# 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.

URL: https://unrent.dev/compare/coolify/

## 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 [9][7][2].
- **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 and Coolify compared, 13 November 2026

|  | 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 [1][5] |
| 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 [5][6] |
| 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 [1][3] |
| 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 [4][2] |
| 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.

Platform fee per month, list prices

| 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

1. [Coolify docs: Security model](https://coolify.io/docs/core/security-model)
2. [Coolify pricing](https://coolify.io/pricing)
3. [Self-host PostgreSQL with automated backups (Coolify)](https://coolify.io/self-host-postgres-with-backups)
4. [Coolify docs: Installation](https://coolify.io/docs/get-started/installation)
5. [Coolify docs: What is MCP?](https://coolify.io/docs/mcp/what-is-mcp)
6. [Coolify source: app/Mcp/Tools/RestActionTool.php](https://github.com/coollabsio/coolify/blob/main/app/Mcp/Tools/RestActionTool.php)
7. [coolify.io home page](https://coolify.io/)
8. [Coolify docs: Hetzner server API](https://coolify.io/docs/api/endpoints/hetzner/create-hetzner-server)
9. [Coolify llms.txt (product summary)](https://coolify.io/llms.txt)

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.