Why Citrus?

There are many ways to deploy a web apps. Some are easy but limited. Others offer full control but demand deep expertise and time. Lets explore some main approaches to deploying web apps

Hosted PaaS (Heroku, Vercel, Render)

These platforms make it incredibly easy to get started - just push your code and you’re live. But that simplicity comes at a cost.

• As your app grows, your bill rises - often unpredictably.
• You’re locked into their ecosystem.
• Your code and data are hosted on their servers.
• Cold starts and shared resources can lead to performance issues.

What starts as a quick win can turn into a long-term trap.

Self-Hosted PaaS (Coolify, CapRover, Dokku)

Self-hosted PaaS tools offer more flexibility and control compared to cloud platforms. You install them on your own server and get a nice UI for managing apps. But they come with hidden costs:

• Require a dedicated server just to run the platform itself.
• Single point of failure: if that server goes down, you lose control.

It’s your infrastructure - but you still have some pain.

Manual Server Setup (Docker, Ansible, CI/CD pipelines)

If you want full control, you can set everything up yourself - SSH into servers, tune Linux for better performance, write Ansible playbooks, manage Docker containers, build CI/CD pipelines. This approach is powerful, but:

• It takes a lot of time and expertise.
• You need to stay in control and know how every piece is set up.
• Everything depends on you - setup, updates, backups, monitoring.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Citrus

Citrus was built to solve the core problems with existing approaches while keeping the benefits of each.

• Simple like PaaS, but on your terms: Deploy with a few clicks from a desktop app - no complex setup. You own servers and pay predictable costs. No surprise bills as you scale.
• Full control without the complexity: Your apps run on standard containers with Nginx - the same proven stack you’d set up manually. But Citrus handles all the configuration, updates, and monitoring automatically.
• True ownership with zero lock-in: Everything runs on your server using open standards. Stop using Citrus tomorrow and your apps keep running. Migrate to any provider or run multiple servers - you’re never trapped.
• Maximum performance: Server resources are dedicated to your apps. No cold starts, no shared resources.