Cloudron: A platform for self-hosting web apps
Cloudron is a platform that makes it easy to self-host web apps like WordPress, Rocket.Chat, Mattermost, GitLab, Rainloop, NodeBB and ownCloud.
Today, many individuals and small businesses are self-hosting these apps for various reasons including data control, ownership, pricing and customization. However, self-hosting is an onerous task and they often end up compromising with SaaS products.
Self-hosting
Let's run through some of the problems that self-hosters face and how the Cloudron solves them.
Installing and configuring apps is tedious. The Cloudron solves this by letting app developers publish apps to the Cloudron Store.
Most apps require database and email setup. The Cloudron platform automatically provisions those.
Apps need to be periodically backed up. The Cloudron backs up each app individually. This allows them to be restored independently.
Apps need to be updated. App updates are delivered via the Cloudron Store.
Domains have to be configured and SSL certificates needs to be installed and updated periodically. The platform will configure the DNS and install SSL certificates using Let's Encrypt.
Each app comes with it's own user management. Apps on the Cloudron integrate with Cloudron SSO and this allows one to use the same credential across all apps. You can easily add/remove users in the Cloudron admin page and grant access to them for specific apps.
The Cloudron also handles alerts, migration to another server (preserving your apps and data) and comes with a secure firewall. It also has a complete REST API.
A note about other existing 1-click solutions. These solutions install a single app and have no proper update, backup strategy. Also as you can tell, the Cloudron goes well and beyond app installation. It's goal is to bring server maintenance for self-hosters to zero.
Get Cloudron
The Cloudron platform is open source (under AGPL) and is available here.
There is a live demo (username: cloudron password: cloudron).
To get the Cloudron platform on AWS, you can read up more at our selfhosting page.
If you are an app developer, the packaging tutorial should get you started (hint: if you know docker and heroku, you are almost there).
If you are a VPS provider and would like to see the Cloudron integrated into your offering, please write to us.