InstPloy alternative: CICDoo vs InstPloy, compared honestly

InstPloy and CICDoo in one minute

InstPloy is an Odoo DevOps control panel for servers you own. You sign in with Google or GitHub, register a VPS, dedicated or on-premises x86-64 server, install the InstPloy agent as root, and it installs Docker, nginx and PostgreSQL. For each company (an Odoo workload) it creates a GitHub repository and development, testing and production environments, each in its own container with its own database on a shared PostgreSQL engine. Traffic arrives either through Cloudflare Tunnel on a platform subdomain (no static IP or domain needed) or through your own domain on Cloudflare. InstPloy says plainly that it is not a hosting provider.

CICDoo is a Git-driven Odoo DevOps platform. You connect Linux servers you own over SSH, link a GitHub or GitLab repository (GitLab.com or self-hosted GitLab), and CICDoo deploys an Odoo instance per branch in its own Docker container, with PostgreSQL alongside, nginx and automatic SSL. Branches map to development, staging and production. CICDoo also offers managed operations by its engineers.

Both are aimed at agencies running many client databases. The differences are in integrations, connectivity and who operates the platform.

Where they differ

Git providers. InstPloy is GitHub-native: it generates the repository, manages per-server deploy keys, deploys from webhooks and can merge between environments on GitHub from the dashboard. CICDoo supports GitHub, GitLab.com and self-hosted GitLab (connect GitLab), and also merges between branches from the console. If your agency standardised on GitLab, that decides it.

Connectivity. InstPloy's Cloudflare Tunnel path lets you run a server with no static public IP and no inbound ports, which is handy for on-premises boxes behind NAT. It expects Cloudflare in front of your own domain. CICDoo connects to servers over SSH, works with your own domain or an assigned cicdoo.com subdomain, and supports Cloudflare-proxied servers (domains and DNS).

Tooling on the server. InstPloy pre-wires Rclone for backups to S3, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, SFTP and 40+ other providers, Grafana dashboards per server and environment, and pgAdmin. It also has per-environment CPU, memory and worker limits and an in-container editor with notebooks. CICDoo stores backups in S3-compatible storage with retention and restore, and runs uptime checks and resource metrics with alerts by email, Telegram and SMS (alert notifications). InstPloy's pages show Grafana dashboards; we could not find alert delivery described.

Access. InstPloy gives an in-browser shell into each container with helper commands, and says no SSH is required. CICDoo gives each user their own SSH access to instances, plus a web IDE in the browser. On permissions, InstPloy lists viewer, operator, deployer and admin roles scoped to companies or environments; CICDoo grants per resource and per action (workspace permissions).

Who runs it. InstPloy is self-serve software. CICDoo offers the same kind of platform plus an optional service where CICDoo engineers operate your servers, with ticketed human support.

Choose InstPloy if...

• You want a self-serve panel with published plans and a prepaid wallet you top up.
• Your servers have no static IP, or sit on-premises behind NAT, and Cloudflare Tunnel suits you.
• You want Rclone, Grafana and pgAdmin installed and configured for you on every server.
• You want per-environment CPU, memory and worker limits and the ability to stop idle environments to fit more clients on one box.
• You need a white-label client portal for your agency's customers.
• Your code lives on GitHub and you like InstPloy creating the repository for each new company.

Choose CICDoo if...

• You use GitLab, including self-hosted GitLab.
• You run Odoo versions older than 16.0; CICDoo covers 11.0 to the latest release, plus master.
• You want alerts delivered by email, Telegram and SMS.
• You want real per-user SSH access to instances for your developers.
• You want the option of CICDoo engineers operating your servers for you.
• You want AI that does Odoo business work as the user (Claudoo) and coding agents on your repository.

CICDoo paid access is quoted per project, with no per-user fees and no compute markup. Talk to us.

Moving from InstPloy to CICDoo

1. Prepare a server. Provision a Linux server CICDoo can reach over SSH as root or a sudo user and add it to CICDoo. A fresh server avoids two agents managing Docker and nginx on the same machine. If you relied on Cloudflare Tunnel, you will need a reachable IP for SSH.
2. Connect the repository. Link the GitHub repository InstPloy created for the company, or move it to GitLab, and create the CICDoo project. Map your production, testing and development branches to CICDoo's production, staging and development stages.
3. Export from InstPloy. Download a backup of the production environment directly from the InstPloy dashboard. Confirm it contains the filestore as well as the database.
4. Restore on staging. With an S3-compatible bucket configured, upload the backup zip in the CICDoo instance's Backups tab and restore it on staging (backups and restore). Enable Enterprise if you use it.
5. Test. Carry over odoo.conf settings you changed in InstPloy's UI (workers, addons paths, server-wide modules), then check scheduled actions, mail and integrations.
6. Cut over. Lower DNS TTL in advance, freeze writes, take a final backup, restore it on production and point your domain at the new server. CICDoo issues SSL once DNS resolves.