ForgePod is a lightweight, self-hosted Platform-as-a-Service powered by Podman. Deploy containerized apps across a multi-node cluster with a single command. No Docker daemon. No vendor lock-in. No complexity.
From zero to production with just a few commands
curl -sSL forgepod.dev/install.sh | sudo bash
One command installs everything: Go, PostgreSQL, Redis, Podman, Traefik, and ForgePod itself.
forgepodctl deploy myapp nginx --replicas 3
Deploy any container image with automatic load balancing and routing across your cluster.
forgepodctl scale myapp 10
Scale up or down instantly. The scheduler places containers on the least-loaded nodes.
Built for developers who want simplicity without sacrificing power
Deploy apps with a single CLI command or API call. Automatic image pulling, container creation, and Traefik routing.
Scale across multiple worker nodes. The scheduler places containers on the least-loaded node automatically.
Built on Podman v5 — daemonless, rootless container engine. No Docker daemon required.
Traefik reverse proxy with automatic subdomain routing and Let's Encrypt SSL certificates.
Full REST API for automation. Powerful forgepodctl CLI for all operations from your terminal.
API key authentication, request ID tracing, Podman API is localhost-only. No ports exposed publicly.
Structured JSON logging via Zap. Prometheus metrics collection with Grafana dashboards.
Written in Go. Compile to a single binary — deploy with scp. No runtime dependencies.
View logs from all container replicas in one stream. Concurrent fetching from multiple nodes.
Control Plane + Worker architecture — inspired by Kubernetes, dramatically simpler
The only self-hosted PaaS built natively on Podman
| Feature | ForgePod | Coolify | Dokploy | Dokku | CapRover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Container Runtime | Podman v5 | Docker | Docker | Docker | Docker |
| Daemonless | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Multi-Node | ✓ Built-in | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| REST API | ✓ Full API | ✓ | ✓ | ~ CLI | ~ |
| CLI Tool | ✓ forgepodctl | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ~ |
| Auto SSL | ✓ Traefik | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Single Binary | ✓ Go | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Web UI | ✗ CLI/API | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Learning Curve | Easy | Easy | Easy | Moderate | Moderate |
Get ForgePod running on your server in under 5 minutes.
Free & open source · No credit card required · Self-hosted on your infrastructure