Cloudron vs YunoHost vs Cosmos vs Umbrel (2026)

Quick answer

Cloudron is not a hosted service you sign up to. It is software you install on your own server, and it then installs, updates and backs up web apps for you. To self-host it you need a fresh Ubuntu 26.04 (x64) server with at least 2 GB of RAM and 20 GB of disk, ports 80 and 443 open, and a domain name. The free plan runs two apps; unlimited apps start at 15 € a month on a yearly plan. The full requirements and steps are in how to self-host Cloudron below.

• Pick Cloudron if you want a polished, commercially supported platform on a VPS, with app updates, per-app backups, a mail server and single sign-on handled for you, and are happy to pay once you pass two apps.
• Pick YunoHost if you want all of that for free under an open-source licence, including on a Raspberry Pi, and can accept a volunteer project with no formal guarantees.
• Pick Cosmos if you already run Docker containers and want a secure reverse proxy, single sign-on, a VPN and backups in front of them, without being tied to an app store.
• Pick Umbrel if you want a home server that behaves like an appliance: its own operating system, set up in the browser, on a mini PC, a Raspberry Pi or Umbrel’s own hardware.

Only YunoHost is open source in the OSI sense. Cloudron, Cosmos and Umbrel all publish their source code, but under licences that restrict commercial use or production use. We explain each one below.

At a glance

The first five rows are live: they come from our nightly refresh of each project’s repository, the same data behind every Repoly ranking. The last three are our summary of the official docs and pricing pages.

Health is our 0 to 100 maintenance score: commits in the last 90 days, release recency, stars, archive status and Docker support. The formula is on our data page. One caveat matters here. Cloudron develops its platform on its own GitLab server, in the git.cloudron.io/platform/box repository, so its star count is not comparable with the three GitHub projects: most Cloudron users never visit that server. If the release row shows none found, that is because our refresh reads no published releases there, and the score then gets no release points, which says nothing about how often Cloudron actually ships.

Cloudron

Cloudron’s docs describe it as “a platform that makes it easy to install, manage and secure web apps on your server”. You give it a server and a domain, and it handles databases, DNS, certificates, users, updates and backups for each app you install from the Cloudron App Store.

Strengths. Cloudron does the most for you of the four. Every plan includes “app updates, per-app backups, firewall, email solution and Single Sign-On”. Backups are per app rather than whole-server snapshots, can be encrypted (AES-256-CBC) and can go to S3-compatible storage from more than a dozen providers, or to NFS, CIFS, SSHFS or a local disk. The docs say you can move a whole Cloudron to another server provider using its backups. The built-in mail server sets up MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records automatically and ships with webmail. Cloudron says it publishes app releases “within days and security fixes within 24h”. The company also states it has no access to your server: “app and platform updates are pulled, not pushed”.

Weaknesses. It is the most demanding to host. The install docs ask for “a fresh Ubuntu Resolute 26.04 (x64) server” and say Cloudron “does not support ARM, LXC, Docker, or OpenVZ”, so no Raspberry Pi and no running it inside a container. You need a real domain, and at home you also need a public IP address and port forwarding. The free plan stops at two apps. Pro (unlimited apps) costs 15 € a month billed yearly or 30 € billed monthly, and Max costs 25 € or 50 €, excluding VAT. Max adds user groups and roles, a directory server, multiple backup sites and VPN-only app access. The licence is the other catch: see licences below. You can only install the apps Cloudron or its community has packaged, unless you package one yourself.

Who it suits. Small businesses, agencies and households who want a VPS to run itself, value the mail server and single sign-on, and would rather pay a subscription than become a sysadmin.

Project health. Cloudron scores 61/100 (SLOWING) in our data, with 289 commits in the last 90 days on git.cloudron.io. Read the score with the caveat above in mind: the stars and release terms undercount a project that lives off GitHub.

YunoHost

YunoHost’s docs call it “an operating system aiming to simplify server administration and therefore democratize self-hosting”. Technically it is a server distribution based on Debian, licensed AGPL-3.0, and “maintained by volunteers”.

Strengths. It is free, and the project says it has “no intention or interest in monetizing anything”. The feature list is close to Cloudron’s: a web admin and a command line, LDAP-based users, a single sign-on user portal, Let’s Encrypt certificates, backup and restore, a firewall with fail2ban, and “a full e-mail stack”. Its catalogue has “more than 500 apps”. The hardware bar is the lowest of the four: Debian 12 with 512 MB of RAM and 16 GB of disk on a VPS, ready-made images for x86 machines, Raspberry Pi 3, 4 and 5 and other ARM boards, or a script that installs it on top of an existing Debian 12 system. If you have no domain, it offers free subdomains under nohost.me, noho.st and ynh.fr.

Weaknesses. There is no company behind it and the docs say “We also do not offer any formal guarantees”. It is “not designed to ‘scale’” and is “intended for a relatively modest number of user accounts and simultaneous users”, nor is it meant for heavy multi-tenant hosting. The docs also say its first audience “is not power users with complex or highly customized use cases”. The guide for ordinary computers asks for hardware “dedicated to YunoHost”.

Who it suits. Individuals, families, associations and small organisations who want email, files and a handful of apps on cheap hardware, at no licence cost.

Project health. YunoHost scores 84/100 (GOOD), with 95 commits in the last 90 days in its core repository and debian/12.1.41.2 as the latest release. Apps are packaged in separate repositories, which this figure does not include.

Cosmos

Cosmos, marketed as Cosmos Cloud, presents itself as security-first self-hosting. It is a reverse proxy, app store and container manager in one, run as a Docker container on your server.

Strengths. Security and networking features are the focus: automatic HTTPS, “Single Sign-On with multi-factor authentication”, OpenID, the SmartShield anti-bot and anti-DDoS layer, and a built-in VPN called Constellation. Backups use Restic and are incremental, encrypted and can go to remote storage. It also does monitoring with alerts and storage management with MergerFS and parity disks. Unlike the others it is not built around its app store: the README says you can install apps any way you like, including Docker Compose files or the Docker CLI, and still manage them in Cosmos. Because it “only uses vanilla docker containers”, you can leave it later without repackaging your apps. The site lists “250+” apps from official and unofficial stores. Install is one script (curl -fsSL https://cosmos-cloud.io/get.sh | sudo -E bash -s) or one docker run command.

Weaknesses. You need to be comfortable with Docker. The README warns not to install it through Unraid templates, CasaOS or Portainer stacks, and says Windows and macOS users cannot use Docker’s host networking mode, so ports must be mapped by hand. Cosmos wants to be your reverse proxy on ports 80 and 443; running it behind another proxy “will only create headaches”. It needs the Docker socket mounted, and Constellation needs privileged mode or the NET_ADMIN capability. We found no built-in mail server in its feature list. Cosmos Pro, for multi-server clusters, managed PostgreSQL, S3 storage and CI/CD, costs from $16 a month including 16 GB of RAM and 20 users, then $1 per GB of RAM and $5.99 per user a month.

Who it suits. Homelab and small-business users who already run containers and want a secure front door, single sign-on and remote access for all of them.

Project health. Cosmos scores 95/100 (GOOD), with 34 commits in the last 90 days, 173 open issues and v0.23.4 as the latest release.

Umbrel

Umbrel’s README calls umbrelOS “a beautiful home server OS for self-hosting”. It is a complete operating system that you install on a dedicated machine, then run entirely from a browser at umbrel.local.

Strengths. It is the easiest to live with at home. Apps “install like it’s a phone. One tap. No terminal, ever.” The App Store has “300+ apps”, including media servers, local AI and Bitcoin nodes. Backups go to an external drive, a NAS or another Umbrel, and Rewind lets you browse snapshots to restore one file or a whole app. Storage Manager and FailSafe mirror drives when the machine has two or more internal NVMe or SATA drives. umbrelOS is free for personal use, and the README says the image you install yourself is “the same umbrelOS” as on Umbrel’s own hardware, “with the same features and the same updates”. If you would rather not build anything, Umbrel Home and Umbrel Pro come with umbrelOS installed and official priority support.

Weaknesses. It takes over the whole machine: umbrelOS “can’t be installed on top of an existing Linux distribution”. The minimum for Intel or AMD is a dual-core CPU, 4 GB of RAM (8 GB or more recommended) and a 32 GB drive. A Raspberry Pi 5 must boot from NVMe or USB, not a microSD card, and the Pi images install umbrelOS 1.7.4, which you then update to 2.0 from Settings. It is built for a computer at home rather than a public VPS with a domain, and we found no built-in mail server. Do-it-yourself installs get community support only. The licence also rules out business use without an agreement (see below).

Who it suits. Home users who want photos, files, media and a few apps on a box in the cupboard, with the least setup and no command line.

Project health. Umbrel scores 96/100 (GOOD), with 261 commits in the last 90 days, 435 open issues and 2.0.0 as the latest release.

Head-to-head comparison

Install and hardware. Cloudron and YunoHost both want a machine to themselves, but YunoHost runs on far smaller and cheaper hardware, including a Raspberry Pi. Cosmos is the only one that sits on top of a system you keep using, as long as it has Docker. Umbrel replaces the operating system entirely.

Price. YunoHost is free with no limits. Cosmos and Umbrel are free for a single home or personal server. Cloudron is free only up to two apps, which is enough to try it but not to run a household or team on.

Apps and flexibility. YunoHost has the largest catalogue by its own count. Cloudron and Umbrel limit you to packaged apps unless you package your own. Cosmos accepts any container.

Email and users. If you want to host email, Cloudron and YunoHost are the two that include a mail server. For single sign-on across apps, Cloudron, YunoHost and Cosmos all have it.

Backups. Cloudron’s per-app backups to object storage are the most complete and double as a migration tool. Cosmos uses Restic. Umbrel’s backups suit a home setup with a spare drive or a second Umbrel.

How to self-host Cloudron

This is the path the Cloudron docs describe, in order.

• Get a server. A fresh Ubuntu 26.04 (x64) VPS or machine with at least 2 GB of RAM and 20 GB of disk. ARM boards, LXC, Docker and OpenVZ are not supported. Cloudron is also listed on the AWS, DigitalOcean, Hostinger, Linode, LumaDock, Time4VPS and Vultr marketplaces.
• Open ports 80 and 443. Make sure no firewall blocks them. Let Cloudron manage the server firewall afterwards; the docs say not to edit iptables rules by hand.
• Run the installer. Download and run cloudron-setup from cloudron.io as the docs show, then open the server’s IP address in a browser and accept the temporary self-signed certificate.
• Set up a domain. Enter a domain you control. The dashboard lives at the my subdomain and each app gets its own subdomain. An existing domain works if my is free, and a subdomain such as cloudron.example.com works too. Choose your DNS provider so Cloudron can create records itself.
• Create the admin account with a valid email address, which Let’s Encrypt needs to issue certificates.
• Check email delivery. Many providers block mail from VPS and home IP addresses, so the docs suggest checking delivery status and setting up a relay (smart host) if needed.
• Choose a plan. The free plan covers two apps. A cloudron.io account is optional and only needed to set up a paid subscription.

At home. You need a public IPv4 or IPv6 address for access from outside, though it can be dynamic thanks to Cloudron’s dynamic DNS feature. Forward port 443 on your router before the domain step, plus port 80 if your DNS provider has no API. Your router must also support NAT loopback, which Cloudron’s single sign-on relies on.

Licences: what “open” means here

Our data labels Cloudron and Umbrel as proprietary and Cosmos as Apache-2.0 with the Commons Clause. Here is what each licence actually says.

• Cloudron. The platform repository is public, but under “The Cloudron Subscription license”. It says the software “may only be used in production” with a valid Cloudron subscription. You may modify it and publish patches, and copy it for development and testing without a subscription, but you may not redistribute or sell it. That is source-available, not open source.
• YunoHost. AGPL-3.0, an OSI-approved open-source licence.
• Cosmos. Apache 2.0 with the Commons Clause and an “Anti Tampering Clause”. You can use, fork and redistribute it, but not sell it or a service based on it, and the licence ends automatically if you try to get around any “subscription, paywall, feature restriction, or any other licensing mechanism” in the software. Cosmos itself calls this “available source”.
• Umbrel. PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0. You may use, fork, modify and redistribute it for personal and non-profit use; commercial use, such as selling servers with umbrelOS, needs an agreement with Umbrel.

For a personal or family server, none of these restrictions is likely to bite. For a business, Cloudron’s paid plans cover production use, Cosmos permits use as long as you do not sell it or a service based on it, and Umbrel needs a commercial agreement.

FAQ

Can I self-host Cloudron for free?

Yes, for up to two apps. The free plan includes app updates, per-app backups, the firewall, the mail server and single sign-on. Unlimited apps need Pro, at 15 € a month billed yearly or 30 € billed monthly, excluding VAT.

Is Cloudron open source?

No. Its source code is published, but the Cloudron Subscription licence ties production use to a valid subscription and forbids redistribution. YunoHost is the open-source (AGPL-3.0) option among these four.

Can Cloudron run on a Raspberry Pi or in Docker?

No. Cloudron does not support ARM, LXC, Docker or OpenVZ. For a Raspberry Pi, YunoHost supports the Pi 3, 4 and 5, and Umbrel recommends the Pi 5.

YunoHost vs Cloudron: which should I choose?

They cover similar ground: app catalogue, users and single sign-on, email and backups. YunoHost is free, open source and runs on smaller hardware, but has no company or formal guarantees behind it. Cloudron costs money past two apps and needs an x64 Ubuntu server, but it is a commercial product with automated per-app backups to object storage and a company that packages and updates the apps.

Umbrel vs Cloudron: which should I choose?

Umbrel is a home server operating system you reach on your local network, with no domain or mail server needed. Cloudron is built for a server with a public domain, email and multiple users. Choose Umbrel for a personal box at home and Cloudron for a VPS that serves a team or business.

Verdict

Choose Cloudron if you want the most hands-off server for a team or business and are willing to pay past two apps. Choose YunoHost for a free, open-source all-in-one server with email, especially on modest or ARM hardware. Choose Cosmos if you think in Docker containers and want security, single sign-on and a VPN around them. Choose Umbrel for the simplest home server with no command line.

To see every project in this space ranked by health, read our open source alternatives to Cloudron or browse the full self-hosting solutions category.

Sources

• Cloudron pricing: cloudron.io/pricing.html
• Cloudron installation and requirements: docs.cloudron.io/installation/
• Cloudron home server setup: docs.cloudron.io/installation/home-server
• Cloudron overview: docs.cloudron.io
• Cloudron backups: docs.cloudron.io/backups
• Cloudron email: docs.cloudron.io/email
• Cloudron.io account: docs.cloudron.io/cloudronio-account
• Cloudron features and updates: cloudron.io
• Cloudron Subscription licence: git.cloudron.io/platform/box (LICENSE file)
• Cloudron terms of service: cloudron.io/legal/terms.html
• What is YunoHost: doc.yunohost.org/en/admin/what_is_yunohost/
• YunoHost on a remote server: doc.yunohost.org/en/admin/get_started/install_on/remote_server/
• YunoHost on a regular computer: doc.yunohost.org/en/admin/get_started/install_on/regular_computer/
• YunoHost on a Raspberry Pi: doc.yunohost.org/en/admin/get_started/install_on/raspberry_pi/
• YunoHost on top of Debian: doc.yunohost.org/en/admin/get_started/install_on/on_top_of_debian/
• YunoHost licence: github.com/YunoHost/yunohost
• Cosmos Cloud: cosmos-cloud.io
• Cosmos Pro and pricing: cosmos-cloud.io/pro
• Cosmos README, installation and LICENCE: github.com/azukaar/Cosmos-Server
• umbrelOS README and LICENSE.md: github.com/getumbrel/umbrel
• umbrelOS features: umbrel.com/umbrelos
• umbrelOS downloads: umbrel.com/downloads
• Live health, stars, commits and releases: Repoly open data, refreshed nightly