head to head · open source
Dokku vs devbox
Dokku has 32,146 GitHub stars, 2,076 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. devbox has 12,362 stars, 357 forks, 466 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dokku leads on adoption by 160% (32,146 vs 12,362 stars). Dokku is written in Shell under MIT; devbox is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Dokku has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, devbox 3%. devbox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (buildpack, containers), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Dokku | devbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 357 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Dokku if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick devbox if
- You want the devbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and devbox fits your workflow better
About Dokku
Dokku is a self hosted Platform as a Service (PaaS) that runs on a single server using Docker containers. It enables developers to deploy applications using familiar workflows like git push , mimicking the simplicity of Heroku while running entirely under the user’s control. Dokku lives in the DevOps and infrastructure automation ecosystem, targeting teams that want PaaS convenience without relying on cloud vendor lock in.
read the full Dokku overview →
About devbox
Devbox is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed command line tool written in Go that creates isolated, reproducible development shells from a single declaration file, and it is aimed at individual developers and teams who need identical toolchain versions on every machine and in every environment.
read the full devbox overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dokku or devbox more popular?
Dokku has 32,146 GitHub stars and devbox has 12,362. Dokku has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dokku and devbox free?
Both are open source. Dokku is licensed under MIT and devbox under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Dokku and devbox?
Dokku is written in Shell and devbox 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, Dokku or devbox?
Choose Dokku if you want the larger community (32,146 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose devbox if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.