dFlow combines the power of Dokku, Railpack, and SSH automation into a seamless PaaS experience you control
In today’s world of cloud infrastructure, developers often face a tough decision:
Should I go for the flexibility of VPS and self-hosting, or the convenience of PaaS platforms like Vercel, Heroku, or Railway?
With dFlow, you get the best of both worlds.
Built on the solid foundation of Dokku, enhanced with Railpack, and powered by remote provisioning through SSH, dFlow gives you full control of your apps without giving up the ease of use you love from commercial platforms — all manageable through a beautiful, intuitive UI at dflow.sh.
What Exactly Is dFlow?
dFlow is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) layer built on top of Dokku, the legendary open-source Heroku alternative.
But dFlow goes much further:
Multi-Server Support: Attach multiple Dokku servers across any cloud provider (DigitalOcean, AWS, Hetzner, your laptop — you name it).
Remote App Provisioning: Thanks to SSH automation (powered internally bynode-ssh), dFlow can create, configure, and manage apps across servers without you touching the terminal.
Railpack Integration: We bring in concepts from Railway.app around smooth project linking, deployments, environment management, and service attachments.
Unified UI: Everything — from server connection, app deployment, domain linking, SSL certs, environment variables, to database provisioning — is handled in a single place.
You control your servers, your apps, your data — with dFlow simplifying everything else.
Why Build dFlow on Top of Dokku?
Dokku has been around for nearly a decade. It's proven, battle-tested, and has a simple plugin system for things like Postgres, Redis, Let’s Encrypt, and more.
But using raw Dokku often requires:
- Manually SSH'ing into servers
- Typing CLI commands
- Managing multiple servers individually
That's where dFlow comes in — abstracting the complexity of Dokku into a modern cloud experience, without taking away your freedom.
It’s like giving Dokku superpowers.
How dFlow Works Under the Hood
At a technical level, here’s what powers dFlow:
Dokku: Installed on each server you attach. Dokku handles deployments, containers, and services.
Railpack Layer: We introduce app-level metadata management, service attachments, environment syncing, and team collaboration features — inspired by platforms like Railway and Render.
SSH Automation withnode-ssh:
dFlow provisions everything remotely — from creating new apps, setting domains, managing environment variables, to even scaling your containers — all through secure SSH connections.
Multi-Server Management:
Add as many Dokku servers as you like. dFlow smartly groups apps per server and lets you deploy based on your preference or pricing needs.
dFlow.sh UI:
A modern dashboard where you can:
- View all your apps
- Attach new servers in seconds
- Create new apps instantly
- Manage SSL, environment variables, databases
- Monitor deployments and logs
All without touching a single line of Bash.
Key Features at a Glance
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Attach Multiple Servers | No limits — add as many Dokku instances as you need. |
| Remote App Provisioning | Create and deploy apps remotely via SSH. |
| Database Attachments | Provision Postgres, MySQL, Redis, and more, right from the dashboard. |
| Custom Domains & SSL | Auto-configure your domains with free Let's Encrypt SSL. |
| Environment Management | Manage environment variables securely through the UI. |
| Teams (Coming Soon) | Invite teammates to collaborate on apps. |
| GitHub Integration | Auto-deploy from GitHub repos, just like Vercel and Railway. |
| Service Discovery | Coming soon: Cross-app service linking across servers. |
Why dFlow?
If you're a developer or a small team that:
- Wants full control over your infrastructure
- Likes owning your servers without maintaining them manually
- Hates the vendor lock-in of big PaaS providers
- Wants a Heroku-like experience, but on your terms
then dFlow is designed for you.
You no longer have to choose between power and simplicity —
dFlow gives you both.
Get Started Today
Getting started with dFlow is super simple:
- Install Dokku on your VPS (or let dFlow help you install it).
- Connect your server to dFlow through a secure SSH connection.
- Deploy your first app in minutes!
➡️ Visit dflow.sh to learn more and join the early access program.
The future of personal PaaS is here — and it’s fully under your control.
Welcome to dFlow Discord for more info or feedback🚀