even `docker` can be overkill sometimes, a simpler solution was needed” - **Automatic SSL**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “piku will also set up either a private certificate or obtain one via Let's Encrypt to enable SSL” - **Backups built in**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: The features page enumerates every built-in capability (workflow, virtual hosts/SSL, caching/static paths, supported platforms, supported runtimes) and none of it is a backup or snapshot feature; 'bac - Quote: “Besides static sites, piku also supports directly mapping specific URL prefixes to filesystem paths” - **Multi-server support**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Each piku install manages a single host ('per host'). The CLI helper (manage.html) can target multiple independent piku servers by switching git remotes, but there is no built-in clustering, multi-nod - Quote: “piku is currently able to deploy, manage and independently scale multiple applications per host” - **Web UI quality**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Piku is managed entirely over SSH/git via a CLI whose full command surface (apps, config, config:set, deploy, destroy, disable, enable, logs, ps, ps:scale, restart, setup) is listed on this install pa - Quote: “The smallest PaaS you've ever seen” - **Resource usage**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Built-in tooling only exposes worker counts (the `ps` command, 'Show application worker count' per install/index.html); actual CPU/memory resource-usage monitoring requires deploying the separate opti - Quote: “Besides using the logs command, there is a sample monitoring application to keep tabs on resource usage.” - **Database provisioning**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: The only Postgres-related material on the site is a hypothetical example plugin whose command bodies are literally `pass` (non-functional stub) to illustrate the experimental plugin API; there is no b - Quote: “At this moment there are no official plugins, but here is an example file that should be placed at ~/.piku/plugins/postgres/__init__.py that could contain the commands to manage a Postgres database” - **Zero-downtime deploys**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Documented default deploy behavior (PIKU_AUTO_RESTART) restarts all workers for an app together on every deploy, rather than a staged/rolling or blue-green swap. No 'zero-downtime', 'rolling', 'blue-g - Quote: “Piku will restart all workers every time the app is deployed.” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/