Why migrate from Vercel to a VPS with Dokploy?

Vercel is fast and developer-friendly, but it comes with platform lock-in, limited control, and dependency on a third-party. After security concerns surfaced, moving to a VPS with Dokploy gave full ownership of the infrastructure, predictable monthly costs, and the flexibility to run any Docker workload without per-execution pricing or vendor restrictions.

What is Dokploy and how does it compare to Vercel?

Dokploy is a free, open-source self-hosted deployment platform - essentially a self-hosted Vercel/Heroku alternative. It runs on your own VPS, uses Docker under the hood, gives you a clean dashboard for deploys, environment variables, and logs, and supports automatic SSL, Git integrations, databases, and one-click templates. Unlike Vercel, you own the server and pay a flat VPS fee.

What VPS specs do I need to run Dokploy?

A modest VPS is enough to start. We recommend at least 2 vCPU cores, 8 GB of RAM, 100 GB of NVMe SSD storage, and a few TB of bandwidth. A Hostinger KVM 2 plan or equivalent on Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or Contabo will comfortably run Dokploy plus several small-to-medium production apps.

Is migrating from Vercel to Dokploy difficult?

Not really. The process takes about an hour for a typical project: provision a VPS, run the Dokploy install script (it sets up Docker and the dashboard for you), connect your Git repo, paste your environment variables, and click deploy. Dokploy handles the build, container, and reverse proxy. The hardest part is usually pointing your domain DNS to the new server.

How do I secure a VPS running Dokploy in production?

Lock down SSH (key-only auth, disable root login, change the default port), enable a firewall (UFW) and only expose 22, 80, and 443, enable HTTPS with Let's Encrypt via Dokploy's built-in Traefik integration, keep the OS patched with unattended-upgrades, and rotate API tokens and environment secrets regularly. Dokploy itself supports 2FA on the dashboard - turn it on.

Vercel Got Hacked? How I Migrated to Dokploy on a VPS (Step-by-Step Guide)

Vercel got hacked… and that was the moment I decided to move everything off.

If you're relying fully on platforms like Vercel, you're fast - but you're also dependent. One issue, one outage, one security scare… and you're stuck.

So I switched to a VPS with Dokploy - and honestly, it's way simpler than most people think. Here's exactly how I did it.

Watch the Full Tutorial

Full video walkthrough on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Jq4t88Xa7Ko

Why I Left Vercel

Vercel is great. No doubt. The developer experience is polished and deploys are blazing fast.

Super fast deployments out of the box
Easy Git integration with preview environments
Clean, opinionated developer experience

But the downside?

No full control over the runtime or infrastructure
Limited flexibility for non-standard workloads
Hard dependency on a third-party platform

After seeing security concerns, I wanted something I fully own.

Why Dokploy + VPS

Dokploy is basically a self-hosted deployment platform. Think of it like your own Vercel… but on your server.

Full control over your apps and infrastructure
Deploy any Dockerized stack (Next.js, Node, Python, Go, …)
Simple UI - no complex DevOps knowledge required
Built-in Traefik reverse proxy with automatic SSL
Works great on a low-cost VPS

This combo gives you power without making things complicated - the speed of a managed platform with the control of self-hosting.

Step 1 - Get a VPS

First, you need a server. I use Hostinger VPS - solid performance and great pricing for the entry tier.

Recommended starter specs:

2 vCPU cores
8 GB RAM
100 GB NVMe SSD
8 TB bandwidth

Once your VPS is provisioned, connect over SSH using the credentials your provider gave you. Make sure you can reach the server from your terminal before moving on.

Step 2 - Install Dokploy

Installing Dokploy is straightforward. Head to dokploy.com and copy the install command from their docs.

Run the command on your VPS - it will:

Install Docker and Docker Compose
Set up the Dokploy dashboard
Configure Traefik as a reverse proxy
Give you an admin URL to log into

Open your browser, log in, and create your first admin user. You'll land on a dashboard that feels familiar if you've ever used Vercel, Heroku, or Railway.

Step 3 - Connect Your Project

Inside Dokploy, the workflow is the same one you already know:

Create a new project - pick "Application" and give it a name.
Connect your Git repo - GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, or Bitbucket - just authorise once and pick the repo and branch.
Configure environment variables - paste in the same env vars you had on Vercel. Dokploy stores them encrypted at rest.

This is very similar to Vercel - but now it's your infrastructure. Push to your branch and Dokploy auto-builds and redeploys.

Step 4 - Deploy Your App

Click Deploy and let Dokploy handle the rest.

Behind the scenes, it will:

Pull the latest code from your branch
Build your app inside a Docker container (Nixpacks, Buildpacks, or your own Dockerfile)
Run the container and route traffic through Traefik
Expose your app on a domain with a one-click SSL certificate

At this point, your app is live on your VPS - same as Vercel, except you control the box.

Step 5 - Secure Everything

This part is important. Once you own the server, you also own the security.

VPS hardening checklist:

Enable HTTPS (SSL) on every domain via Dokploy + Let's Encrypt
Use strong SSH keys - disable password login completely
Close unused ports - keep only 22, 80, and 443 open in UFW
Disable root SSH and use a non-root sudo user
Keep your server updated - enable unattended upgrades
Turn on 2FA on the Dokploy dashboard
Back up your data and Dokploy config off-server

Now you're not just deployed - you're deployed and secure.

Final Thoughts

Moving away from Vercel might feel scary at first. But with Dokploy + VPS, you get more control over runtime, logs, and data; more flexibility for any stack you can put in a container; and less dependency on a single third-party vendor. And once you do it once… it becomes your new default.

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