# dokku vs Senate

> Two self-hosted [Heroku alternatives](https://selfhost.directory/alternative-to/heroku), compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | dokku | Senate |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78/100 ✓ | 29/100 |
| Rank in category | #3 of 14 in Platform as a Service | #20 of 20 in Application Management |
| GitHub stars | 32 206 ✓ | 20 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +52 ✓ | +0 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 23 ✓ | 10 |
| Latest release | v0.38.32 · 25 Oct 2026 ✓ | v0.3.2 · 21 Jan 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Easy ✓ |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes ✓ |
| License | MIT | — |
| Main language | Go | — |

## Which one should you pick?

dokku scores 78/100 against 29/100 for Senate, so it is the safer default.

dokku ships more often: 23 stable releases in the past year, against 10 for Senate.

If you want the quickest setup, Senate is easier to run; dokku needs more configuration.

dokku is growing faster right now (+52 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [dokku](https://selfhost.directory/project/dokku) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/dokku.md)
- [Senate](https://selfhost.directory/project/senate) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/senate.md)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/dokku-vs-senate