Author
Founder and Lead Engineer, Shipown
Vishvajeet Shukla builds Shipown, the desktop app for deploying and running web apps on servers you own. He writes about deploying Node.js, Next.js and Docker apps to a VPS, running Linux servers over SSH, and using AI to operate them without handing over the keys.
Six tools that deploy web apps to a server you rent instead of to Vercel, ordered from full web panels to tools that install nothing of their own, with what each puts on your server, what it costs and where it falls short.
An AI model can read your server's logs, explain the error and propose the fix faster than you can search for it. Whether that is safe depends on who decides what runs.
A complete walkthrough on Ubuntu 24.04, from installing Docker Engine to a live HTTPS URL, including the published-port mistake that exposes containers even when UFW says the port is closed.
A complete walkthrough for running Next.js on your own Ubuntu server with PM2, Nginx and free HTTPS, including the memory and build-time variable problems that break first deploys.
Run an Express, Fastify or NestJS app on your own Ubuntu server the way production needs it: bound to localhost, supervised by PM2, behind Nginx with HTTPS, and reloadable without dropping requests.
Deploy every release into its own directory, go live by switching a symlink, and rolling back becomes one command that takes seconds instead of a rebuild under pressure.
PM2 keeps Node.js apps running on a Linux server: it restarts them when they crash, keeps their logs, and starts them again after a reboot. Here is what it does, the commands you will actually use, and where it goes wrong.
CapRover is a free, self-hosted PaaS whose dashboard and Docker Swarm stack live on your server. Shipown is a desktop app that deploys over SSH with nothing of its own on the server, and runs Node apps without Docker when you prefer.
Coolify runs a panel on a server and deploys apps as Docker containers. Shipown is a desktop app that deploys over SSH, installs nothing of its own on the server, and runs Node apps under PM2 when you would rather not containerize them.
CtrlOps and Shipown are close relatives: both are local-first desktop apps that manage Linux servers over plain SSH, install no agent, and include an AI terminal. CtrlOps leans toward server administration; Shipown leans toward deployment.
Dokploy is a self-hosted panel that sets up Docker Swarm and Traefik on your server and runs your apps as containers. Shipown is a desktop app that deploys over SSH, runs Node apps under PM2 and static sites from Nginx, and handles Dockerfile and Compose apps when you want containers.
Vercel runs your app on its own infrastructure and bills per seat plus usage. Shipown deploys the same kind of app to a Linux server you rent, over SSH, and leaves the upkeep of that server with you.
