PullPreview
Deployment previews for your pull requests, on servers you control
SubscriptionDevOps22,017 impressions#11 of its week
PullPreview is a GitHub Action that creates live preview environments for PRs on your own AWS Lightsail or Hetzner servers.
- for
- Developers, product owners, ops and CTOs who want self-hosted PR previews.
- pricing
- paid
- license
- open source
Key features
- Docker-Compose previews — Deploys any app that runs with Docker Compose without code rewrites.
- Runs in your cloud account — Uses your own AWS Lightsail or Hetzner VMs, keeping code and data in-house.
- PR-lifecycle integration — Creates previews on label, redeploys on push, comments status and cleans up on unlabel.
- Persistent state — Docker volumes keep preview data between redeploys.
- Auto HTTPS & custom domains — Caddy sidecar provides Let’s Encrypt certificates automatically.
- Scoped SSH access — Reviewers can SSH using their GitHub keys, no extra credentials needed.
Use cases
- Product owners can interact with new features in a real environment before merge.
- Developers share work-in-progress with instant, reproducible preview URLs.
- Ops retain full control of infrastructure while providing preview environments.
PullPreview vs alternatives
 PullPreview | .png?width=64) Livecycle | .png?width=64) Dokploy | .svg?width=64) Devzero |  Chaterm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Self-hosted pull-request preview environments | SaaS collaborative preview environments | Self-hosted app deployment platform | Self-hosted development environments | Infra automation via CLI |
| Pricing | Paid | Free | Free | Subscription | Subscription |
| DevHunt upvotes | 13 | 52 | 19 | 85 | 65 |
| Launched | Jan 2023 | Jan 2023 | Jun 2024 | Apr 2024 | Apr 2026 |
- PullPreview vs Livecycle: Livecycle offers collaborative previews for any stack but is a SaaS service, not self-hosted.
- PullPreview vs Dokploy: Dokploy is an open-source platform for deploying apps (Heroku-like) whereas PullPreview focuses on PR-specific previews.
- PullPreview vs Devzero: Devzero provides full dev environments for code execution, not targeted PR preview deployments.
- PullPreview vs Chaterm: Chaterm automates infra via terminal commands, not previewing PRs automatically.
PullPreview FAQ
How does PullPreview create a preview environment?+
When a PR is labeled, the action provisions a VM on your chosen provider, runs Docker-Compose and posts the preview URL back to the PR.
Do I need to modify my application code?+
No, any app that already runs with Docker Compose works unchanged.
What happens to preview data between redeploys?+
Docker volumes persist data, so state is retained across pushes.
Is there any per-preview cost?+
No, you only pay the compute cost of your own cloud provider; the license has no per-preview markup.
Can reviewers access the preview via SSH?+
Yes, reviewers can SSH using their GitHub user keys through a scoped SSH tunnel.
Is PullPreview open source?+
The GitHub Action is open source; commercial use requires a paid license.
Summarized by DevHunt from pullpreview.com · Sep 27, 2026. Details may change; check the official site.
