Compare
Unrent vs Coolify
Coolify is an open-source control plane, self-hosted or as Coolify Cloud, that connects to your servers over SSH. Unrent is a hosted control plane whose agent connects out from your server, accepts only signed jobs and needs a passkey for destructive changes; it adds Postgres point-in-time recovery and restore drills, and has fewer integrations today.
In one minute
- Choose Coolify for breadth today: 360+ one-click services, Docker Compose, many Git providers, a web terminal, and a free self-hosted edition 972.
- Choose Unrent when the thing you are protecting is the data: no SSH keys held by the platform, passkey approvals checked on your server, point-in-time recovery for Postgres and restore drills with evidence.
Side by side
| Unrent | Coolify | |
|---|---|---|
| How the platform reaches your server | An agent on the server connects out; no SSH key or inbound port | The control plane stores SSH keys and connects over SSH 1 |
| What it can run on your server | Only signed job kinds with fixed schemas; no remote shell | Commands over SSH; a web terminal 7 |
| Destructive changes | Passkey approval, verified by the agent on your server | Coolify accounts and API token permissions 15 |
| Changes asked for by AI agents (MCP) | Every change waits for a person’s passkey | Destructive MCP actions need a confirm: true argument and a token allowed to make them 56 |
| Secrets | Sealed in your browser to your servers; Unrent cannot read them | Encrypted before they are stored in Coolify’s database 1 |
| Postgres point-in-time recovery | Yes, with WAL-G to an off-site bucket | No: scheduled dumps 3 |
| Restore testing | Restore drills with row checks and measured data loss (scheduled drills: planned) | Your responsibility 13 |
| Databases | Postgres 17/18, MySQL 8.4, Valkey 9.1 (MariaDB planned) | PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, ClickHouse and more 7 |
| Git providers | GitHub (GitLab, Bitbucket, any Git URL planned) | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea and others 7 |
| Docker Compose, one-click services | Planned | Yes, 360+ services 9 |
| Pull request previews | Planned | Yes 7 |
| Cloud server creation | Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Akamai (Linode), Scaleway, UpCloud (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, OVHcloud planned) | Hetzner and others 8 |
| Where the control plane runs | Hosted by Unrent only | Self-hosted (needs 2 cores, 2 GB RAM, 10 GB disk) or Coolify Cloud 42 |
| Licence | Hosted service; the agent is Apache-2.0 | Open source (Apache-2.0) 9 |
Price
What each platform charges, without the servers, which you pay your provider for in both cases.
| Servers | Unrent | Coolify Cloud | Coolify self-hosted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $0.00 | $5.00 | $0 + a server to run it on |
| 3 | $4.00 | $8.00 | $0 + a server to run it on |
| 10 | $18.00 | $29.00 | $0 + a server to run it on |
| 50 | $98.00 | $149.00 | $0 + a server to run it on |
The first server is free, then $2 per server per month, with nothing gated. Coolify Cloud: $5 a month including 2 servers, then $3 per server 2; annual billing is 20% less. Monthly list prices on 13 November 2026.
When Coolify is the better choice
- You want to host the control plane yourself, for free, with the source in hand.
- You need Docker Compose, one-click services, preview deployments or a Git provider other than GitHub today.
- You are comfortable owning backups and restore tests yourself.
Sources
- Coolify docs: Security model coolify.io
- Coolify pricing coolify.io
- Self-host PostgreSQL with automated backups (Coolify) coolify.io
- Coolify docs: Installation coolify.io
- Coolify docs: What is MCP? coolify.io
- Coolify source: app/Mcp/Tools/RestActionTool.php github.com
- coolify.io home page coolify.io
- Coolify docs: Hetzner server API coolify.io
- Coolify llms.txt (product summary) coolify.io
Checked on 13 November 2026 against each project’s own website, documentation and source. Products change quickly, so the sources are the reference: where they differ from this page, they win.
Questions
Is Unrent a Coolify alternative?
Yes, for teams that want a hosted control plane with no SSH access to their servers, passkey approvals and Postgres point-in-time recovery. Coolify offers more integrations and a self-hosted edition.
Does Coolify support Postgres point-in-time recovery?
Coolify’s own page says no: its scheduled backups are dumps, so you restore to the time a dump ran.
Can I self-host Unrent?
Not the control plane: Unrent is a hosted service. Your apps, databases and backups run on your servers and keep running if Unrent is down.
Your servers, your keys. Start with one free server.
The first server is free, then $2 per server per month, with nothing gated.