From git push to a running version on your VPS
Zero-downtime deploys, rollback and logs. We run the panel, production stays with you.
A new version gets requests only after the readiness check (health check). If the build or the check fails, the previous version keeps running.
Free: 1 server, 1 project, 1 domain. You pay your hosting provider for the server.
Verifiable
Do not take our word for it. You will run these commands on your own server after installing the agent, and you can try them here first.
admin@prod-1:~$
Pick a check or type a command in the terminal.
The output is a sample: addresses, PIDs and the checksum on your server will differ.
State of the panel, the hub and agents: status.nolay.ru
How people deploy today and what it costs them
SSH and Compose manually
Every release means logging in, building, restarting and handling certificates. Rollback is manual too.
Your own panel on the server
Coolify or Dokploy run on your machine. Updating, backing up and fixing the panel itself is also on you.
Someone else's PaaS
Applications run on the provider's servers. You cannot pick the host and there is one bill for everything.
Nolay splits the roles: we keep the panel running, your applications run on your VPS.
What the agent does
The run window shows the steps and the log of a command the same way the panel does. If the build or the readiness check fails, the new version is not applied and the old one keeps running: the log shows the reason.
- Command queued
- Agent accepted the command
- Build
- Starting the new version
- Done
- from command to a running version, build without cache
- repeat deploy: dependency layers from cache
- Next.js standalone image on the server
- proxy errors while switching versions
What is inside
Deploy
Builds from Git or a Dockerfile on your server, or runs a ready image. If the build or the readiness check fails, the new version is not applied and the old one keeps running.
Node and Express: 29 s from command to a running version
Zero-downtime deploy
The new version starts next to the old one. Traffic switches only after a successful readiness check (health check).
4075 requests while switching versions, 0 errors
Rollback
Roll back to any previous version from history. The image is already on the server, nothing is rebuilt.
Usually 10 to 26 s to a running version
Logs
Build log and container output in the panel, build lines arrive as the build runs.
Checked on a clean VPS on 21 September 2026
Domains and TLS
A domain per project. The agent issues and renews a Let's Encrypt certificate via HTTP-01.
HTTPS 200 on a domain and a subdomain with its own certificate
Backups
Volumes and database dumps to your S3 storage on a schedule.
Restore of 210 MB in 20 s, checksum matched
Alerts
An email when a server goes offline, a deploy fails or a project stops working. Repeats of one alert are merged.
Offline email after 2 minutes without contact with the agent
Services
Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis and Valkey next to your project. The project receives the connection string as a secret.
The service port is never published outside
Tunnels
A server at home or behind NAT, without a public IP. The agent keeps an outbound tunnel, the project opens at an address from Nolay.
No public IP and no open ports on the server
How Nolay differs
The main difference is who fixes the panel when it breaks.
| Criterion | NolayPanel hosted by us, agent on your VPS | Panel on your own serverCoolify, Dokploy | PaaS on provider serversAmvera, Timeweb Apps, Dockhost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who fixes the panel during an outage | We do. Applications keep running, deploy and rollback wait for the panel | You do | The provider, together with the application |
| Where the application runs | On your server | On your server | On provider servers |
| Who updates the panel | We do, the panel is hosted by us | You: installation, updates, panel backups | The provider |
| Choice of hosting provider | Any, only the agent is installed on the server | Any | Only the provider itself |
| Payment | Server to the host, panel to us. Free costs nothing | Server to the host, panel by its own model | One invoice to the provider for everything |
Nolay
Panel hosted by us, agent on your VPS
- Who fixes the panel during an outage
- We do. Applications keep running, deploy and rollback wait for the panel
- Where the application runs
- On your server
- Who updates the panel
- We do, the panel is hosted by us
- Choice of hosting provider
- Any, only the agent is installed on the server
- Payment
- Server to the host, panel to us. Free costs nothing
Panel on your own server
Coolify, Dokploy
- Who fixes the panel during an outage
- You do
- Where the application runs
- On your server
- Who updates the panel
- You: installation, updates, panel backups
- Choice of hosting provider
- Any
- Payment
- Server to the host, panel by its own model
PaaS on provider servers
Amvera, Timeweb Apps, Dockhost
- Who fixes the panel during an outage
- The provider, together with the application
- Where the application runs
- On provider servers
- Who updates the panel
- The provider
- Choice of hosting provider
- Only the provider itself
- Payment
- One invoice to the provider for everything
We compare working models, not product quality. Data from public pages as of September 22, 2026; features as stated by vendors.
Security and data
The agent opens an outbound WebSocket (WSS) connection to the agent gateway (hub) itself and opens no inbound ports. It runs only allowlisted operations, never arbitrary commands.
- Code and images
- Volumes and databases
- Secret values
- Version history
- Account and organization
- Inbound ports
- Code and images
- Volumes and databases
- Secret values
- Version history
- Account and organization
- Inbound ports
Pick a node to see what is stored where.
Eight templates, no Dockerfile needed
All eight templates are tested on a VPS with 1 vCPU and 1 GB. Build time and image size are in the stack table.
- How the agent recognises the stack
- package.json with the next dependency
- Run
- node server.js from .next/standalone, port 3000, user node
- Build, cold and repeat
- 127 and 104 s
- Image
- 308 MB
Measured on a VPS with 1 vCPU and 955 MB on 22 September 2026.
FROM node:22-alpine AS build ENV NEXT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1 RUN npm ci --no-audit --no-fund RUN npm run build FROM node:22-alpine COPY --from=build /app/.next/standalone ./ USER node CMD ["sh","-c","exec node server.js"]
Developer questions
If the build or the readiness check (health check) fails, the new version is not applied and the previous one keeps running and accepting requests. The run window shows the log and the reason, and you can deploy the fixed code again.
Containers keep running, and so do monitoring and automatic restart. Deploy and rollback are temporarily unavailable. A break of minutes, hours or days does not affect running projects.
The agent performs only operations from the allowlist and does not run as root. We store the account, the organization, project settings, deploy history, the audit log and metrics. We do not have your code, secret values, images or backups.
Three conditions: the project runs locally, you know how to start it, and its stack is in the table of tested stacks. If the stack is not there, your own Dockerfile works too.
Projects managed by Nolay are stopped. The server, volumes, images and data stay with you. From then on you run and maintain them yourself, Nolay has no automatic migration tool.
You fix errors in your code, the hosting provider fixes server problems, and we fix failures of the panel and the agent. The status page status.nolay.ru shows where a failure is right now.
