Published on Wed Jun 25 2025 12:22:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) by Pratham Ghaywat

Is selfhosting a good idea?

I often hear a lot of how companies and users get huge bills for sometimes literally doing nothing.

Often you will hear developers talking about how selfhosting is the best way to host sites and it is also more cost effective than cloud solutions.

So why don’t many people selfhost?

I think that in my 5 years of experience of talking to devs, the main reason was: they weren’t comfortable enough. And that was fair enough, but since Coolify and similar platforms have emerged, the landscape has completely changed.

The Traditional Barriers

Setting up your own server used to mean:

Configuring nginx or Apache from scratch
Setting up SSL certificates manually
Managing Docker containers with complex compose files
Handling database backups and monitoring
Dealing with security patches and updates
Troubleshooting deployment issues at 2 AM

No wonder most developers just threw money at Vercel, Netlify, or AWS and called it a day.

Enter Modern Selfhosting Tools

Tools like Coolify, CapRover, and Dokku have made selfhosting accessible to developers who don’t want to become system administrators. With Coolify, you can:

Deploy applications with a simple git push
Get automatic SSL certificates via Let’s Encrypt
Monitor your applications with built-in dashboards
Handle database deployments with one-click setups
Scale services without touching configuration files

The Real Cost Comparison

Let’s be honest about the numbers. A $5/month VPS can host what would cost you $50-200/month on major cloud platforms. That’s particularly true for:

Static sites (why pay $20/month when you can host dozens for $5?)
Small to medium web applications
Personal projects and side hustles
Development and staging environments

When Selfhosting Makes Sense

Selfhosting is great when you:

Want predictable monthly costs
Have multiple projects to host
Care about data ownership and privacy
Enjoy learning about infrastructure (even just a little)
Need custom configurations that cloud platforms don’t offer

When to Stick with Cloud

Cloud platforms still win for:

Mission-critical applications requiring 99.99% uptime
Applications with unpredictable traffic spikes
Teams without any infrastructure knowledge
Compliance requirements that need specific certifications
Global CDN requirements

The Coolify Revolution

What makes Coolify special is that it brings the developer experience of modern PaaS platforms to your own server. You get:

GitHub/GitLab integration for automatic deployments
Environment variable management
Service discovery and networking
Backup management
A clean web interface that doesn’t require terminal expertise

It’s like having your own private Heroku, but better and cheaper.

My Recommendation

Start small. Grab a 4$ Digitalocean Droplet, install Coolify, and migrate one non-critical project. And if you really want the local experience then grab a Raspberry Pi or even a mini pc and set it up something like Headless Raspberry Pi OS. You’ll be surprised how smooth and fast the experience is compared to the old days of manual server management.

For most developers, the sweet spot is a hybrid approach: use selfhosting for personal projects, staging environments, and cost-sensitive applications, while keeping mission-critical production workloads on managed cloud platforms.

The barrier to entry has never been lower, and your wallet will thank you. Plus, you’ll actually learn something about how the internet works beneath all those abstraction layers.

Final Thoughts

Selfhosting isn’t just about saving money—though you definitely will. It’s about taking control of your infrastructure, understanding your stack better, and having the flexibility to build exactly what you need.

With tools like Coolify I think it makes the whole process easier and better. Up for the challenge?

Links to check out: