Cosmos Server

Key features

• One-dashboard app management Install and maintain self-hosted applications from one dashboard, with updates and routine maintenance handled instead of configured per app.[1]

• Automatic reverse proxy and certificates Reverse proxying and certificate handling are built in, so hosted services become securely reachable without manual proxy or TLS setup.[1]

• SmartShield threat filtering SmartShield filtering with intelligent threat detection stands in front of services to block hackers, bots, and DDoS traffic.[1]

• Anti-DDoS and anti-bot handling Anti-DDoS and anti-bot handling keep self-hosted services reachable under abusive traffic instead of exposing them raw to the internet.[1]

• Multi-user SSO with 2FA Multi-user single sign-on with customizable privileges and two-factor authentication shares apps across a household or team without shared passwords.[1]

• Built-in VPN and hardened Docker A built-in VPN with encrypted networking plus hardened Docker defaults isolates services and keeps camera feeds, files, and internal tools private.[1]

• Multi-server clusters on Pro The paid Pro tier extends the same dashboard to clusters of servers from mixed providers, discovering, configuring, and orchestrating them centrally.[1]

• Role-based permissions on Pro Pro adds granular role-based permissions with enterprise SmartShield handling for teams running SaaS or internal services across servers.[1]

Who will love it

• Home-server operators who want one dashboard for installs, updates, reverse proxying, and certificates instead of wiring each app by hand.[1]

• Small businesses keeping internal tools and sensitive operations on premises with strict access control and no external data exposure.[1]

• Households or small teams sharing self-hosted apps who need multi-user single sign-on with two-factor authentication.[1]

Who should avoid it

• License-conscious open-source adopters should pause: the LICENCE file is Apache 2.0 with a Commons Clause and an Anti Tampering Clause, which bars selling products or services deriving value from the software, so it is source-available rather than OSI-approved open source.[1][2]

• Operators who do not want to own server hardware: the whole model assumes a Linux server you maintain, so there is no vendor-hosted cloud to offload operations to.[1]

• Teams needing multi-server clusters or role-based permissions on a free plan: those capabilities sit in the paid Pro tier from $16/month, not the free core.[1]

Alternatives and compatibility