PocketBase Cloud vs Coolify

Coolify is an open-source, self-hostable platform-as-a-service: you install it on your own VPS and get git-push deploys, SSL, and databases with no per-seat fee. PocketBase Cloud is the opposite trade: a fully managed platform where there is no server to maintain. This page helps you pick based on one question — do you want control, or freedom from operations?

Prices below are as of September 2026 — check the Coolify pricing page and the PocketBase Cloud pricing section for current numbers.

Summary

The real difference: who owns the server

Coolify runs on your infrastructure. You provision a VPS (e.g. Hetzner), install Coolify, connect it, and deploy anything Dockerized. The software is free; the bill is the server plus your maintenance time: OS patches, disk-full incidents, backup restores, Traefik config, multi-server planning. Coolify Cloud ($5/mo per team) only manages the control plane — your app servers are still yours to pay for and keep up.

PocketBase Cloud owns the servers. You run pbc deploy or push from the portal and get PocketBase, frontends, and backends with HTTPS, backups, monitoring, and log streaming. No SSH, no Dockerfiles for the common case, no 2 AM disk alerts. The trade is scope: it hosts PocketBase apps brilliantly, not arbitrary Docker stacks.

Pricing

• Coolify self-hosted: $0 software + VPS (~$5–25/mo for a capable node). Cheap and flat — until you count on-call time or a second server for redundancy.
• Coolify Cloud: ~$5/mo management fee on top of your servers.
• PocketBase Cloud: $0 (1 instance + frontends, 30-day inactive cull) / $5/mo Starter (1 instance, 3 GB, 5 frontends, custom domain) / $20/mo Pro flat (dedicated 2 vCPU compute, effectively unlimited instances + unlimited frontends + Node/Deno/Bun backends).

For one VPS running many small apps, Coolify’s raw cost is hard to beat. For a freelancer billing clients, one Pro compute at $20/mo with zero ops often costs less than one incident.

Developer experience

Coolify deploys anything with a Dockerfile — full flexibility, full responsibility. PocketBase Cloud deploys PocketBase-shaped apps with zero config: pbc init infers Next/Nuxt/Vite/Svelte/Deno/Bun, pbc deploy builds, zips, and uploads, and pbc.json remembers the target so redeploys need no flags. Portal deploys, env vars, custom domains with auto-SSL, and per-resource logs/metrics are built in rather than plugins you wire up.

Coolify has no native scale-to-zero, edge CDN, or built-in observability — you add Cloudflare + external logging yourself. PocketBase Cloud includes Cloudflare DDoS + SSL and built-in logs/metrics, but has no edge functions and a single region per compute.

When to choose which

Choose Coolify when:

• You already run servers and enjoy it — full Docker freedom matters
• You need data sovereignty / on-prem, custom Traefik config, version pinning
• You host non-PocketBase stacks (Elixir, Rust, Postgres clusters) on one panel

Choose PocketBase Cloud when:

• You want PocketBase + frontend + backend on one bill with zero ops
• You are a freelancer/indie/agency selling client sites, not server hours
• Predictable $20 flat beats cheapest-possible VPS + pager duty

Many teams do both: Coolify for exotic workloads, PocketBase Cloud for every standard client app.

The honest bottom line

• Want control and lowest raw cost, and can own ops — Coolify wins.
• Want to never SSH again for PocketBase apps — PocketBase Cloud wins.

Next steps

• Plans & Billing
• Deploy a PocketBase instance
• Deploying a Frontend