Deploy Coolify on a $6 VPS in 15 minutes, timed step by step

Description and use

Coolify runs on a $6 VPS with 1 vCPU and 1 GB RAM when a 2 GB swap file is added; install takes 172 s and first app deploys in 210 s.

Problem

Can a $6 DigitalOcean droplet with 1 vCPU and 1 GB RAM run Coolify, a self‑hosted Heroku alternative, for small team side projects?

Outcome

Coolify runs on a $6 droplet if a 2 GB swap file is added; installation takes 172 s, first app deploys in 210 s, memory peak 720 MB plus 669 MB swap.

Workflow

• Create a $6 DigitalOcean droplet with Ubuntu 24.04
• Add a 2 GB swap file
• Run the official Coolify installer script
• Create root account and complete onboarding wizard
• Deploy a public Git repository app

Evidence

Short answer: Yes, Coolify runs on DigitalOcean's $6 droplet (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) if you add a 2 GB swap file first.

Source

The install script took 172 seconds, the first app was answering HTTP requests 210 seconds after clicking Deploy

Source

Without swap the install still completes, but the first docker build of a real app pushes demand past 1 GB and the kernel kills a container. With swap the build gets slow instead of dying; we measured the peak below (669 MB of swap in use during the build).

Source