head to head · open source
Coolify vs aaPanel
Coolify has 65,550 GitHub stars, 5,910 forks, 649 open issues and last shipped yesterday. aaPanel has 3,077 stars, 765 forks, 92 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. Coolify leads on adoption by 2,030% (65,550 vs 3,077 stars). Coolify is written in PHP under Apache-2.0; aaPanel is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Coolify has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, aaPanel 25%. Coolify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (docker, mysql), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Coolify | aaPanel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | PHP | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 765 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Coolify if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick aaPanel if
- You want the aaPanel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and aaPanel fits your workflow better
About Coolify
Coolify An open source & self hostable Heroku / Netlify / Vercel alternative. About the Project Coolify is an open source & self hostable alternative to Heroku / Netlify / Vercel / etc. It helps you manage your servers, applications, and databases on your own hardware; you only need an SSH connection. You can manage VPS, Bare Metal, Raspberry PIs, and anything else. Imagine having the ease of a cloud but with your own servers. That is Coolify . No vendor lock in, which means that all the configurations for your applications/databases/etc are saved to your server. So, if you decide to stop using Coolify (oh…
read the full Coolify overview →
About aaPanel
Official documentation Demo About aaPanel aaPanel is a simple but powerful hosting control panel , it can manage the web server through web based GUI(Graphical User Interface). one click function: such as one click install LNMP/LAMP developing environment and software. save the time: Our main goal is helping users to save the time of deploying, thus users just focus on their own project that is fine. Demo Demo： username: aapanel password: aapanel What can I do aaPanel is a server management software that supports the Linux system. It can easily manage the server through the Web terminal, improving the operation…
read the full aaPanel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Coolify or aaPanel more popular?
Coolify has 65,550 GitHub stars and aaPanel has 3,077. Coolify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Coolify and aaPanel free?
Both are open source. Coolify is licensed under Apache-2.0, and aaPanel has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Coolify and aaPanel?
Coolify is written in PHP and aaPanel in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Coolify or aaPanel?
Choose Coolify if you want the larger community (65,550 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose aaPanel if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.