Yes — very easily.

Caddy is actually excellent for hosting multiple Rails apps on one machine.

You simply:

  • run each Rails app on a different internal port
  • let Caddy route domains/subdomains to the correct app

Example architecture

Mac mini
├── Caddy
├── App 1 (Puma :3000)
├── App 2 (Puma :3001)
├── App 3 (Puma :3002)
└── SQLite files

Traffic:

app1.com  ──► localhost:3000
app2.com  ──► localhost:3001
api.app3.com ──► localhost:3002

Example Caddyfile

app1.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

app2.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3001
}

api.app3.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3002
}

That’s it.

Caddy automatically:

  • handles SSL for all domains
  • renews certificates
  • routes traffic correctly

Each Rails app runs independently

For example:

App 1

PORT=3000 bundle exec puma

App 2

PORT=3001 bundle exec puma

This setup is surprisingly scalable

A modern Mac mini can comfortably run:

  • several Rails apps
  • SQLite databases
  • Sidekiq workers
  • background jobs

especially:

  • M1/M2/M3 models
  • 16GB+ RAM

Rails apps are often much lighter than people assume.

Process management

You’ll eventually want something to keep apps running.

On macOS, common choices are:

launchd (native macOS)

Built into macOS.

Overmind / Foreman

Simple Procfile-based management.

systemd

(Not available on macOS.)

Docker Compose

If you later move toward containers.

Very practical structure

Example:

/apps
  /myapp1
  /myapp2
  /myapp3

Each app:

  • has its own Rails directory
  • own SQLite DB
  • own Puma process
  • own environment variables

Caddy sits in front routing requests.

SQLite works well here too

Each app just has:

  • its own .sqlite3 file

Example:

myapp1/storage/production.sqlite3
myapp2/storage/production.sqlite3

No DB server needed.

One thing to watch

Because all apps share one machine:

  • RAM usage adds up
  • runaway apps can affect others
  • backups become important

But for:

  • indie apps
  • internal tools
  • small SaaS projects

this is very common and practical.

You can even do zero-downtime-ish deploys

Eventually you can:

  • restart Puma gracefully
  • deploy with git hooks
  • use blue/green ports
  • or adopt Kamal later

without changing Caddy much.

This is honestly a nice setup

Your architecture becomes:

MacBook
   │
   ▼
git push / rsync / deploy script
   │
   ▼
Mac mini
├── Caddy
├── Rails app 1
├── Rails app 2
├── Rails app 3
└── SQLite DBs

Simple, understandable, low maintenance.

🤖 created with help of ai