Install Coolify and validate your first application deployment

Coolify can manage application deployments, but installing the platform does not automatically protect your application's data. Begin with a small test workload.

1. Prepare a server

This example uses clean Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and root access. The self-hosted guide lists two cores, 2 GB RAM and 10 GB free disk as a baseline. Builds and application workloads need additional resources.

Check for existing listeners before introducing another proxy:

bashsudo ss -lntp

A separate test machine avoids conflicting with an existing panel.

2. Install

bashsudo -i
apt update
apt install -y curl ca-certificates
curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh -o /root/coolify-install.sh
bash /root/coolify-install.sh

Open the printed URL, normally using port 8000, and immediately create your administrator. Do not leave initial registration exposed. The installation documentation describes the prepared environment.

3. Configure access

Use the firewall guide for your connection method. Direct dashboard access, live updates, SSH and web traffic have separate requirements. Verify provider firewall rules too; published Docker ports do not necessarily follow the UFW behavior you expect.

4. Add a test application

Create a project and test environment. Choose a simple Docker image or a small repository you control. Set the port the application actually listens on inside its container.

A service listening on 3000 should use 3000 as its proxy target. It must accept traffic on 0.0.0.0 inside the container rather than only localhost. Put secrets in runtime configuration, not variables embedded in client-side bundles.

5. Diagnose the correct layer

Deploy, read the build log, then inspect runtime logs:

bashcurl -I https://app.example.com

Build errors concern dependencies and commands. A 502 often concerns the running process, port or bind address. Data disappearing after redeployment points to missing persistent storage. These are different problems.

6. Plan rollback and recovery

Record the last working commit or image. Database migrations can make a simple application rollback insufficient. Back up application data separately from platform secrets, including /data/coolify/source/.env. See the Docker deployment guide and backup strategy.