53 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
53 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
# Welcome to Cloudron!
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## What is Cloudron?
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Cloudron is a platform that makes it easy to install, manage and secure web apps on your server.
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You can install Cloudron on your server (from say AWS, Digital Ocean etc), give it a domain
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name and start installing apps. Behind the scenes, the Cloudron automates all the tasks around
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installation like configuring databases, DNS setup and Certificate management.
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Cloudron provides a centralized way to manage users and specify which apps they can access.
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Cloudron has a backup solution that lets you backup and restore each app individually
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(compared to server snapshots). With Cloudron backups, you can even migrate your Cloudron
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in it's entirety from one server provider to another.
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## The Cloudron App Store
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The [Cloudron App Store](https://cloudron.io/appstore.html) provides a mechanism for
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distribution and continuous update of apps. A good analogy for this is the Apple App Store for iOS or
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Google Play for Android. Anyone today can easily install apps on their phones and the apps are kept up-to-date.
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Cloudron does the same but for servers. You can easily install apps and receive continuous updates for
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the apps via the Cloudron App Store.
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<br/>
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<center>
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<video width="640" height="360" controls>
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<source src="https://cloudron.io/videos/cloudron-app-install.mp4" type="video/mp4">
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Your browser does not support the video tag.
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</video>
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</center>
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## Motivation
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Say you want to run a web application like WordPress, GitLab, Rocket.chat or even an email server.
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The first step is to start reading up installation manuals and configuring the server. Web apps today
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use multiple package managers, languages and frameworks making this process very tedious and complicated.
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Once the software is installed, DNS and SSL certificates have to be setup. If the server hosts
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multiple apps, one needs to make sure that apps do not interfere with each other, setup a
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reverse proxy and configure the firewall.
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Installation is just one hurdle though. The server and apps must be secured and backed up
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properly. Upstream releases must be tracked and updates must be applied on time.
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As you can see, self-hosting web applications is error prone and time consuming. 1-click installers
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and docker files automate some of the above tasks but requires one to have the technical know how to
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complete the installation and put in the effort to keep it up-to-date.
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We, at Cloudron, want to fix just that!
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