Dokku vs Encore

Dokku is a self-hosted Platform as a Service for building and running applications from Git pushes on a server you choose. It can deploy applications with Heroku buildpacks, Dockerfiles, or Docker images, targeting a single server, Docker containers, or a K3s cluster. Dokku routes web processes, manages background processes and automated cron tasks, and supports deployment rollback and audit logs. Its plugin architecture allows users to add functionality, with official plugins for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, and Let’s Encrypt. Per-application SSL/TLS certificate management is supported, and HTTPS responses have HSTS enabled by default. Dokku recommends SSH key authorization for pushes. The free open-source plan costs nothing. Dokku Pro costs $849, paid once and adds a web interface, JSON API, HTTP(S) app push, management tools, scaling, logs, team management, and email support.

Encore automates backend infrastructure from local development to production for developers and AI coding agents. Its open-source SDK lets teams describe services, databases, Pub/Sub, and caches in application code. One command can run a complete backend locally, including databases and Pub/Sub; the same declarations can provision infrastructure in a user's AWS or GCP account and deploy to either cloud. The platform includes GitHub-integrated CI/CD, distributed tracing, metrics, architecture diagrams, and API documentation generated from code. Supported plans can create a temporary cloud environment for each pull request. Encore's full feature set supports TypeScript and Go; Python and Rust support is described as coming soon. Starter is free, with two development environments, 1M trace events monthly, seven-day log and trace retention, and one concurrent build. Pro is $49 per member per month, plus $99 per AWS/GCP environment and $2.50 per resource in each environment; cloud-provider charges are separate. Platforms listed include API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web, and Windows.