How to Host Multiple Websites on One VPS with Coolify (2026)

A lot of people do not need a separate VPS for every site. They need one solid box, a sane deploy flow, and a way to keep the bill from growing every time they add another small project. That is why I like Coolify for multi-site hosting: it gives you a clean UI, Git-based deploys, automatic HTTPS, and a way to run many apps on one server without hand-wiring every container.

The pain is familiar. Vercel and Netlify are easy until you have more than a couple of sites, preview environments, background jobs, or a database that should not be charged like a luxury item. cPanel has the opposite problem: it works, but it feels old, the licensing adds up, and the workflow is not built for container-first apps. A single VPS with Coolify sits in the middle. You pay for the server once, then you decide how many sites, services, and databases that box should carry.

Coolify vs Dokploy vs CapRover vs Docker Compose vs cPanel

Here is the quick comparison I wish more guides gave first.

The important part is not the exact idle number. It is the shape of the box. Docker Compose is the lightest, but you do more yourself. cPanel is the heaviest, but it is still common in shared hosting and agency workflows. Coolify, Dokploy, and CapRover are the practical self-hosted middle ground if you want multiple sites, HTTPS, and a deploy path that does not make you SSH into every server by hand.

For current project activity, the public GitHub repos are all alive as of 2026-09-06:

• Coolify: latest stable release v4.3.17, pushed recently, about 61,470 stars, 656 open issues.
• Dokploy: latest stable release v0.30.5, pushed recently, about 37,116 stars, 729 open issues.
• CapRover: latest stable release v1.15.4, pushed recently, about 15,155 stars, 176 open issues.

So this is not a dead-software discussion. Coolify is the most aggressively active of the three in terms of release cadence and docs feel, Dokploy is close, and CapRover still has a real user base even if the product feels older.

What Coolify actually is

Coolify is a self-hosted app platform that sits on top of Docker and gives you a PaaS-style interface. In plain English: you point it at a Git repo or container image, connect a domain, and it handles the boring parts like reverse proxying, HTTPS, deploy history, and environment variables.

That is why it works well for hosting multiple websites on one VPS. Instead of manually wiring Nginx, certbot, compose files, and restarts for every project, you get one control plane. You can keep a marketing site, a client dashboard, a Next.js app, and a small API on the same server if the hardware is sized correctly.

The part people miss is this: Coolify itself is not what eats your RAM. Your sites do. A static marketing site is cheap. A PHP app with a database is moderate. A Node app with SSR, Prisma, a worker, and Redis is not cheap anymore. Coolify just makes the box easier to manage.

VPS spec you actually need

Coolify’s own docs say the self-hosted install should start at 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM, and 30 GB free disk. That is the floor, not the place where I would feel relaxed hosting several sites.

My practical rule of thumb looks like this:

• 1 very small static site: 1 GB RAM can work if the VPS is otherwise empty.
• 1-2 small WordPress or PHP sites: 2 GB RAM is possible, but tight.
• 3-5 mixed sites: 4 GB RAM is the point where the box starts to feel normal.
• 6+ sites, or any app with a real database and background jobs: 8 GB RAM is safer.

A better way to think about it is per app, not per domain:

• Static frontend: 100-300 MB once built and served behind a proxy.
• Small API or SSR app: 300-700 MB.
• Database: 300-800 MB depending on the engine and buffer sizes.
• Redis / queues / workers: 50-300 MB each, sometimes more under load.

That means a “cheap VPS multiple sites” setup is only cheap if those sites are light. If all of them are busy, the VPS becomes the real bill.

Install walkthrough with real commands

I use Ubuntu LTS for this kind of setup because Coolify’s quick installer is aimed at supported Ubuntu releases. If you are on another distro, read the manual install path first.

Start with a clean server, then update it:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Then install Coolify with the official quick installer:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | sudo bash

That command is the one I verified from the Coolify docs. The docs also note that the automatic installer is intended for Ubuntu LTS versions like 20.04, 22.04, and 24.04.

After installation, I check the container state and resource use:

docker ps
docker stats

If I want to watch memory pressure while adding more apps, I keep one terminal open with docker stats and one terminal on the Coolify UI.

If Docker is already installed and you want to confirm the stack is alive, these are useful too:

docker compose ls
docker logs -f coolify

Depending on how the installer named the container, the log command may need a different container name, but the idea is the same: confirm that the control plane is healthy before you add anything else.

Adding a domain and getting Let’s Encrypt working

Once Coolify is up, the flow is straightforward.

1. Point your domain’s DNS to the VPS IP.
2. Add the app inside Coolify.
3. Attach the domain to the app.
4. Let Coolify request and renew the TLS certificate.

For DNS, I keep it simple:

• @ or the apex record points to the VPS IP.
• www is either a CNAME to the apex or another A record to the same IP.

Then in Coolify, I create the application, set the build or image source, and add the custom domain. The platform handles the reverse proxy and the SSL certificate automatically once DNS is live.

A good first test is to open the site over HTTPS, then run:

curl -I https://your-domain.com

You want a clean response, a valid certificate, and no surprise redirect loop.

Resource limits so one site cannot kill the box

This is the part that keeps a multi-site VPS from becoming a mess.

If one app gets a traffic spike or a bad release, it should not be able to take the whole machine down. Set limits early, before you need them.

What I do:

• Cap memory per app.
• Cap CPU for noisy background services.
• Keep databases on stricter limits than frontends.
• Use health checks and restart policies.
• Never run large build steps on the same VPS if I can avoid it.

If you are managing raw containers, Docker gives you a direct way to see what is happening:

docker stats

And if you need to throttle a running container in an emergency:

docker update --memory 512m --cpus 0.5 <container_name>

If you are writing Compose files yourself, basic limits look like this:

services:
  web:
    image: ghcr.io/example/web:latest
    mem_limit: 512m
    cpus: "0.50"

I would still prefer to set limits inside Coolify where possible, because that keeps the controls close to the app. The main rule is simple: every site gets a budget, and the budget should be smaller than the server total.

Backups

Backups are not optional when you put multiple sites on one VPS. One disk failure or one bad deploy should not take out every client site at once.

At minimum, I back up three things:

• The application code or image reference.
• The database.
• Any persistent volumes or uploads.

Coolify helps here because it can manage backups for apps and databases from the UI. I still like having an off-box copy. For a database dump, a plain command is often enough:

docker exec <db_container> pg_dump -U postgres <database_name> > backup.sql

For file-level backups, I prefer sending snapshots to object storage or to the VPS provider’s backup system. The important thing is that the backup lives somewhere other than the same disk.

A good backup plan for a small multi-site VPS is:

• Daily database backup.
• Weekly full config snapshot.
• Off-site storage for at least one recent restore point.
• A restore test once in a while.

A backup you have never restored is only a theory.

When NOT to do this

I would not recommend this setup in every case.

Do not do it if:

• You only have one small site and do not care about the control plane.
• You are not comfortable with Linux, SSH, DNS, or Docker basics.
• The sites need hard isolation because different clients, teams, or compliance rules apply.
• You want hands-off managed hosting and are happy to pay for it.
• You plan to run heavy jobs, big databases, and multiple public apps on a tiny VPS.

That last one matters more than people admit. A one-box setup is convenient, but it is still one failure domain. If the VPS goes down, all the sites go down together. If one app leaks memory, everything feels slow. If you need stricter isolation, split the workloads across separate VPS instances instead.

Recommendation

If your goal is to host multiple websites on one VPS without living in SSH all day, I would pick Coolify first.

Why Coolify over the others?

• It feels more complete than raw Docker Compose.
• It is easier to explain to a client or teammate than a pile of shell scripts.
• It gives you Git-based deploys and free SSL out of the box.
• It is active enough that I do not worry about it being abandoned.

Dokploy is worth a look if you want a similar self-hosted Vercel-style flow and like its interface. CapRover is still solid if you want a more established, slightly older-feeling platform. But if I were starting fresh on a Hostinger VPS today, I would put Coolify on it, keep the first few apps small, and use the money I saved on extra VPS licenses to buy a bigger server only when the load actually justifies it.

That is also how I run my own stack on a Hostinger KVM 2 VPS: one box, multiple services, strict limits, and a preference for boring reliability over cleverness.

FAQ

Can I host multiple websites on one VPS with Coolify?

Yes. That is one of the main reasons people use it. You can run several apps, each with its own domain, environment variables, and deployment settings, as long as the VPS has enough CPU, RAM, and disk.

How much RAM do I need for Coolify with multiple sites?

Coolify’s floor is 2 GB RAM, but I would treat 4 GB as the practical starting point for multiple sites. If the apps are database-heavy or receive real traffic, 8 GB gives you more breathing room.

Is Coolify a self-hosted Vercel alternative?

Yes, for a lot of use cases. It is not identical to Vercel, but if you want Git-based deploys, automatic HTTPS, and app management on your own VPS, Coolify fills that role well.

Coolify vs Dokploy: which is better in 2026?

Both are active and both work. I would choose Coolify if you want the most polished all-in-one self-hosting flow, and Dokploy if you prefer its interface or want to compare two similar platforms before committing.

Can I run WordPress, Next.js, and a database on the same VPS?

Yes, but size the machine properly. A single VPS can run that mix, yet the database and any SSR apps will eat memory quickly, so 4 GB is the lower comfortable floor and 8 GB is better.

Is cPanel better than Coolify for hosting multiple websites?

Only if you specifically want the classic shared-hosting style workflow. For modern container-based apps, Git deploys, and self-hosting on one VPS, Coolify is usually the better fit.

What is the cheapest VPS size that still makes sense?

If the sites are tiny, a 2 GB VPS can work, but you will be close to the edge. For a setup you can actually keep for a while, I would start around 4 GB RAM and scale up only when usage justifies it.

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