---
title: Introduction
description: What Openship is, who it's for, and the three places you can run your apps — your own machine, your own server, or the cloud.
---

Openship is a tool that takes your code and turns it into a real, working website or app with its own web
address. You point it at your code once, and it does the boring parts — building, wiring up a web address,
turning on HTTPS — for you.

Here's a way to picture it: your code is a recipe, and Openship is the kitchen. You hand it the recipe, and
it cooks the meal and puts it on the table. You don't have to know how the oven works.

Two things make Openship a little different from other tools like it:

- **It's open source.** The whole thing is free to use, read, and change, under the Apache 2.0 license.
- **You choose where it lives.** You can run Openship — and the apps you deploy with it — on your own
  computer, on your own server, or on Openship Cloud. Your stuff stays where you put it.

<Callout title="Screenshot">The Openship dashboard home showing a list of projects with their live status. *(screenshot pending)*</Callout>

## Who it's for

If you have some code and you want it online without becoming a server expert, Openship is for you. That
covers a lot of people:

- A solo developer shipping a side project from a laptop.
- A team running real production apps who want one tool for everything.
- Anyone who'd rather own their setup than rent it from a big provider.

You do **not** need to know Docker, write pipeline files, or hand-edit YAML. Openship looks at your code,
figures out what kind of app it is, and sets things up for you.

## Where your code comes from

Openship can pick up your app from two places:

- **From GitHub** — connect a repository, and Openship pulls the code and deploys it. It can even redeploy
  by itself every time you push. See [Deploy from GitHub](/docs/guides/deploy-from-github).
- **From a folder** — point Openship at a folder on your computer and deploy what's there, no Git required.

Either way, the next part is the same.

## The three ways to run your apps

When you deploy, Openship asks one important question: *where should this app actually run?* There are three
answers, and you can pick a different one for each project.

<Cards>
  <Card title="Local — on this machine" description="Runs right on the computer you're using. Perfect for trying things out, or for the desktop app where everything lives in one place." />
  <Card title="Your server" description="Runs on a Linux server you own and have connected to Openship — a VPS, a dedicated box, or a machine at home. Openship reaches it over SSH." />
  <Card title="Openship Cloud" description="We run it for you on managed cloud compute. No server to look after — sign up and deploy." />
</Cards>

The same dashboard, CLI, and steps work for all three. Moving an app to a different place later doesn't mean
learning a new tool.

<Callout title="One app, one home" type="info">
A project lives in exactly one of these places at a time — it's either fully local, fully on your server, or
fully in the cloud, never split across them. If you're curious how that works under the hood, see
[Architecture overview](/docs/architecture/overview).
</Callout>

## Three ways to drive it

However you like to work, there's a way in:

- **Desktop app** — a full window with buttons, live logs, and one-click everything. Bundles the whole
  platform, so it's great for deploying straight from a folder.
- **Web dashboard** — the same screens in your browser, built for teams to share.
- **CLI** — type commands in your terminal; ideal for scripts and automation.

There's also a REST API and an MCP server (a way for AI tools to drive Openship) for anyone building on top.

## Pick your path

New here? Start with the Quickstart. Setting up a server of your own? Start with Installation.

<Cards>
  <Card title="Quickstart" href="/docs/getting-started/quickstart" description="Go from zero to a live app in a couple of minutes." />
  <Card title="Installation" href="/docs/getting-started/installation" description="Set up Openship on your own machine, server, or the cloud." />
  <Card title="First deployment" href="/docs/getting-started/first-deployment" description="Walk through deploying your first real app, step by step." />
  <Card title="Core concepts" href="/docs/getting-started/core-concepts" description="The handful of words Openship uses — projects, deployments, servers, domains, and more — in plain language." />
</Cards>
