What is Better-PaaS?

The one-sentence version

Better-PaaS takes your code from a Git repository and turns it into a live website or API on your own server — automatically, with HTTPS, in one click.

If you've ever used Heroku, Vercel, or Railway, this is the same idea, except you run it on your machine. No monthly cloud bill, no vendor lock-in, no limits except your server's size.

What problem does it solve?

Normally, putting an app online yourself means juggling a lot of moving parts:

• Renting a server and logging in over SSH
• Installing the right language runtime, dependencies, and build tools
• Wiring up a web server and a database
• Getting an SSL certificate so the site is https:// and not http://
• Repeating all of it, carefully, every time you change your code

Better-PaaS does all of that for you. You connect a Git repo once, and from then on every git push ships a new version of your app — built, started, and served behind HTTPS without you touching the server.

How it works (the 30-second tour)

flowchart LR
  A[Your Git repo] -->|push / one click| B[Better-PaaS control plane]
  B -->|builds with Nixpacks| C[Docker container]
  C -->|routed by Caddy + HTTPS| D[Your live app]

1. You connect a Git repository through the dashboard.
2. Nixpacks inspects your code and figures out how to build it — no Dockerfile required for most apps.
3. The build runs inside a Docker container, isolated from everything else.
4. Caddy (a web server) routes web traffic to your container and automatically fetches an HTTPS certificate.
5. Your app is live. Push again and it redeploys with zero downtime.

You drive all of this from a clean Next.js dashboard — no command line needed after the initial install.

What's under the hood?

Better-PaaS is two programs working together:

It leans on battle-tested open-source tools — Docker, Nixpacks, and Caddy — rather than reinventing them.

Is it for me?

Better-PaaS is a great fit if you want to:

• Host side projects, hobby apps, or internal tools cheaply on a single VPS.
• Stop paying per-seat or per-app fees to a cloud platform.
• Keep full control of your data and infrastructure.

It's not trying to be a multi-region, auto-scaling cloud. It's designed to make one server do a lot, simply.

What can it do?

Beyond deploying from Git, Better-PaaS bundles the things a small server actually needs:

• One-click app catalog plus custom Docker image and Dockerfile deploys — App Catalog.
• Managed databases (Postgres, Redis, MySQL) with a built-in explorer.
• Custom domains with automatic HTTPS, optionally via Cloudflare DNS.
• Auto-deploy on git push, scheduled jobs, backups, and deploy notifications.
• Privacy-friendly web analytics for your sites — Web Analytics.
• Live logs, an in-container shell, and a host server terminal — all in the browser.

Where to go next

Glossary

A quick reference for the terms used throughout these docs.