Self-Hosted WordPress Optimized Runtime on Docker (SWORD)

The open-source, self-hosted alternative to FlyWP and SpinupWP:
Slash your hosting cost with SWORD.

We are building a lightweight, high-performance control panel to deploy and manage WordPress sites using Docker.

It’s designed for developers and agencies who want the speed and isolation of containerized hosting without paying monthly fees for SaaS management panels. Also for developers and agencies who want more control over their infrastructure.

The Problem

Managing WordPress at scale often leaves you with two options:

1. Managed Hosting (e.g. Kinsta, WPEngine): Can have very good performance and is easy to use, but very expensive and limited control.
2. Unmanaged VPS (e.g. DigitalOcean, Hetzner): Cheap, but requires manual command-line configuration. It’s a pain to set up caching, SSL, and distinct database users for 50+ sites manually. And managing/maintaining a lot of sites this way becomes a major pain.

SaaS Control Panels (like FlyWP, RunCloud, SpinupWP) bridge this gap, but they introduce a “middleman tax”. You pay a monthly subscription just to manage your own servers. Plus, you rely on their dashboard being online to manage your infrastructure. And you have less control over how the infrastructure is built.

The Solution

“Project SWORD” is a self-hosted dashboard that sits on one of your servers. It turns a raw Linux (Ubuntu) server into a high-performance WordPress hosting suite.

• Docker-Based Isolation: Every site gets its own container. If one site gets hacked or crashes, it doesn’t touch the others. (Similar to FlyWP)
• Performance by Default: We don’t just install Apache/PHP. We provision a tuned stack: Nginx + FastCGI Cache + Redis Object Cache + MariaDB.

Zero Monthly Fees And Full Control: You own the code. You host the panel. You control the data.

Target Audience

• DevOps/Sysadmin Wizard: Someone who loves Nginx configs, Docker Compose networking, and optimizing PHP-FPM pools.
• Backend Developers: To build the back-end logic and API that talks to the Docker daemon.
• Frontend Developers: To build a slick “SaaS-quality” dashboard.

Join us to build the ultimate high-performance hosting stack for WordPress websites. Owned and controlled by yourself, not a corporation!

Hackathon Goals

1. The Dashboard: A clean UI where you click “Create New Site”, enter a domain (e.g., client-site.com), and hit “Deploy”.
2. The Orchestrator: The backend receives the request and:
   • Spins up a Docker container for WordPress (PHP-FPM) on a linked server.
   • Creates a separate MariaDB database and user.
   • Configures an Nginx Reverse Proxy with FastCGI caching rules pre-applied, optimized for WordPress.
   • Spins up a Redis container for object caching and links it to WP.
   • Requests a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate automatically.
3. The Outcome: A live, HTTPS-secured WordPress site that loads very fast.

This is a long-term project we intend to use at Synio in the future! Additional goals, but probably post-hackathon, are:
Cloud API integration, DNS automation, Backups via BorgBackup, Security, WP management, Staging environments…

Results

Slaying the Middleman Tax ⚔️

We came, we coded, we conquered! A massive, multinational team banded together over three intensive days to build an open-source, self-hosted alternative to expensive SaaS WordPress management panels. Recognizing that the modern web has been cornered by the “Middleman Tax” – expensive fees, config hell, vendor lock-in, and latency – we forged a weapon to take back control.

Welcome to the era of Project SWORD (Self-hosted WordPress Optimized Runtime on Docker).

Team Members 🙌

In alphabetical order.

• Project leads
  • Franco Lombardo
  • Wesley Stessens
• Team members
  • Elias Hackradt
  • Emile Vianney-Liaud
  • Florian Blaser
  • Jan-Willem Oostendorp
  • Ovidiu Linca
  • Matthias Kurz
  • Zsolt Revay-Giran

What We Built 🚀

Managing WordPress at scale usually forces developers into a compromise: pay exorbitant fees for Managed Hosting, wrestle with the manual configuration of unmanaged VPSs, or pay a recurring “middleman tax” to SaaS control panels.

SWORD cuts the middleman straight out of the equation. We built a lightweight, high-performance control panel to deploy and manage WordPress sites using Docker. It turns a raw Linux server into a high-performance WordPress hosting suite where every site gets its own isolated container. You own the code, you host the panel, and you control the data – with zero monthly fees.

The Technical Stack: Our orchestrator provisions and manages cloud servers using Docker containers.

• Server Stack: Traefik (routing), MariaDB (database queries), Ofelia (cronjobs), and Dockhand (container debugging).
• Web Stack: Each created site runs a highly optimized stack composed of Nginx, PHP, and Redis.
• Performance: SWORD is blazing fast. Public static pages load in the sub-100 ms range, and admin pages run incredibly smoothly thanks to opcode caching, just-in-time compilation, and Redis object caching.

What We Achieved 🎯

Through entirely too much coffee and incredible collaboration, we built a fully functional end-to-end MVP. We didn’t just hit our core goals; we crushed our stretch goals (✨) too!

• ✅ (Automatic) Server Provisioning: Seamlessly linking servers to the dashboard.
• ✅ 1-Click Site Creation: Say goodbye to complex setups.
• ✅ Automatic SSL: Requesting Let’s Encrypt certificates automatically.
• ✅ Static Page Caching: Pre-applied FastCGI caching rules.
• ✅ Object Caching: Dedicated Redis containers linked to WP.
• ✅ Backup & Restore (BorgBackup): ✨ Automated data protection.
• ✅ DNS Management (Cloudflare): ✨ Integrated domain handling.
• ✅ Scalable Infrastructure: ✨ Run everything on a single VPS or manage an entire fleet.
• ✅ WordPress Agent Plug-in: ✨ Deep integration with the WP installation.

What’s Next? 🔮

The hackathon may be over, but our work isn’t. We intend to continue maintaining and expanding the project, with plans to utilize it at Synio in the future. We want to further refine the codebase, improve cloud API integrations, and add more features for agency-level staging environments.

Who will take our crown at the 10th edition of the CloudFest Hackathon next year? We just have to warn you… we won’t go down without a fight. We have SWORDs, after all!

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Important Links 🔗

• Video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6J1xyMyprk
• Hackathon aftermovie (SWORD song): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhBOuWWUyKE
• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/SynioBE/SWORD
• Favourite social media videos
  • We came, we coded, we conquered: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7442189402874900480/
  • Behind the scenes & re-watch the play: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zsolt-revay_cfhack2026-cfhack2026-cfhack-activity-7441533201354805249-L-32
  • Mock interview: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zsolt-revay_cfhack2026-cfhack-cloudfest-activity-7441444451132157952-7wP8
  • Time-lapse while working: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zsolt-revay_cfhack2026-cfhack2026-cfhack-activity-7441418588755914753-vjFj
  • The SWORD march: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zsolt-revay_cfhack2026-cfhack-cloudfest-activity-7441074177454960640-qgvx