Why Self-Host a Docker Interface on a VPS
When your VPS hosts more than three or four containers, managing it over SSH with docker ps and docker logs shows its limits. A dedicated interface like Portainer or Dokploy gives you a centralized view of containers, volumes, networks, and logs, without depending on an external SaaS service that bills your deployments by volume. On a VPS you control end to end, you keep your data, your environment variables, and your secrets on your own machine. Portainer is a general-purpose administration layer that adapts to Docker, Docker Swarm, and Kubernetes. Dokploy goes further: it's an application deployment platform (PaaS) that builds your images from a Git repository and manages domains and SSL via integrated Traefik. The choice therefore depends less on price than on what you want to automate.
What You Gain by Deploying This Template on Your VPS
- A real-time view of all your containers, volumes, and networks from a single web dashboard.
- Access to a container's logs and terminal without opening an SSH session every time.
- Application deployment from Git (Dokploy) or redeployment by Compose stack (Portainer) in a few clicks.
- Centralized management of environment variables and secrets without scattering them across files.
- Multi-user access control to share the VPS with a team or a client.
- No dependency on an external PaaS: your data and your builds stay on your infrastructure.
Prerequisites to Host Them
Portainer is extremely lightweight: the agent and the interface fit in about 256 MB of RAM, and a VPS with 1 vCPU / 1 GB is suitable for managing about ten containers. Dokploy demands more because it bundles Traefik, a PostgreSQL database, Redis, and a build system: count on at least 2 vCPUs and 4 GB of RAM, with 8 GB being more comfortable if you build Node or PHP images regularly. In both cases you'll need Docker (and Docker Compose for Dokploy), a domain name pointing to the VPS, and ports 80/443 open for automatic SSL. Plan for at least 20 GB of disk for the images and volumes.
Deploy Dokploy on a VPS (and Install Portainer as an Alternative)
Prepare the VPS and Install Docker
Connect over SSH, update the system, then install Docker via the official script: curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh. Verify with docker --version.
Install Dokploy in One Command
Dokploy provides an installation script that deploys its full stack: curl -sSL https://dokploy.com/install.sh | sh. It sets up Traefik, PostgreSQL, and Redis automatically and exposes the interface on port 3000.
Point Your Domain and Enable SSL
Create an A record dokploy.mydomain.com pointing to the VPS IP. In Dokploy, enter this domain: Traefik then generates the Let's Encrypt certificate automatically, without any manual Nginx configuration.
Connect a Git Repository and Deploy an Application
Create a project, link your GitHub or GitLab repository, choose the branch and the Dockerfile or the Nixpacks buildpack. Dokploy builds the image and deploys it; each push triggers a new build.
Alternative: Deploy Portainer for Pure Management
If you only want to administer Docker, run this instead: docker volume create portainer_data then docker run -d -p 9443:9443 --name portainer --restart=always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v portainer_data:/data portainer/portainer-ce:latest. The interface is available over HTTPS on port 9443.
Secure Access to the Interface
Place the interface behind a reverse proxy with authentication, restrict the admin port to your IP via the firewall (ufw allow from VOTRE_IP to any port 9443), and enable the two-factor authentication available in both tools.
| Criterion | Portainer | Dokploy |
|---|---|---|
| Tool type | Docker/Swarm/K8s administration | Self-hosted PaaS (Git deployment) |
| Deployment from Git | Limited (Compose stacks) | Native, automatic build on push |
| Reverse proxy / SSL | To configure yourself | Traefik + Let's Encrypt integrated |
| Memory footprint | Very light (~256 MB) | Heavier (2-4 GB) |
| Learning curve | Low, infra-oriented | Medium, application-oriented |
| Multi-environment | Excellent (multiple endpoints) | Good (per project) |
| Ideal use case | Manage an existing Docker infrastructure | Deploy your apps without heavy CI/CD |
| Managed database | No | Yes (Postgres/MySQL/Redis templates) |
The two tools are not mutually exclusive: install Dokploy to deploy your applications from Git, and add Portainer in read mode to closely inspect the containers, networks, and volumes that Dokploy creates. Point Portainer at the same Docker socket (/var/run/docker.sock) and you get low-level visibility that Dokploy's PaaS interface doesn't provide, without any conflict between the two.
