Self-hosted PaaS on Docker
Anyport vs CapRover
CapRover is the lightest thing in this comparison and it is honest about what it is: Docker Swarm and nginx, free forever, Apache-2.0, installable on a small VPS in minutes.
If that description fits your problem then it is a better answer than Anyport, which needs a Kubernetes cluster before it does anything at all.
What both of them do
This much is common ground, so the table below is only about where they differ.
- Deploy from a Git repository or a Dockerfile.
- Automatic HTTPS on your own domains.
- A one-click catalogue of common services.
- Your workloads run on hardware you own and pay for directly.
Where they differ
The short answer first, and the detail underneath it where the short answer would otherwise mislead.
| CapRover | Anyport | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | CapRover A self-hosted PaaS You install it on one server. | Anyport A hosted control plane For Kubernetes clusters you already run. |
| Runtime | CapRover Docker Swarm With nginx in front. | Anyport Kubernetes Anyport can install k3s on a bare machine if you do not have a cluster. |
| Where the control plane runs | CapRover On your server | Anyport Hosted by us There is nothing for you to install, upgrade or back up. |
| How it reaches your infrastructure | CapRover It runs on the infrastructure | Anyport Your cluster connects out The agent dials us and holds one connection open. |
| What your infrastructure must expose | CapRover A domain pointed at the server Plus the ports nginx serves on. | Anyport Nothing No inbound port, no public IP, no reachable API server. |
| Who provisions the machines | CapRover You do | Anyport You do By design. We sell no compute, so there is none to mark up. |
| Price | CapRover Free forever Apache-2.0, with no feature gates. | Anyport Free today Up to 10 private and 20 public clusters. Compute is never metered. |
| Compliance | CapRover None claimed | Anyport Not certified yet Controls are published in full on the security page instead. |
What CapRover is
Taken from their own documentation, read on 4 September 2026.
CapRover describes itself as powered by Docker and nginx, using Docker Swarm for orchestration, installed on a server you own.
It is Apache-2.0 and free forever, with a one-click app catalogue and no paid tier gating features.
Development moves more slowly than the newer products in this tier, which is a fair trade if you value a stable target over a moving one.
Choose CapRover if
- One server, a handful of apps, and a preference for the smallest thing that works.
- You want it free under a permissive licence with no account and no vendor.
- You would rather run a mature, slow-moving project than a fast-moving one.
Choose Anyport if
- You are already on Kubernetes and adding Swarm beside it would mean operating two orchestrators.
- Your clusters cannot accept inbound traffic, so a server with a public domain pointed at it is not available to you.
- You want managed databases, scheduled backups, previews per pull request and cron tasks without assembling them.
- More than one cluster, and one place to see all of them.
Questions
- Does CapRover support Kubernetes?
- No. CapRover's orchestration is Docker Swarm.
- What does Anyport require of a cluster?
- A Kubernetes cluster you can run one command against, or a bare Linux machine where Anyport installs k3s first. No inbound port, no public IP, no load balancer that can obtain one, and no kubeconfig handed to us. The agent opens a connection outward and holds it open.
- What does Anyport cost?
- Every feature is free today, for everyone on your team, on up to 10 private clusters and 20 public ones. Compute is never metered because it is not ours. The one counted resource is traffic our gateway carries for clusters with no public address of their own, with an allowance of 10 GiB a month.
- Is Anyport audited or certified?
- Not yet. In place of a report, the security page documents what the agent runs with inside your cluster, what crosses the boundary and how secrets are stored, so a reviewer can evaluate the controls directly. Two of them hold regardless of certification: we never receive credentials for your Kubernetes API, and your workloads keep serving whether or not our control plane is reachable.
Sources
Read on 4 September 2026. If one of these pages now says something different, the source is right and this page is stale.
If Anyport is the one you want
Connecting a cluster is one command and takes a few minutes. Everything is free today, and the pricing page lists the limits that are actually enforced rather than the ones a plan would imply.