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Side-by-side record

Coolify vs. Spacelift

A side-by-side view of the product records we have today. Use it to narrow the question, then confirm current pricing, limits, and security details with each vendor.

The short version

Coolify starts at Free per seat, versus Spacelift at Free. Coolify carries the higher aggregate rating (4.9/5 vs 4.9/5). Coolify lists more integrations (280+ vs 28+).

Full comparison

Coolifyfrom Free
Spaceliftfrom Free
Audyense Score74ASStrong69ASFair
PositioningOpen-source, self-hostable PaaS for deploying apps and databases on your own serversIaC orchestration and CI/CD for Terraform, OpenTofu & more
Free tierYesYes
DeploymentOn-premise, Cloud / SaaSCloud / SaaS, On-premise
Best fitStartup, SMBMid-market, Enterprise
Pricing plans
  • Self-hostedFree
  • Cloud$5
  • FreeFree
  • Starter +$20,000
  • BusinessCustom pricing
  • EnterpriseCustom pricing
  • Enterprise +Custom pricing
AI featuresPartialOfficial built-in MCP server lets AI assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) query your instance; currently read-only.NoNot a core focus of the platform
Alerting & on-callPartialEvent notifications to email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Pushover and custom webhooks, but no on-call schedules, rotations or escalation policies.NoSends notifications via Slack/Teams but is not an alerting/on-call tool
Application performance monitoring (APM)NoNo APM. Application-level visibility is limited to container health checks and logs.NoNot an APM tool; IaC orchestration focused
CI/CD pipelinesYesAuto-deploy on Git push, Nixpacks/Dockerfile/Compose/static build packs, preview deployments, dedicated build servers, rollbacks and deploy webhooks.YesCore capability: IaC CI/CD orchestration with PR-native plan/apply workflows
Distributed tracingNoNot offered; no tracing collector or span storage.NoNot offered
Incident managementNoNo incident timeline, postmortems or on-call workflow — notifications only.NoNot offered
Infrastructure monitoringPartialSentinel agent runs per server sampling CPU/memory and disk with alerts and disk-cleanup thresholds; no long-retention metrics or custom dashboards.PartialContinuous drift detection on infrastructure state, not metrics-based infra monitoring
Log managementPartialContainer/deployment logs viewable in the UI, plus log drains to Axiom, New Relic or custom Fluent Bit; no built-in search, indexing or retention policies.NoSurfaces run/plan/apply logs on PRs but is not a log-management platform
Public APIYesREST API at /api/v1 with Bearer tokens scoped per team, five permission levels, IP allowlisting and a 200 req/min default rate limit.YesGraphQL API, webhooks, and a Terraform provider to manage Spacelift as code
Self-hosting / on-premYesSelf-hosting is the primary mode — Apache-2.0, free forever with no feature restrictions, installed on your own VPS, bare metal or Raspberry Pi.YesSelf-hosted/private workers plus on-prem and air-gapped deployment on Enterprise +
Integrations verified280+28+
Aggregate rating4.9 · 64 reviews4.9 · 12 reviews
Integrations
GitHubGitLabBitbucketGiteaDiscordTelegram
TerraformOpenTofuTerragruntPulumiCloudFormationAnsible+14 more
Security & compliance—
SOC 2 Type IIFedRAMP
Pros
  • Open source and free forever for self-hosted use
  • No vendor lock-in, full data control on your own servers
  • One-click deploy for 280+ services
  • Policy-as-code engine (OPA/Rego) gives fine-grained control over who can plan/approve/apply infrastructure changes
  • Thorough documentation with working examples that reduce need for support tickets
  • Solid automation surface: GraphQL API, webhooks, and a Terraform provider to manage Spacelift itself as code
  • Terraform plan/apply logs are surfaced directly on the pull request
Cons
  • Thinner documentation than commercial PaaS competitors
  • Limited built-in monitoring and backup options
  • No preview deployments and unclear rollback flow
  • Learning curve around core concepts like contexts and stacks during onboarding
  • Writing OPA/Rego policies is not beginner-friendly and policy-failure error messages can be unclear
  • Per-worker / concurrency-based pricing can become expensive as parallel run needs grow
  • Entry paid tier (~$20k/year) is a steep step up from the limited free plan
Visit Coolify ↗Visit Spacelift ↗

Editorial read of this comparison

The table summarizes structured facts; this section explains what the differences mean for a real buying decision.

Where each tool fits, and where it may not

Coolify

Coolify is an open-source, self-hostable platform-as-a-service that connects over SSH to your own servers (VPS, bare metal, Raspberry Pi, EC2) and gives them a Heroku-style push-to-deploy workflow with automatic SSL, a Traefik proxy, and one-click databases. It positions itself as an alternative to Vercel, Heroku, Netlify and Railway, with a large catalogue of one-click services and no vendor lock-in. It is Apache-2.0 licensed and free to self-host; a paid Coolify Cloud tier hosts the control plane while you still bring your own servers.

A particularly good fit for: Solo developers and small teams replacing Vercel/Heroku bills with a cheap VPS Self-hosters who want one-click services with automatic SSL and backups Side projects and internal apps running across a handful of servers

May be a poor fit if: Teams that need true zero-downtime deploys and strict uptime SLAs Enterprises needing audited compliance, granular RBAC and deep observability

Spacelift

Spacelift is an infrastructure-as-code management and CI/CD orchestration platform for Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Ansible, and Kubernetes. It adds policy-as-code governance (OPA/Rego), drift detection, self-hosted private workers, and pull-request-native plan/apply workflows on top of existing IaC. It targets teams that need governance, auditability, and scale beyond open-source PR automation tools.

A particularly good fit for: Platform/DevOps teams standardizing multi-tool IaC CI/CD across many repos and stacks Organizations needing policy-as-code governance, approval controls, and audit trails over Terraform/OpenTofu changes Regulated or enterprise environments requiring self-hosted/private workers, SSO/SAML, or FedRAMP/air-gapped deployment

May be a poor fit if: Small teams or individuals wanting a free or low-cost tool, given the ~$20k/year entry paid tier Teams wanting a general-purpose observability/monitoring or on-call stack (Spacelift is IaC-focused, not APM/logging)

Pricing and plan structure

Coolify: Published starting price Free

  • Self-hostedFree
  • Cloud$5 per month (2 servers included; +$3/mo per extra server)

Spacelift: Published starting price Free

  • FreeFree
  • Starter +$20,000 per year (flat)
  • BusinessCustom pricing
  • EnterpriseCustom pricing
  • Enterprise +Custom pricing

Capabilities worth validating

  • Coolify: AI features, Alerting & on-call, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure monitoring, Log management Integrations include GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea.
  • Spacelift: CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure monitoring, Public API, Self-hosting / on-prem Integrations include Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt, Pulumi.

Questions to answer before switching

  • Does Coolify's selected plan include the features and limits we need?
  • Does Spacelift's selected plan include the features and limits we need?
  • Does the exact integration path for GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket support the sync direction, permissions, and volume we need?
  • Will the deployment and data-residency model meet our security and procurement requirements?

How to evaluate this shortlist

A useful comparison turns the differences between DevOps tools into a concrete test. Use these steps to avoid choosing from a feature table or the lowest headline price alone.

  1. Start with a representative DevOps workflow, not a feature checklist. Define who will use it, what data goes in, and what outcome the team needs.
  2. Test the complete path through GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket: permissions, sync direction, failure handling, and volume limits often matter more than the integration name.
  3. Compare the cost of the real scenario, including users, usage, storage, support, and contract requirements. The entry price alone does not measure adoption cost.
  4. Before switching, list the evidence gaps, request a demo of the critical workflow, and confirm security, data residency, export, and support with each vendor.

Structured signals help narrow the shortlist, but a trial with a real workflow is still the best way to validate the decision.

Research basis

Last checked: 2026-08-05. Pricing, integrations, feature support, and review signals can change, so treat this as a research snapshot and verify the final decision with the vendor.

Sources consulted: Coolify product site, Product Hunt, Hacker News discussion; Spacelift product site, G2, PeerSpot