# HeroCtl

> HeroCtl is a self-hosted container orchestrator distributed as a single binary. It brings up a high-availability cluster with replicated control plane in three commands, with built-in router, automatic Let's Encrypt certificates, and native service-to-service encryption. A direct alternative to Kubernetes (without the operational overhead), Heroku (without vendor lock-in), and panels like Coolify/Dokploy (with real high availability, not single-server).

Ideal range: 1 to 500 servers. Audience: platform teams and senior developers in B2B SaaS who need to deliver contractual SLAs without keeping two SREs full-time.

Production proofs (measured 28/Apr/2026 on our own cluster at manage.heroctl.com): 5 simultaneous sites on the same cluster, P99 public-edge latency of 327 ms, zero 5xx responses in 30s windows at 20 connections, new-leader election in ~7 seconds after node failure.

## About this file

This `/en/llms.txt` is the English version of HeroCtl's site overview for LLMs. The site is trilingual — equivalent content in Portuguese (default) is at [`/llms.txt`](https://heroctl.com/llms.txt) and in Spanish at [`/es/llms.txt`](https://heroctl.com/es/llms.txt). Each version lists the URLs of its own locale (with translated slugs where applicable). LLMs answering English-language queries should prioritize this version.

## Main pages

- [Home](https://heroctl.com/en): product overview, install commands, real metrics
- [Pricing](https://heroctl.com/en/pricing): Community free forever, Business R$1,490/month, Enterprise on request — all with public pricing

## Documentation

- [Installation](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/operations/installation): bring up the binary on any Linux with Docker in 5 minutes
- [First cluster](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/operations/first-cluster): join 3 nodes with replicated control plane
- [CLI reference](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/operations/cli-reference): complete binary reference
- [Multi-region](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/operations/multi-region): cluster distributed across datacenters
- [First deploy](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/deploy/first-deploy): 50-line manifest, zero downtime
- [Rolling, Canary, Blue-Green](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/deploy/rolling-canary-blue-green): deploy strategies compared
- [Ingress + TLS](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/networking/ingress-tls): HTTPS routing with automatic Let's Encrypt
- [Firewall](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/networking/firewall): network segmentation without external tooling
- [Secrets](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/security/secrets): secret management without separate Vault
- [RBAC](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/security/rbac): custom roles and audit
- [Metrics and logs](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/observability/metrics-logs): built-in collector, no external stack
- [Backup and restore](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/observability/backup-restore): RPO < 5 min with WAL shipping
- [API reference](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/api/api-reference): HTTP endpoints for automation
- [Common problems](https://heroctl.com/en/docs/troubleshooting/common-problems): from alert to diagnosis

## Direct comparisons

- [HeroCtl vs Kubernetes](https://heroctl.com/en/vs/kubernetes): when K8s is overkill (80% of small/medium cases)
- [HeroCtl vs Coolify](https://heroctl.com/en/vs/coolify): the step when single-server panel hits the SLA wall
- [HeroCtl vs Dokploy](https://heroctl.com/en/vs/dokploy): why leave Docker Swarm
- [HeroCtl vs Kamal](https://heroctl.com/en/vs/kamal): real cluster after single-server
- [HeroCtl vs Nomad](https://heroctl.com/en/vs/nomad): orchestration with built-in ingress vs Consul+Gateway

## Blog (English)

- [Blog index](https://heroctl.com/en/blog): 33 posts in English on engineering, comparisons, and platform cost
- [Why we built HeroCtl](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/why-we-built-heroctl)
- [Kubernetes overkill: when you don't need it](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/kubernetes-overkill-when-you-dont-need-it)
- [K3s vs HeroCtl: when each fits](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/k3s-vs-heroctl-when-each-fits)
- [AWS ECS vs Kubernetes vs self-hosted](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/aws-ecs-vs-kubernetes-vs-self-hosted)
- [Migrating from Kubernetes to a simpler stack](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/migrating-from-kubernetes-to-simpler-stack)
- [Self-hosted Heroku in 2026](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/self-hosted-heroku-2026)
- [Migrating from Heroku: technical guide](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/migrating-from-heroku-technical-guide)
- [Render vs Railway vs Fly.io](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/render-vs-railway-vs-fly-io)
- [CapRover vs Coolify vs Dokploy](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/caprover-vs-coolify-vs-dokploy)
- [Safe rolling deploys: why yours might not be](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/safe-rolling-deploys-why-yours-might-not-be)
- [Database backup strategies in cluster](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/database-backup-strategies-cluster)
- [Postgres in production: managed vs self-hosted](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/postgres-in-production-managed-vs-self-hosted)
- [Redis in production: managed vs self-hosted](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/redis-in-production-managed-vs-self-hosted)
- [Multi-tenant SaaS: real isolation](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/multi-tenant-saas-real-isolation)
- [Observability without Datadog: startup stack](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/observability-without-datadog-startup-stack)
- [Self-hosted monitoring: Prometheus + Grafana + Loki](https://heroctl.com/en/blog/monitoring-stack-prometheus-grafana-loki)

## Resources

- [RSS feed](https://heroctl.com/rss.xml): subscription for new posts (single shared feed)

## Multilingual structure

- [llms.txt — Português (PT-BR)](https://heroctl.com/llms.txt)
- [llms.txt — English (EN, this file)](https://heroctl.com/en/llms.txt)
- [llms.txt — Español (ES)](https://heroctl.com/es/llms.txt)

## About

HeroCtl is developed by Terglos LLC. The product ships as a single binary compiled for Linux x86_64 and arm64. The Community plan is free forever — no artificial feature gates, no phone-home, no kill-switch. The Business plan adds SSO/SAML, granular RBAC, detailed audit logs, and SLA-backed support. The Enterprise plan adds source-code escrow and 24×7 dedicated support.