head to head · open source
Coolify vs Refine
Coolify has 65,550 GitHub stars, 5,910 forks, 649 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Refine has 35,981 stars, 3,266 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Coolify leads on adoption by 82% (65,550 vs 35,981 stars). Coolify is written in PHP under Apache-2.0; Refine is written in TypeScript under MIT. Coolify has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Refine 9%. Coolify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Coolify | Refine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 36K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| 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 Refine if
- You want the Refine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Refine 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 Refine
Home Page Documentation Examples Discord Blog Refine The sweet spot between the low/no code and “starting from scratch” for CRUD heavy applications. Refine Core is an open source, React meta framework for enterprise. It provides a headless solution for everything from admin panels to dashboards and internal tools. Refine CORE also powers Refine's purpose built AI agent. What is Refine CORE? Refine CORE is a React meta framework for CRUD heavy web applications. It addresses a wide range of enterprise use cases including internal tools, admin panels, dashboards and B2B apps. Refine CORE's hooks and components…
read the full Refine overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Server & VM Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Server & VM Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Coolify or Refine more popular?
Coolify has 65,550 GitHub stars and Refine has 35,981. Coolify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Coolify and Refine free?
Both are open source. Coolify is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Refine under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Coolify and Refine?
Coolify is written in PHP and Refine in TypeScript. 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 Refine?
Choose Coolify if you want the larger community (65,550 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Refine if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.