Self-Host Rallly Without the Ops Headache
Rallly is a free, open-source scheduling tool that works better than Doodle. Self-hosting keeps your data private. But it comes with infrastructure work. We break down the real cost and show you the managed alternative.
What is Rallly?
Rallly is a free, open-source scheduling poll. You propose meeting dates, your team votes yes/if needed/no, and Rallly finds consensus.
Key differences from Doodle:
- Free forever: No ads, no data selling, no surprise pricing. Open-source AGPL-3.0 license.
- No account required: Voters don't log in. Click a link, vote, done.
- Timezone-aware: Each person sees proposed times in their timezone automatically.
- Comments included: Team can discuss directly in the poll.
- Privacy-first: If self-hosted, stays on your servers. No third-party analytics.
Rallly solves one problem well: scheduling consensus. It's not a full calendar system like Calcom.
The numbers
Rallly has 5.3K GitHub stars and 568 forks. In the last 30 days, 90,483 polls were created. Lifetime, 480,825 people have voted on Rallly polls. This is real adoption, not hype.
The Real Cost of Self-Hosting Rallly
Rallly software is free. But 'free software' does not mean 'free to run.'
Upfront costs
- VPS: €20-50/month for a server with EU residency.
- Domain: €10-15/year.
- SSL certificate: Free with Let's Encrypt, but requires automation.
- Your time: 2-4 hours minimum if you know Docker and Linux.
Total to launch: €30-100 plus your time.
The ongoing burden
This is where self-hosting gets expensive:
- SMTP mail server: Rallly needs to send sign-in links and poll notifications. A managed service (Mailgun, Sendgrid, Postmark) costs €10-20/month. Most setup guides skip this requirement, then teams get stuck when email fails.
- Database backups: PostgreSQL needs daily backups. You script it, or use a managed database (€20-50/month extra).
- SSL/TLS renewal: Let's Encrypt certs expire every 90 days. Miss the renewal, your site goes down.
- Security patches: Docker images and dependencies need updates. On a rolling basis.
- Monitoring: No uptime alerts by default. Your users find outages before you do.
- Server cost creep: Your €20 server becomes €25 next year as inflation hits.
Conservative estimate: €100-200/month in direct costs, plus 2-4 hours/month of maintenance work.
The hidden cost
Your time is the biggest cost. If you run the server yourself, you are the on-call engineer. A notification at 2am that SMTP failed, the database ran out of space, or SSL cert renewal broke.
For small teams, this trade-off does not pay.
Self-Hosted vs Cloud vs Managed Hosting
Three paths to run Rallly. Pick the one that fits your team.
How to Self-Host Rallly (The DIY Path)
If you choose to self-host, here is what the setup path looks like. We'll be honest about where friction lives.
Rent a VPS (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Linode, or similar). Allocate 2GB+ RAM, 20GB disk. Point your domain DNS to it. Budget: €20-50/month.
SSH in, install Docker and Docker Compose. Create a PostgreSQL database. Store credentials securely in environment variables, not in files.
Rallly requires an SMTP server to send emails. Integrate Mailgun, Sendgrid, or Postmark. Or run your own mail server (not recommended). This is where most people get stuck.
Rent a VPS (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Linode, or similar). Allocate 2GB+ RAM, 20GB disk. Point your domain DNS to it. Budget: €20-50/month.
SSH in, install Docker and Docker Compose. Create a PostgreSQL database. Store credentials securely in environment variables, not in files.
Rallly requires an SMTP server to send emails. Integrate Mailgun, Sendgrid, or Postmark. Or run your own mail server (not recommended). This is where most people get stuck.
Get a server and domain
Rent a VPS (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Linode, or similar). Allocate 2GB+ RAM, 20GB disk. Point your domain DNS to it. Budget: €20-50/month.
Install Docker and PostgreSQL
SSH in, install Docker and Docker Compose. Create a PostgreSQL database. Store credentials securely in environment variables, not in files.
Configure SMTP (the hard part)
Rallly requires an SMTP server to send emails. Integrate Mailgun, Sendgrid, or Postmark. Or run your own mail server (not recommended). This is where most people get stuck.
Deploy with Docker Compose
Pull the Rallly Docker image. Set environment variables: database URL, SMTP credentials, base URL, S3 storage. Run docker-compose up.
Set up reverse proxy and SSL
Use Nginx or Caddy in front of Rallly. Configure SSL with Let's Encrypt. Set up auto-renewal. Test HTTPS. Now you are live.
Why Self-Hosted Rallly on Opsily Works Better
We automate all five setup steps above. You deploy in 3 minutes, then focus on your team, not ops.
Infrastructure handled
We provision servers, databases, SMTP, SSL, backups, and monitoring. You deploy. No vendor lock-in: your data stays in EU data centers and is always under your control. Pause or cancel anytime.
Automatic maintenance
Security patches, database backups, SSL renewal, dependency updates, and monitoring all run on autopilot. Zero 2am alerts. If something breaks, our team is on it. You sleep.
GDPR and privacy
Data hosted in Germany. GDPR compliant by design. No third-party analytics. No ads. Your team controls access. You own the data, we handle the ops.
Built for teams who need reliability
Simple, Transparent Pricing
Choose the plan that fits. All plans include automated backups, SSL, email, monitoring, and EU hosting. No setup fees. No lock-in.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Your questions about Rallly, self-hosting, and Opsily, answered.
Rallly is a free, open-source scheduling poll tool. You propose meeting dates, participants vote yes/if needed/no, and Rallly identifies the winning time. Unlike Doodle, Rallly requires no login from voters, includes inline comments, auto-detects timezones, and stays private if you self-host. When2Meet offers full-range availability heatmaps, but lacks open-source and self-hosting options. Rallly has 5.3K GitHub stars and is actively maintained. The trade-off: Rallly solves one problem well (group scheduling), while Doodle is a broader booking tool.
Ready to Stop Managing Ops?
Rallly is powerful. Your infrastructure should not be. Deploy Rallly on Opsily and reclaim your time.