Websoft9

Websoft9 is a self‑hosted, cloud‑native PaaS built on Docker that lets developers deploy and manage more than 200 curated open‑source applications from a single control plane. From a technical standpoint, the platform abstracts container orchestration behind a lightweight web interface while still exposing full Docker APIs for advanced users. The core idea is to enable micro‑service workloads on a single physical or virtual machine without the complexity of Kubernetes, making it ideal for edge deployments, small‑to‑medium enterprises, or rapid prototyping environments.

Architecture

• Container runtime: Docker Engine is the underlying runtime; every application runs in its own container, guaranteeing process isolation and reproducible environments.
• Web UI & API: A PHP/Node.js based dashboard communicates with the Docker daemon via RESTful endpoints. The API layer is stateless, allowing horizontal scaling of the UI behind a reverse proxy if needed.
• Database: PostgreSQL (or MySQL) stores application metadata, user accounts, and deployment logs. The schema is intentionally minimal to keep the footprint small.
• Logging & Monitoring: Built‑in ELK/Prometheus stacks are optional but can be enabled per application. Logs are streamed to the dashboard and can also be forwarded to external services via webhooks.

Core Capabilities

• One‑click deployment: A JSON manifest per application defines image, ports, volumes, environment variables, and optional pre‑deployment scripts.
• Lifecycle management: Start, stop, restart, scale (via Docker‑compose style replica counts), and delete operations are exposed through REST endpoints.
• Domain routing: Automatic Nginx reverse‑proxy generation per app, with support for Let’s Encrypt certificates.
• Backup & restore: Volume snapshots can be taken and restored via the UI, enabling disaster recovery without manual docker cp operations.
• Plugin hooks: Developers can register custom scripts or webhooks that trigger on deployment events, enabling CI/CD pipelines to integrate seamlessly.

Deployment & Infrastructure

• Self‑hosting: The platform is a single binary that can run on any Linux distribution with Docker installed.
• Containerization support: The entire Websoft9 stack can itself be containerized, allowing you to run the PaaS on Kubernetes or a bare‑metal host.
• Scalability: While designed for single‑node deployments, the stateless UI and external PostgreSQL database make it straightforward to add more UI instances behind a load balancer.
• Resource efficiency: Because each application is isolated in its own container, multiple services can share a single host without port conflicts or resource contention, reducing cloud bill by up to 80 % according to the vendor.

Integration & Extensibility

• REST API: Full CRUD operations for applications, users, and logs. Authentication is JWT‑based, allowing integration with corporate SSO systems.
• Webhooks: Trigger external services on events such as app_created, app_deleted, or deployment_failed.
• Custom templates: Developers can create new application manifests in the docker-library repository and publish them to the marketplace, extending the catalog without modifying core code.
• Plugin SDK: A lightweight Go/Python SDK is available for writing custom plugins that hook into the deployment lifecycle, enabling automated testing or compliance checks.

Developer Experience

• Documentation: The official docs are hosted under /docs in the repository, with clear sections for architecture, API reference, and contribution guidelines.
• Community: The project is GPL‑v3 licensed with an active GitHub community of over 30 k stars. Issue templates and a contributor handbook lower the barrier to entry for new contributors.
• Configuration: YAML/JSON files are human‑readable, and environment variables can be overridden per deployment, making it easy to move from staging to production.
• Testing: The platform includes unit tests for API endpoints and integration tests that spin up Docker containers, ensuring regressions are caught early.

Use Cases

1. Edge computing – Run a lightweight CMS, analytics dashboard, and micro‑service API on a single edge node with minimal overhead.
2. DevOps playground – Spin up CI/CD tools (GitLab Runner, Jenkins), monitoring stacks, and databases for rapid experimentation without provisioning separate VMs.
3. SaaS MVPs – Deploy a multi‑tenant SaaS stack (frontend, backend, database) in minutes, then scale each component by adjusting container replicas.
4. Educational environments – Provide students with a sandboxed platform to install and manage open‑source tools (Jupyter, Grafana) without affecting the host system.

Advantages

• Performance: Native Docker containers avoid the overhead of virtual machines, delivering near‑bare‑metal speeds.
• Flexibility: No proprietary runtime; developers can replace Docker with Podman or any OCI‑compatible engine if desired.
• Licensing: GPL‑v3 guarantees freedom to modify and redistribute, appealing to open‑source advocates.
• Simplicity: The abstraction layer removes the need for Kubernetes knowledge, yet still offers all essential DevOps features.
• Cost‑effectiveness: By consolidating multiple services on a single host, infrastructure spend is dramatically reduced while maintaining isolation and security.

Websoft9 therefore bridges