This week I spun up a fresh VPS and tried out Coolify for the first time and I’ve got to say, I’m impressed.
It all started with a simple goal: deploy an Astro site. I wanted something fast, minimal, and easy to manage. Coolify made it super straightforward. I connected my Git repo, pointed it to the main branch, picked the Astro template, and deployed. Done. It just worked.
Email Forms with Resend
Next up: email. I wired up Resend for the contact form, and it worked beautifully. No extra SMTP nonsense. Just clean, reliable delivery using their API.
This was the moment I started thinking, “Hmm... what else can I move here?”
Migrating a Laravel Site (with MySQL and Persistent Uploads)
Naturally, I decided to bring over one of my Laravel projects which is the site you’re reading right now.
Here’s what I needed:
- Laravel + PHP 8.3
- MySQL database
- Persistent storage for images
- A way to deploy updates easily
I expected pain. But honestly, most of it went smoothly.
The Laravel app uses MySQL for blog posts and uploads images through the Filament admin panel. I configured Coolify to use persistent storage volumes, mapped storage/app/public to the volume, and added a volume for the mysql container too. It took a bit of fiddling, but I got it working.
Learning Curve: Nixpacks + Persistent Volumes
The trickiest part was understanding Nixpacks and how persistent volumes interact with container rebuilds. At one point, uploads disappeared because the volume wasn’t mounted correctly during a redeploy. But once I understood that volume mounting happens outside the container lifecycle, it all made sense.
I pinned down a good nixpacks.toml config, ensured .env was set up correctly, and added proper storage:link handling to my deployment steps. Now it's rock solid.
What's Next?
Now that I’ve figured out the Coolify flow, deploying Astro, Laravel, and persistent services all in one place, I’m moving more projects over.
I love that it’s open source, works like Heroku or Vercel, and gives me just enough control without feeling overwhelming. It’s a great fit for the kinds of apps I build like mission-driven tools, sites for ministries, and projects I want to keep lightweight and manageable.
If you're looking for a modern, self-hosted platform to deploy full-stack apps easily, Coolify is worth checking out.