The Cost of Self-Hosting

26 Dec 2024 | ~6 minute read

Since playing around with Android and trying to get some self-hosted services running, I've been thinking about the costs of self-hosting. Ironically, I think the cost to my wallet is the least of them.

I've talked about what I think the definition of self-hosting is in the past, but it's been 5 years since I wrote that post, and although my opinion hasn't really changed on the definition, the way I think about self-hosting has.

Levels of self-hosting

I don't think self-hosting is a binary you either do it, or you don't. I think it's a scale and there are different levels of self-hosting. Some examples of the different levels would be:

I think all of the above can be classed as self-hosting in some form, but I think there are a number of things to consider when deciding how to self-host something.

Self-hosting considerations (costs)

At one time or another, I've self-hosted something in every one of the ways listed above. But each time I'm considering self-hosting something, there are a few costs I always think about before pulling the trigger. They are:

These 5 costs are what I consider every time I think about self-hosting something. And they ultimately determine both how and what I decide to self-host.

Some self-hosting examples

So let's look at some examples of the things I personally self-host, how I weighed up the 5 costs above, and why I ultimately ended up with the solution I did.

This website

The monetary cost is very low. It's around £6/month for the server, £8/month for my newsletter service (Buttondown) and around £10/year for the domain. So around £15/month for something I get so much out of is easily affordable, so the cost goes way down the list of considerations.

Time and flexibility are interconnected here. I wanted a solution that was kinda managed for me, but allowed the flexibility to spin up other websites when I want. My VPS runs Plesk, so that manages all the server upgrades etc. for me, so there's very little of my time taken up managing shit. I can also spin up new sites as the click of a button. Very flexible.

I don't really care about privacy or security for this use case as everything on my site is public, and the credentials are unique. So I'm happy for the site to be hosted somewhere else (in my case with Ionos) and if the site gets compromised, it's all backed up, so I can (hopefully) fix the vulnerability and re-publish my site very easily.

My documents & photos

On the other end of the scale from this public site, my documents and photos are very private, so privacy and security are top of the list here. I could have used iCloud, but although they're better than Google, there's still plenty of examples of people having their iCloud accounts popped. Nah, I want more control than that.

So I decided to self-host my docs and photos on my Synology at home. I have a client that syncs all my documents and photos to my Synology automatically (think self-hosted Dropbox), both from my MacBook and my iPhone. The only way to access my Synology is via a VPN, so it's not accessible to the Internet. And because it's self-hosted on hardware I own, there are few privacy concerns.

Everything is backed up both locally and remotely; with remote backups being encrypted before they're uploaded. All very secure.

However, this all comes at a cost to my wallet. Synology devices are very expensive (mine was around £1,000). But it's a cost I'm willing to take to ensure my most personal data is secure and private.

My RSS reader

My RSS reader is very important to me - I love reading other people blogs. But as with this site, it's all public data, so privacy and security aren't a consideration here.

Flexibility is, as I read my RSS feeds in multiple locations. Luckily for me, Miniflux offers a fantastic published web app (PWA) so I can use it pretty much anywhere without the need for installing apps.

My RSS reader, although important to me, is one of those services that I have zero interest in maintaining. I could spin up a docker container on my Synology and host it there, but I don't want to spend that time managing it. Miniflux offer a hosted option for just $15/year, so for a small amount of money, I get to support the development of a product I really enjoy using, and I don't have to spent any time maintaining it.

Final thoughts

This post ended up being much longer than I intended it to be, sorry about that. But I hope some of the example here show that there are different kinds of self-hosting for different use cases. Well, in my opinion at least. This is why I often struggle to provide an answer when people ask "what do you self-host?" because for me, it's not a simple answer.

I'm in the very fortunate position for be comfortable when it comes to money, but I'm very time poor. So the cost of self-hosting for me usually centres around my free time. For other people that may be different. Maybe privacy is your first consideration, or maybe money. Whatever it is, I think they're considerations worth making before jumping in.

Anyway, I've waffled on long enough here now, so if you have thoughts, please do let me know by using the email button below. After all, it's good to talk.

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