Openship — Self-Hosted Deployment Platform for Applications

Introduction

Openship is an open-source self-hosted deployment platform that provides a clean web dashboard for deploying and managing applications on your own infrastructure. It handles container orchestration, domain routing, SSL certificates, and deployment pipelines, offering a self-hosted alternative to platforms like Vercel and Heroku.

What Openship Does

• Deploys web applications from Git repositories with automated builds
• Manages container lifecycles including scaling and health monitoring
• Configures custom domains with automatic SSL certificate provisioning
• Provides a web dashboard for deployment management and log viewing
• Supports environment variable management and secret storage

Architecture Overview

Openship runs as a web service that orchestrates Docker containers on the host system. When a deployment is triggered, it pulls the source code, builds a container image, and launches it with the configured environment. A built-in reverse proxy routes traffic to the correct container based on domain rules. The dashboard communicates with the backend API to display status, logs, and configuration controls.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Deploy Openship itself using Docker Compose on a Linux server
• Point your DNS to the server and configure the dashboard domain
• Connect Git repositories for automatic deployment on push
• Configure resource limits and scaling rules per application
• Set up backup and monitoring integrations as needed

Key Features

• One-command setup with Docker Compose
• Git-based deployments with automatic build and restart
• Automatic SSL via Let's Encrypt for all configured domains
• Built-in log viewer and container health monitoring
• No vendor lock-in: runs on any Linux server you control

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Coolify — Full-featured self-hosted PaaS; Openship focuses on simplicity and ease of setup
• Dokploy — Self-hosted Vercel/Heroku alternative; both serve similar use cases with different UX approaches
• CapRover — Docker-based PaaS with web UI; Openship offers a more streamlined deployment workflow
• Dokku — Git-push-to-deploy PaaS; Openship adds a web dashboard for management

FAQ

Q: What server requirements does Openship need? A: A Linux server with Docker installed and at least 1 GB of RAM. More resources are needed depending on the applications you deploy.

Q: Does Openship support databases? A: Yes. You can deploy database containers alongside your applications and link them via environment variables.

Q: Can I deploy multiple applications on one server? A: Yes. Openship manages multiple containers and routes traffic by domain through its built-in reverse proxy.

Q: Does Openship support CI/CD pipelines? A: Openship provides basic Git-triggered deployments. For complex pipelines, integrate with external CI systems.

Sources

• https://github.com/oblien/openship