Coolify vs Cloudflare Pages for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Coolify Overview

Coolify transforms a VPS into your own deployment platform. Install it on a cheap server, and you get a web dashboard for deploying applications, databases, and services. It handles Docker builds, SSL certificates, reverse proxying with Traefik, and environment variables. Push to Git, Coolify deploys. Need PostgreSQL or Redis? Deploy them with a click.

The self-hosted model means you pay only for the underlying VPS (often under $5/month) and get unlimited applications, databases, and services. No per-project pricing, no bandwidth charges, no build minute limits. Running five apps with three databases on a single server costs the same as running one.

Coolify supports every tech stack that runs in Docker: Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, Rust, PHP, and everything else. It's language-agnostic and framework-agnostic. If you can Dockerize it, Coolify can deploy it.

Cloudflare Pages Overview

Cloudflare Pages is a deployment platform that serves your website from Cloudflare's network of 300+ data centers worldwide. Connect your GitHub or GitLab repo, and every push deploys your site globally in seconds. Static sites get unlimited bandwidth on the free tier. No catches, no throttling.

Pages also supports server-side functionality through Cloudflare Workers (Pages Functions). Frameworks like Next.js, Astro, SvelteKit, and Nuxt can run on the edge. This gives you dynamic capabilities, API routes, and server-side rendering without managing a server.

The developer experience is smooth. Automatic preview deployments for every pull request, custom domains, and instant rollbacks. The free tier includes 500 builds per month and unlimited bandwidth, which covers virtually any solo developer project.

Key Differences

What they can run. Coolify runs full-stack applications with databases, background workers, and persistent processes. Cloudflare Pages runs static sites and JavaScript edge functions. Need a PostgreSQL database? Coolify deploys one. Need Redis for caching? Coolify handles it. Cloudflare Pages can't run databases or background workers. It serves frontend code and executes short-lived edge functions.

Infrastructure ownership. Coolify runs on your server. You own the data, control the hardware, and can SSH in to debug. Cloudflare Pages is fully managed. You can't access the underlying infrastructure. This is a trade-off: control vs convenience.

Global performance. Cloudflare Pages serves content from 300+ locations worldwide. Your users get sub-50ms responses regardless of location. Coolify serves from one server in one location. For static content, Cloudflare Pages is dramatically faster for global audiences.

Build and deployment. Both support Git-connected automatic deployments. Cloudflare Pages has a 500 build/month limit on the free tier. Coolify has no build limits since builds happen on your own hardware. For active projects with frequent deploys, Coolify's lack of limits matters.

Preview deployments. Cloudflare Pages creates a unique preview URL for every pull request automatically. It's seamless and built-in. Coolify supports preview deployments but the setup requires more configuration. Cloudflare's implementation is more polished.

Cost structure. Coolify on a EUR 3.79/month Hetzner VPS runs unlimited everything. Cloudflare Pages free tier is genuinely free with generous limits. At the free tier, Cloudflare Pages wins. When you need databases and backend services, Coolify's all-in-one server approach becomes cheaper than assembling separate managed services alongside Cloudflare Pages.

When to Choose Coolify

• You need server-side databases, caches, and background processing
• You're running a full-stack application (Django, Rails, Laravel, Express)
• You want all services on one server you control
• You need to self-host tools like analytics, monitoring, or internal apps
• You want unlimited builds and deployments without caps

When to Choose Cloudflare Pages

• You're building a static site, blog, landing page, or documentation site
• You're using a JAMstack framework (Astro, Next.js, SvelteKit, Nuxt)
• Global CDN performance with zero configuration matters to you
• You want automatic preview URLs for pull requests
• You want genuinely free hosting with unlimited bandwidth

The Verdict

Cloudflare Pages is the better choice for frontend-focused projects: static sites, blogs, marketing pages, and JAMstack applications. The free global CDN, automatic deployments, and unlimited bandwidth make it the default choice for anything that doesn't need a server-side database.

Coolify is the better choice for full-stack applications that need databases, background workers, and multiple services running together. It's more capable but requires managing a server.

The combination play works well here too. Use Cloudflare Pages for your frontend and marketing site (free, global CDN). Use Coolify on a cheap VPS for your API, database, and backend services. Your frontend is blazing fast worldwide, your backend runs affordably, and your total cost stays under $5/month.

Both platforms are excellent for solo developers. The choice comes down to what you're building, not which platform is "better." Frontend-only projects belong on Cloudflare Pages. Full-stack projects need Coolify (or something like it). And many projects benefit from both.