Hop3 - Open Source Platform as a Service¶

Hop3 is an open-source Platform as a Service (PaaS) for deploying and managing your applications. It is designed to be simple, secure, and sovereignty-focused.

Development Status

Hop3 is beta-quality software: its architecture and APIs can still change between releases.

In six slides¶

Hop3, in six slides (PDF)

Quick Links¶

Quick Start

Deploy your first application in minutes
User Guide

Complete guide to using Hop3
CLI Reference

Full command reference
Configuration

hop3.toml configuration reference

Why Hop3?¶

Sovereignty First¶

Maintain complete control over your data and infrastructure. Deploy on your own servers without relying on centralized cloud services.

Simple by Design¶

Deploy applications with git push simplicity, using familiar toolchains (Python, Node.js, Go, Ruby, Rust, and more). Kubernetes is not involved. Docker is optional: apps build natively, with Nix or with Docker.

Secure by Default¶

Automatic HTTPS with Let's Encrypt
Privilege separation: the server runs unprivileged, and root-level actions go through a narrow, audited daemon
A role for each account, checked on every command and dashboard page
A web application firewall (LeWAF, the OWASP Core Rule Set) in front of any app that declares one
Addon credentials encrypted in the server's database

Sustainable Computing¶

Hop3 itself needs few resources, so several applications run side by side on modest hardware.

Features¶

Application DeploymentService ManagementAdministration

App catalog: Install Nextcloud, Forgejo, WordPress and other ready-made apps from the dashboard or with hop3 catalog install (guide)
Git-based deploys: Push to deploy your applications
Multiple languages: Python, Node.js, Go, Ruby, Rust, PHP, Java, Elixir, Clojure, .NET, plus static sites
Multiple builders: Native toolchains, Nix, or Docker
Process management: Automatic process lifecycle management

Service addons: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, S3/MinIO object storage, email/SMTP
Backup and restore: Snapshot and restore app data and addons
SSL certificates: Let's Encrypt integration
Reverse proxy: Nginx, Caddy or Traefik. Traefik serves no static files or PHP. The web application firewall and the sign-in gate need nginx

Web dashboard: Monitor and manage your apps from the browser
CLI tools: Full command-line interface
API access: JSON-RPC API for automation
Multi-user: Named accounts, each with a role: admin, deployer, viewer or member
Sign-in gate: [access] puts an app behind a Hop3 sign-in

Getting Started¶

Install the CLI on your local machine:
```
uv tool install hop3
```
Without uv: curl -LsSf https://hop3.cloud/install-cli.py | python3 -.

Install the server on your deployment target:

curl -LsSf https://hop3.cloud/install-server.py | sudo python3 -

Sign in to your server over SSH, from your own machine:
```
hop3 login root@hop3.example.com
```
Deploy your first app, from its source directory. The first time, bind the checkout to the server you signed in to:
```
cd myapp
hop3 context use default
hop3 deploy --app myapp
```

See the Installation Guide for detailed instructions.

Supported Platforms¶

Operating System	Status	Tested in CI
Ubuntu 24.04 / 26.04 LTS	Supported	yes
Rocky Linux 9+	Supported	yes
NixOS	Supported	yes
Debian 12+	Supported	via Ubuntu (same family)
Arch Linux	Experimental	no
FreeBSD	Experimental	no
macOS	Experimental	no

Community¶

GitHub: github.com/abilian/hop3
Matrix Chat: #hop3:matrix.org
SourceHut: git.sr.ht/~sfermigier/hop3

Funding¶

Hop3 was partly funded through the NGI0 Commons Fund, established by NLnet with support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme.