# dokku vs swiftwave

> 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 | swiftwave |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77/100 ✓ | 49/100 |
| Rank in category | #3 of 14 in Platform as a Service | #23 of 44 in Container Management |
| GitHub stars | 32 205 ✓ | 908 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +51 | — |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 23 ✓ | 2 |
| Latest release | v0.38.32 · 25 Oct 2026 ✓ | 2.23.1-1 · 2 Aug 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate ✓ | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | No |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Go | Go |

## Which one should you pick?

dokku scores 77/100 against 49/100 for swiftwave, so it is the safer default.

dokku ships more often: 23 stable releases in the past year, against 2 for swiftwave.

dokku is growing faster right now (+51 stars in 30 days).

## Details

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

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