Comparison

vs

Taxiway vs Dokploy

Same instinct: a nicer Docker deploy experience. Different bet on who runs the panel and which way the connection points.

Get started All comparisons

The short version

Written by the person who makes Taxiway, so read it with that in mind. I have tried to make the case against us as well as for us.

Dokploy is the newest of the self-hosted PaaS crowd and it moves fast. It is Apache-2.0 licensed, written in TypeScript, and built on Docker Swarm, which gives it real multi-node scheduling out of the box, something Taxiway does not have yet.

The shape is familiar though: you install Dokploy on a server, that server becomes your panel, and it manages other servers by SSHing into them. So you own an always-on Node application, its Postgres and Redis, and the job of upgrading it, plus an SSH surface on every host it touches.

Taxiway makes the opposite trade. The panel is ours to run and free to use, because none of your traffic or data passes through it. Your server runs one Go binary that opens a single outbound WebSocket. If you want the panel to be yours, Dokploy is the better answer. If you want no panel at all, this is.

At a glance

Control plane runs

Taxiway

On our infrastructure

Dokploy

On a server you provide and maintain

Written in

Taxiway

Go, one static binary

Dokploy

TypeScript / Node, on Docker Swarm

Reaches your server via

Taxiway

Outbound WebSocket from the agent

Dokploy

Inbound SSH

Licence

Taxiway

Closed source, for now

Dokploy

Apache 2.0, fully open source

The difference is the arrow.

Both diagrams are drawn on the same grid. The thing worth staring at is which way the connection points, and how much of it you are responsible for keeping alive.

Taxiway
Our control plane Your VPS inbound: nothing Your browser or the iOS app Control plane API auth · state · views Gateway desired state · ingest Postgres your config, not your data outbound wss :443 Taxiway agent one Go binary · opens no port Traefik edge :80 and :443, the only ports you open docker web node api go postgres volume
Dokploy
Swarm manager (yours) Your app server inbound: ssh :22 Your browser web only Dokploy (Node) Postgres Redis you patch and back this up inbound ssh :22 sshd root or sudo key, always reachable Reverse proxy :80 and :443 docker web api postgres

Feature by feature

Including the rows we lose. A comparison table with no crosses in our own column would not be worth your time.

Free to use the full platform

Taxiway

Taxiway, Free to use the full platform: yes No tiers, no seat count

Dokploy

Dokploy, Free to use the full platform: yes Self-hosted free; their cloud is paid

No second server for the panel

Taxiway

Taxiway, No second server for the panel: yes

Dokploy

Dokploy, No second server for the panel: no The panel is a server you run

No inbound port opened on your server

Taxiway

Taxiway, No inbound port opened on your server: yes Agent dials out only

Dokploy

Dokploy, No inbound port opened on your server: no SSH must be reachable

Works behind NAT or a firewall with no public IP

Taxiway

Taxiway, Works behind NAT or a firewall with no public IP: yes

Dokploy

Dokploy, Works behind NAT or a firewall with no public IP: no

Push to deploy from GitHub

Taxiway

Taxiway, Push to deploy from GitHub: yes

Dokploy

Dokploy, Push to deploy from GitHub: yes

Multi-node scheduling across servers

Taxiway

Taxiway, Multi-node scheduling across servers: no One project runs on one server today

Dokploy

Dokploy, Multi-node scheduling across servers: yes Docker Swarm

One-click databases

Taxiway

Taxiway, One-click databases: yes

Dokploy

Dokploy, One-click databases: yes

Database backups straight to your own S3

Taxiway

Taxiway, Database backups straight to your own S3: yes Uploaded by the agent, host to bucket

Dokploy

Dokploy, Database backups straight to your own S3: yes

Per-service metrics history

Taxiway

Taxiway, Per-service metrics history: yes CPU, memory, network, disk, retained

Dokploy

Dokploy, Per-service metrics history: partly Live monitoring focus

Deploy a repo with no Dockerfile

Taxiway

Taxiway, Deploy a repo with no Dockerfile: partly Dockerfile required for most repos

Dokploy

Dokploy, Deploy a repo with no Dockerfile: yes Nixpacks

Docker Compose stacks

Taxiway

Taxiway, Docker Compose stacks: no Curated recipes and stacks instead

Dokploy

Dokploy, Docker Compose stacks: yes

Open source, forkable

Taxiway

Taxiway, Open source, forkable: no Closed source, for now

Dokploy

Dokploy, Open source, forkable: yes Apache 2.0

Cron jobs and scheduled tasks

Taxiway

Taxiway, Cron jobs and scheduled tasks: no Not built yet, on the roadmap

Dokploy

Dokploy, Cron jobs and scheduled tasks: yes

Native iOS and iPad app

Taxiway

Taxiway, Native iOS and iPad app: partly In development

Dokploy

Dokploy, Native iOS and iPad app: no

Checked September 2026. Products move, and Dokploy moves quickly. If something here is out of date or simply wrong, tell me and I will fix it .

Pick Dokploy if…

  • You need to spread one project across several machines. Dokploy inherits Swarm's scheduler; Taxiway pins a project to a server and has not built clustering yet.
  • You want open source with a permissive licence and an active repo you can send a PR to.
  • You already think in Docker Compose and want to bring those files with you.
  • You want the panel under your control, with no third-party dependency for a deploy to start.

Pick Taxiway if…

  • You have one server, or several independent ones, and Swarm is machinery you would rather not learn.
  • You want the smallest possible thing running on the host: a Go binary, not a Node app plus a database.
  • Inbound SSH is not an option in your environment.
  • You would rather someone else be responsible for keeping the control plane patched and online.

Other comparisons

Start deploying in minutes.

Point Taxiway at a server you own, connect your repo, and push. That's the whole setup, and it costs nothing.

Get started