CapRover — Automated Docker Deployment PaaS with Web UI

What it is

CapRover is an open-source Platform-as-a-Service that simplifies Docker deployment. It provides a web dashboard for managing applications, automatic HTTPS via Let's Encrypt, one-click app installs (WordPress, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and dozens more), and Docker Swarm clustering for horizontal scaling.

CapRover targets solo developers, small teams, and anyone who wants a Heroku-like deployment experience on their own server. You get the convenience of a managed platform without the per-dyno pricing.

How it saves time or tokens

Setting up Docker, Nginx reverse proxy, SSL certificates, and CI/CD for each application takes hours of configuration. CapRover handles all of this through a web UI and CLI. A new app goes from git push to running HTTPS endpoint in under a minute. The one-click app store eliminates Dockerfile writing for common services.

How to use

1. Install CapRover on a VPS with Docker pre-installed.
2. Point a wildcard DNS record to your server.
3. Deploy apps via the web UI or the caprover CLI.

# Install CapRover on your server
docker run -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -p 3000:3000 \
  -e ACCEPTED_TERMS=true \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v captain-data:/captain \
  caprover/caprover

# Install the CLI locally
npm install -g caprover

# Deploy an app
caprover deploy
# Follow the prompts to select your app and push code

Example

# captain-definition file (CapRover's deployment config)
{
  "schemaVersion": 2,
  "dockerfilePath": "./Dockerfile"
}

# Dockerfile for a Node.js app
FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --production
COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]

Related on TokRepo

• DevOps tools — More deployment and infrastructure tools
• Self-hosted solutions — Run your own cloud infrastructure

Common pitfalls

• CapRover requires ports 80, 443, and 3000 to be available. If another service (like Nginx or Apache) occupies these ports, the installation fails silently.
• Wildcard DNS is mandatory for automatic subdomain routing. Without it, each app needs manual DNS configuration.
• Docker Swarm mode is enabled automatically; if you previously configured standalone Docker, some containers may conflict with Swarm's networking.