Railway is how c17.io ships. Coolify is the open-source control plane you run when you do not want a Heroku-shaped vendor at all. Pick one operator, not two.

Stacks / Backend

Medium

Coolify + Cloudron

A PaaS you run: git push, SSL, databases. Heroku without the dyno invoice.

The problem

Heroku dynos start cheap and then you pay for every process type, every Postgres plan, every hour the Eco dyno is awake. Coolify is the open-source Heroku-shaped panel; Cloudron is in the catalog if you want an app store on a VPS.

Replaces

Heroku

Replace Heroku

Estimated SaaS saved

$2,400

per year, small team, before lock-in

Deploy on Railway

Sponsor this stack

Coolify wants Docker socket and a public IP — a VPS more than a single Railway service. Document the VPS path; Railway remains how c17 itself deploys.

The stack

Coolify
Open-source Heroku/Netlify-style PaaS
Cloudron
Self-host web apps with backups and SSO
Catalog entry →

Cost table

You stop paying	Typical / year	Self-host instead
Heroku Standard-1X + Postgres	$2,400	Coolify on a VPS

Agent setup prompt

Replace Heroku with Coolify (preferred) or Cloudron.

- Coolify on a VPS with Docker. Git deploy, SSL, Postgres as an app.
- Do not try to nest Coolify inside Railway; it wants the socket.
- Migrate one Heroku app: Dockerfile, env, add-on → Postgres. Write a rollback if DNS still points at Heroku.

Also as markdown: /stacks/coolify-paas.md

FAQ

Why not Railway?: Railway is how c17.io ships. Coolify is the open-source control plane you run when you do not want a Heroku-shaped vendor at all. Pick one operator, not two.