Migrating from Kamal to Coolify

Today, I migrated two of my Django (Pegasus) apps from Kamal to Coolify, and I wanted to tell you how it went. If you’re considering a similar move, read on for a breakdown of what to expect and let me know if you have any questions!

Setting up Coolify Link to heading

The setup process was pretty smooth. I got a fresh VPS from Hetzner and followed this excellent guide from CJ@Syntax to get everything up and running.

Deployment Link to heading

I opted for a Docker Compose-based deployment, which seems to work well for deploying a monolithic Django app with Celery (+ Celery Beat).

Steps to Deploy an App with PostgreSQL and Redis Link to heading

Here’s how I deployed my app with PostgreSQL and Redis, including some gotchas I spent hours figuring out:

  1. Create a New Project: Start by creating a new “Project” in the Coolify UI.
  2. Add Resources:
    • Add a PostgreSQL resource. This can be done easily in the UI. Here’s the guide.
    • Do the same for Redis.
  3. Add Your App Resource:
    • Choose “Docker Compose” as the build option after linking your app repository.
    • Here’s an example docker-compose.yml file I made (add it to your repository beforehand):
    version: '3.8'

services:
  my_app_web:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile.web
    environment:
      PORT: ${PORT}
      DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE: my_app.settings_production
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
      DATABASE_URL: ${DATABASE_URL}
      REDIS_URL: ${REDIS_URL}
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "${PORT}:8000"

  celery:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile.web
    command: celery -A my_app worker -l INFO --concurrency 4
    environment:
      DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE: my_app.settings_production
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
      DATABASE_URL: ${DATABASE_URL}
      REDIS_URL: ${REDIS_URL}

  celery_beat:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile.web
    command: celery -A my_app beat -l INFO
    environment:
      DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE: my_app.settings_production
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
      DATABASE_URL: ${DATABASE_URL}
      REDIS_URL: ${REDIS_URL}
    restart: unless-stopped
  4. Environment Variables: Add all necessary environment variables in the resource settings. You can copy the connection URLs for PostgreSQL and Redis from the UI after creating those resources.
  5. Connect to Predefined Network: Enable this option for your app resource to connect it to the same Docker network as your PostgreSQL and Redis resources.
  6. Domain Setup: Assign a domain for your Django app, including your $PORT. For example, https://app.coolstuff.com:8000. N.B. Port 8000 is actually taken by Coolify itself.
  7. Deploy: Hit deploy and check the logs to see if everything worked 🤞

Pros and Cons (So Far) Link to heading

Pros Link to heading

  • Continuous Deployment: Push to deploy – I love it. Simply pushing your changes to GitHub to deploy is a much nicer experience than running commands and burning through your battery by building images with Kamal.
  • Notifications: Easy to set up Telegram/email notifications for deployment events.
  • Ease of Use: Deploying new apps is more straightforward compared to Kamal (IMO).
  • Active Development: Coolify is moving quickly and adding new features all the time. Its community seems pretty cool, too.
  • Cost-Effective: Running Coolify is much cheaper than using a commercial PaaS.

Cons Link to heading

  • Beta Version: The current major version of Coolify is still in beta so it has some rough edges.
  • Manual Setup: You can’t set up your entire stack with a single config file — you need to click around the UI quite a bit.
  • UI Performance: The UI can be a bit slow, especially on smaller instances. Hopefully, this is just a “beta thing,” and the backend gets optimized soon.
  • Port Conflicts: Port 8000 is reserved by Coolify itself. And since all the apps are running on the same host, different apps/resources can’t use the same port. This is only a minor annoyance, but still something to keep in mind.

That’s it for now! All in all, this was a fun experience, despite the fact that I hit a bug during installation and had to restart the process, and there were a few other hiccups* along the way.

*It would have probably been a smoother process had I been more patient and actually read the documentation but my nature is to jump in first and learn to swim later 😅