Kamal is a free command-line tool from 37signals that deploys containerized web apps to your own servers. CloudPloy deploys to a server you own or rent at cost, on a flat plan, and lets your AI agent deploy over MCP.
| Topic | Kamal | CloudPloy |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A free command-line tool from 37signals that deploys containerized web apps to your own servers. | A hosted deploy control plane. Deploy from git or from your AI agent to servers you own or rent at cost |
| Pricing | Free and open source (MIT) | Free plan, then $9.99, $19, or $39 per month. Compute billed separately at the provider rate |
| Where apps run | Your own servers: bare metal, cloud VMs, or colocated hardware | Any server you own over SSH, or one you take from CloudPloy at the provider rate |
| Frameworks | Built for Rails; works with any app you can put in a Docker image | Node, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, Java, PHP, and static sites via Nixpacks, plus Laravel and WordPress presets |
| Managed or self-hosted | Self-run CLI; you manage the servers | Hosted control plane; nothing to install or maintain on your side beyond your servers |
| Scaling | Multiple servers and roles with rolling restarts; no autoscaling stated | Up to 10 replicas of an app on its server; load balancing across servers is coming soon |
| Databases | Run yourself as accessory containers | Run databases such as MySQL on your server next to your apps |
| AI agent access | CLI over SSH; no API or MCP server stated | HTTP MCP server on every plan, with OAuth sign-in and scoped tokens |
| Free tier | Entirely free; you pay only for servers | Free forever: 1 server, 1 app, up to 2 vCPU and 2 GB RAM |
Kamal details checked in October 2026 on kamal-deploy.org, github.com/basecamp/kamal, kamal-deploy.org/docs/configuration/accessories. They change; verify on Kamal's site. CloudPloy numbers match our pricing page.
Kamal is a free command-line tool from 37signals that deploys containerized web apps to your own servers. CloudPloy is a hosted control plane: you connect a server you own, or take one at the provider rate, and deploy from git or from Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP client.
Best fit for Kamal: Teams comfortable with Docker and SSH who want a simple, free deploy tool and no dashboard. Best fit for CloudPloy: teams that want a flat plan, no markup on compute, and an AI agent that can deploy for them.
Connect your git repo to a CloudPloy server, copy your environment variables, deploy, then move your database and switch DNS.
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