Forge does the following for you:

  * API wrapper for many platforms
  * SSH-key only access (password access disabled)
  * Firewall management
  * CRON management
  * Sets up server dependencies and manages SSH keys
  * Handles private networking between servers and firewalls to open ports between them
  * Push to deploy (via Github)
  * Handles spinning up more queue workers (beanstalkd + supervisord) by clicking a button
  * Allows you to enter in "recipes" to run scripts (bash, php, others as well) on your servers
  * Allows you to "archive" servers - which means Forge will   "forget" your server, 
    eliminating the ability for Forge to access the server at all. 
    To re-enable the server from within Forge, you need to add  in a 
    new ssh public key which Forge will re-generate for you.

Forge is not:

  * Server management (if your server goes down, you contact the hosting, not Forge)