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Comparison · Infra & APIs

Dokploy vs NetBox

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Dokploy and NetBox — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Dokploy vs NetBox: at a glance

FeatureDokployNetBox
SectorInfra & APIsInfra & APIs
Velocity score6.36.3
Sparks · 30d01
Top themesself-hosted-paas, secrets-encryption, security-hardening, plan-limitsdcim, cooling, liquid-cooling, breaking-changes
Last editorial update12d ago4h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Dokploy?

A self-hosted PaaS spending its releases on secrets, injection fixes and plan limits.

Dokploy cuts patch releases every one to two weeks, and the recent stream is dominated by hardening rather than features. v0.29.12 added AES-256-GCM encryption for environment variables at rest and made backups carry the full keyring; v0.29.13 closed an OS command injection in git clone across all providers. The newest tag says outright that it is bug fixes only. Alongside that, plan limits landed in v0.29.10.

Read the full Dokploy trajectory →

What is NetBox?

NetBox adds a cooling data model — the first new infrastructure domain since power

After a 4.6 patch cycle spent almost entirely on GraphQL query cost and permission correctness, NetBox has opened its 4.7 line with a beta that is the opposite kind of release. It introduces cooling infrastructure as a first-class modeling domain, migrates nested group models off django-mptt onto a PostgreSQL ltree column, replaces the Service protocol/ports fields with a unified port_mappings structure, and raises the floor to PostgreSQL 15 and Redis 6. The breaking-change list runs longer than most NetBox releases run in total.

Read the full NetBox trajectory →

Dokploy vs NetBox: editorial side-by-side

D
Dokploy
INFRA · APIS
6.3

A self-hosted PaaS spending its releases on secrets, injection fixes and plan limits.

◆ Current state

Dokploy cuts patch releases every one to two weeks, and the recent stream is dominated by hardening rather than features. v0.29.12 added AES-256-GCM encryption for environment variables at rest and made backups carry the full keyring; v0.29.13 closed an OS command injection in git clone across all providers. The newest tag says outright that it is bug fixes only. Alongside that, plan limits landed in v0.29.10.

◆ Where it's heading

The direction is a self-hosted platform trying to earn production trust: encrypted secrets, injection fixes, a pinned install script tied to each release, and Postgres query rewrites to stop hitting the 100-argument limit on rollbacks, schedules and backups. Plan limits point the other way — toward a commercial tier layered on the open-source core. Both arcs suggest the project is past feature-chasing and into making the platform defensible.

◆ Prediction

Expect the hardening thread to continue into the rest of the 0.29 line, with the plan-limits work being the seed of a paid tier that gets more definition before a 0.30 release.

N
NetBox
INFRA · APIS
6.3

NetBox adds a cooling data model — the first new infrastructure domain since power

◆ Current state

After a 4.6 patch cycle spent almost entirely on GraphQL query cost and permission correctness, NetBox has opened its 4.7 line with a beta that is the opposite kind of release. It introduces cooling infrastructure as a first-class modeling domain, migrates nested group models off django-mptt onto a PostgreSQL ltree column, replaces the Service protocol/ports fields with a unified port_mappings structure, and raises the floor to PostgreSQL 15 and Redis 6. The breaking-change list runs longer than most NetBox releases run in total.

◆ Where it's heading

The cooling model is deliberately shaped as a mirror of the existing power model — CoolingSource and CoolingFeed parallel PowerPanel and PowerFeed, CoolingIntake and CoolingOutflow parallel PowerPort and PowerOutlet, with CDUs and manifolds modeled as ordinary devices carrying those components. That symmetry says NetBox intends liquid cooling to be documented with the same rigor as power distribution, not bolted on as attributes. Underneath it, the ltree migration and the deferred search-index rebuild continue the performance thread of 4.6 by other means: instead of trimming queries inside the ORM, 4.7 is changing what the ORM sits on.

◆ Prediction

Expect at least one more 4.7 beta or release candidate before general availability, with the deprecated NestedGroupModel base class and the retained protocol/ports API fields the most likely sources of follow-up fixes as plugins migrate.

Alternatives to Dokploy and NetBox

Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Dokploy or NetBox.

See all Dokploy alternatives → · See all NetBox alternatives →

Recent activity from Dokploy and NetBox

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 1d agoNetBoxNetBox 4.7 beta models cooling plant the way it models power
  2. 7d agoNetBoxGraphQL N+1 fixes and permission corrections in 4.6.8
  3. 13d agoDokployv0.29.14: fixes only, including Postgres argument-limit rewrites
  4. 15d agoNetBox4.6.8 release candidate refreshes translation strings
  5. 19d agoNetBox4.6.7 trims GraphQL and scope-rebuild query overhead
  6. 21d agoNetBoxCluster-scoped VLANs, tag "any" lookup, audit-trail hardening
  7. 28d agoDokployv0.29.13 closes an OS command injection in git clone
  8. 1mo agoNetBoxMDC connectors, script-module REST updates, Korean support
  9. 1mo agoDokployv0.29.12 encrypts environment variables at rest with AES-256-GCM
  10. 1mo agoDokployv0.29.11 pins the install script to each release
  11. 1mo agoDokployv0.29.10 introduces plan limits

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Dokploy and NetBox?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Dokploy and NetBox are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Dokploy better than NetBox?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Dokploy and NetBox are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Dokploy?

Top Dokploy alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Dokploy alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dokploy for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to NetBox?

Top NetBox alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "NetBox alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/netbox for the full list with editorial commentary on each.