head to head · open source
Coolify vs OpenPanel
Coolify has 65,550 GitHub stars, 5,910 forks, 649 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenPanel has 767 stars, 113 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Coolify leads on adoption by 8,446% (65,550 vs 767 stars). Coolify is written in PHP under Apache-2.0; OpenPanel is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Coolify has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, OpenPanel 15%. Coolify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (docker), 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 | OpenPanel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 767 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 113 |
| 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 OpenPanel if
- You want the OpenPanel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and OpenPanel 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 OpenPanel
OpenPanel Web Hosting Control Panel OpenPanel is a web hosting control panel built around containers. Every user gets a fully isolated environment: dedicated web server, dedicated database, private network, and scoped file storage delivering VPS grade security on shared hardware. Available as a free community edition and a fully supported commercial version. What is OpenPanel? OpenPanel is a web hosting control panel that uses containers to give every hosting user a completely isolated environment. Unlike traditional control panels that share a single Apache, MySQL, or PHP runtime across all users, OpenPanel…
read the full OpenPanel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Coolify or OpenPanel more popular?
Coolify has 65,550 GitHub stars and OpenPanel has 767. Coolify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Coolify and OpenPanel free?
Both are open source. Coolify is licensed under Apache-2.0, and OpenPanel has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Coolify and OpenPanel?
Coolify is written in PHP and OpenPanel in Go. 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 OpenPanel?
Choose Coolify if you want the larger community (65,550 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenPanel if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.