Deploying Ruby on Rails with Dokku (Redis, Sidekiq, ARM servers and Docker)

Deploying a Rails app with Dokku was genuinely one of the best things I’ve done. Why? Well, it’s not because I got to learn about SSL certificates and network proxies (although there was some of that!).

And it’s not because of how much fun I had tinkering around with my setup, configuring S3 backups, GitHub actions and post-deploy scripts (although there was a lot of that!).

The reason I’m so glad I tried Dokku? It showed me the world of hosting beyond major cloud providers (AWS, render.com, fly.io, heroku.com, etc).

Paying $50+/month in server costs for a fledgling side-project might seem reasonable… until you see the Hetzner pricing page and realise you can rent a beast of a VPS for €4.17/month!

Dokku was the gateway that led me to use Hetzner + Hatchbox for hosting RailsNotes UI. Without tinkering with Dokku, I would never have known that was even an option!

Plus…. tinkering with Dokku is heaps of fun 😎 

This article is worth checking out if you’ve got a side project you’re looking to launch, or just have an afternoon free and are looking to hack away on something!

→ 🐐 Rails hosting made simple (hatchbox.io)

I promise, this newsletter isn’t sponsored by Hatchbox* 😅 I just love it. Hatchbox is basically Dokku++ — you bring the server, and for $10/mo they handle the config, backups, deployments etc. (I rent a VPS from Hetzner for, you guessed it, € 4.17/mo).

I went with Hatchbox for RailsNotes UI (instead of raw Dokku) because I wanted more support and stability (with Dokku, you’re on you’re own 🙉). And being able to bring my own server instantly catapulted them over hosts like Render, Heroku etc.

Even if you never plan to use them, I think it’s worth skimming through their website, just to learn about what’s out there.

*(the links are affiliate links though, so spend big!)

→ 🚢 Rails on Docker (fly.io)

Rails 7.1 is getting an official Dockerfile. You can get it now though with the dockerfile-rails gem! Even though I don’t use Fly for hosting, I respect the work they’ve been putting into the Rails ecosystem. If you want to deploy your Rails app with Docker, you can grab their gem and use it now!

I used the dockerfile-rails gem in my Dokku article to help deploy Rails to ARM servers, and it was super handy! It even includes handy flags for YJIT and jemalloc too, for the extra performance boost.

→ 🟢 You should check out Render (nickhammond.com)

Sometimes, a typical, large-scale cloud host is the right choice. Maybe you’re running a large-scale app with specific requirements, or you don’t even want to think about devops. In that case, I think Render is a great choice, and Nick has a great intro article.

I’ve used Render to deploy apps in the past, and it’s been pretty great! Very much the new-age Heroku that I was looking for. If you’ve only ever used Heroku to deploy Rails apps, check Render out.

# Pre-deployment checks you can run locally
# Takes 20s. Save hours of headaches 😅

# Check Zeitwerk eager loading
#
rails zeitwerk:check

# Run your local server in production mode for sanity
#
RAILS_ENV=production bin/dev