Install
One command on a fresh Linux host with Docker:
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/belune-hq/belune/refs/heads/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
Then follow the install runbook for DNS, TLS, the
systemd unit, and a first deploy. Full configuration reference:
docs/configuration.md.
Requirements: a Linux host with Docker and Docker Compose, ports 80 and 443
free, and a domain pointed at the server for automatic HTTPS.
What it does
- Deploy from git — push to deploy via webhooks, or trigger from CI with a
per-app deploy hook. Builds with Railpack,
Buildpacks, or your own Dockerfile.
- One-click apps — a catalog of templates (Uptime Kuma, Gitea, n8n, Ghost,
Metabase, Vaultwarden and more) that provision as native Belune objects, so
they get backups and upgrades like everything else.
- Managed databases — PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, or bring your own
image. Scheduled backups to S3-compatible storage, in-app restore, and
guarded major-version upgrades that roll back if they fail.
- Automatic HTTPS — Let's Encrypt via Caddy, custom certificate upload, and
a status pipeline that tells you why issuance failed instead of spinning.
- Volumes and file mounts — persistent storage with its own scheduled
snapshot backups and restore.
- Notifications — Discord, Telegram, Slack, ntfy, Gotify, generic webhook,
or email when a deploy or backup fails.
- Operations built in — per-container logs and metrics, a browser terminal,
audit log, per-user quotas, disk cleanup, and read-only Docker views.
Why Belune
Your databases are treated like they matter. Most self-hosted PaaS tools
treat a database as a container they happened to start. Belune gives them
scheduled backups to S3, restore you can run from the UI, and major-version
upgrades that dump, verify, migrate, and roll back if anything goes wrong — the
destructive paths are covered by round-trip tests against real Postgres, MySQL,
and MongoDB containers, not mocks.
You can always see what TLS is doing. Certificate issuance elsewhere is a
spinner that either resolves or doesn't. Belune probes what is actually being
served, parses the proxy's ACME errors, and shows you the real reason —
"hostname resolves to 203.0.113.7, expected 198.51.100.2" — with status per
domain and expiry warnings before they bite.
How it compares
| Belune | Coolify | Dokploy | CapRover |
|---|
| Runtime | Single Go binary + Docker | PHP / Laravel stack | Node + Docker Swarm | Node + Docker Swarm |
| One-click app templates | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Managed databases | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Guarded DB major-version upgrades | ✅ | — | — | — |
| Scheduled DB and volume backups to S3 | ✅ | Partial | Partial | — |
| Per-domain TLS status with failure reasons | ✅ | — | — | — |
| Multiple servers | ❌ (planned) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Docker Compose apps | ❌ (planned) | ✅ | ✅ | Limited |
| Maturity / community | Brand new | Large | Growing | Established |
Belune is younger and smaller in scope than the alternatives — if you need to
manage a fleet of servers or import compose stacks today, one of them is the
better answer. Comparisons reflect publicly documented features and are
maintained in good faith; corrections are welcome as an issue.
Status
Belune is pre-1.0 alpha and under active development. It runs real
workloads, but the versioning contract is:
- Patch releases are always safe to apply.
- Minor releases may contain breaking changes until 1.0.
- Always take a backup before upgrading — Belune ships the tooling to do it.
Documentation
Contributing
Issues, documentation fixes, and new app templates are all welcome — adding a
template needs no Go or React. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the
development setup and the DCO sign-off every commit needs (git commit -s).
Security issues: please report them privately, never as a public
issue.
Licence
Apache License 2.0 — see NOTICE.
Everything an individual or homelab needs to run Belune is free and will remain
free. If a paid tier ever exists, it will target organisation-only needs such as
SAML/SCIM and compliance reporting — never the features you rely on today.
