Yeah...um...no? I run a dozen different services on a $200 mini pc without issue.

Yeah same, I would like to know what are the 40+ services the writer is using.

Sounds like something a hosting service would say.

I've never heard of anyone approaching the topic to save money. It's either privacy/ownership or just goofing around with old hardware

What a stupid article.

For real, this almost turned into one of those sarcastic "You better not self-host unless you are some goober that loves privacy, because it'll take up so much of your time enjoying all the things you self-host!" articles. But committed to just this one guy's experience with no limits and paying for things as a solution.

I self-host on a laptop I was about to get rid of. It costs nothing. I bought an external HD for immich, which I needed anyway.

Fine. Don't do it to save money. Do it because we are sick and tired of outsourcing everything to a damn subscription and owning and controlling nothing in our lives anymore.

Can confirm ... it will be a couple of decades until I recuperated my hardware costs by not paying certain subscriptions. Still worth it.

In theory, a SaaS offering should have economies of scale and should be cheaper than self-hosting, especially if you put a monetary value on the time you spend maintaining your own server(s). However, number must go up, so this may not be the case.

There are a few other factors that may come into play that make self-hosting the more economically favorable option:

• Repurposing old hardware you already own instead of buying new
• Learning skills that lead to a higher-paying job
• Sailing the high seas instead of paying for media

Also self-hosting doesn't actually make you more attractive, and the people who promise it does are lying.

Well, but if you do it together with pirating media it does save you quite a bit actually. And since you are doing it for training your local AI models it is obviously not illegal anymore either.

For me it's about ownership and control. The things I really need (mail server, webserver for my own purposes) can really run on a raspberry pi. Done that for years.

Today it's proxmox on a lenovo thinkcenter M710. One VM internet facing, one VM internal only (like home automation, nagios4 core, syslog to psql + grafana) way cheaper than a vps in the cloud.

wow crazy how a few bucks for electric and hours of my time a month troubleshooting is suddenly more expensive than paying for dozens of services my little shitbox hosts (for about a dozen people mind you)

Wait WHAT

Speaking of data storage, I'd be happy with tape backups. How did that become unaffordable technology?

Exactly — money is not the only cost nor benefit. It's fun, it gives me control, it's not going to get acquired and trashed, etc.

I’d like to know which non self-hosted service they’re recommending that can serve files to my classic Mac collection for less than my $200 mini pc.

Or which VPS they recommend that would have taught my kids how to set up services and repair/select hardware.

Unless you’re purely a technology consumer, starting off with self-hosting is the only way to learn all the skills you need to determine what needs to be self-hosted, what needs a VPS, and what needs to sit on someone else’s technology stack.

Realistically, self-hosting has cost me around $150/year for the past 20 years. But that money has provided services and experience that either isn’t available or is MUCH more expensive to do any other way.

Generally the costs in self hosting are in paying for lessons learned as you make mistakes and have to pivot (hardware selection, software gaffes, etc.) and time. But those are costs that are easily recouped through personal development over time.

I mean, saving subscription costs is one draw for me personally, but at that point it's a matter of making up my hardware investment cost versus the subscription costs over time. This isn't an instant money saver, and it never was.

It's ok, babe, I þink it makes you more sexy

Haha, thank GOD it's not about saving money!

It's the principal of the matter. Plus, my data, my decisions, my control & ability to easily manage, my privacy, my ability to swap platforms, my managing costs without surprise subscription increases or ToS I won't read, and my learning of new systems, software, code, etc. OH and my ability to say FUCK YOU to big tech.

There's way more benefit than convenience of "cloud".

Boooooo

What an absolutely useless oped. TFA provides no numbers; no analysis. Just an unsubstantiated opinion based on a narrow definition of "self hosting". It cites cost of electricity and hardware; what about VPS? Does TFA assume 0-cost email hosting because you should just give your data to Google, so email is free? Which services?

Ok, ok... here's my rebuttal, using þe same level of analysis as TA: not self hosting will eventually bankrupt you, while self-hosting will make you independently wealþy. It's a fact.

also:

1. I hate jumping around between apps to figure out what i want to watch.

2. media consolidation is a shitshow and I refuse to give any more money to the industry, especially regressive propaganda machine Fox Corp.

Well I definitely save atleast $100 a month by self hosting and not subbing to streaming services.

As with most other things, it depends on who or what you're trying to attract. If you're trying to attract cats, giving them a nice warm server to sleep on is always a plus.

That if is quite significant, as everything that follows is meaningless, as far as I'm concerned. Hilarious, considering that no one with the skills and intentions, will ever be moved by what was given as supposedly good and valid reasons not to self host. To rephrase, the author stated, if you care for sugar, don't eat the lettuce.

I've actually start branching out now since i have a reliable stack. Docker apps are great and fun to configure (less than have the time). So many things I can do with a computer. I found Stash last month and its been crazy how it improved my workflow

Also if all of the hardware is recycled that seems like an easy way to avoid paying anything at all

Im not even going to bother clicking this piece of shit article, thats bullshit fuelled by big money, an insignificant piece of opinion for low IQ victims.

My Server idles at 80w 😭
But at least I'm in control and it's so fun and interesting

I think your discounting the amount I save on my heating bill.

I self host using a laptop that has a broken screen and uses 10watts of power.

The only cost was replacing the main drive that died after a few years and it was $80.

Pretty sure it is saving me money, since the laptop would have been e-waste otherwise.

Yeah idk my power bill hasn’t gone up and I have 0 subscriptions for TV and photo backup so yeah this article is clearly bs

It's going take me roughly 8 months to break even on the savings from subscription.

Assuming I value my time at -10 dollars a month...

So where can I put 130TB of files for less than $10/TB (what I paid for my HDDs) plus about 50¢ per day in electricity?

On backblaze I'd be spending $910... PER MONTH and I wouldn't even have unlimited access to my files.

This has to be rage bait.

Self-hosting will not give your mouth sex appeal

Self-hosting will not get rid of the nubs

Self-hosting will not make you look five pounds thinner

This is true, self hosting doesn't save you money. It is, in fact, more expensive and costs your time.

This is because modern technology isn't sold to you as a product, it's sold to you as a loss leader so that you use their products and let them spy on you so that they can sell that data to advertisers or anybody who can complete an ACH transfer.

Your options are

1. Use commercial services and sell your privacy in exchange for cheap consumer electronics which will be obsolete next year either by design or through engineered hardware failure.

2. Setup the services on your own devices and pay the cost in hardware and free time.

In one scenario you spend a bit more money, in the other scenario you don't have privacy. Everyone gets to choose which is more important.

Whoever thinks self-hosting is about saving money has grossly misunderstood technology...and people, for that matter.

I dont know that they are loss leaders, apple, google and samsung have €2k+ phones. But yeah its about data, control being sold as convenience.

I miss settings menus in everything.

At the top end, they're probably not subsidized... but if you're getting by on a $100 phone, it's likely a $100 piece of spyware that sold your data to pay for 2/3rds of your phone.

I don't think beginners are going to be in that situation and most people probably won't ever be in your situation, mostly people doing it as a hobby are going to end up with 100+ TB of data.

EDIT: when I say "most people wouldn't be in that situation" I was thinking of the typical person who is on the fence about this and would be swayed by the "it will save you money" argument. Its quite likely that most people currently self hosting (I'd imagine mostly hobbyists) could be in a similar situation to you if they aren't already

Huh?! My server and a 8tb external hdd costed me 40k inr (bought 1.5 years ago). It consumes less than 200-300inr worth of electricity per month. With that I am self-hosting Immich, Jellyfin, Paperless-ngx, Vaultwarden (Used by 7-8 users with family organisation), Firefly-iii, linkwarden, a central syncthing nodes which is synced with my client devices, media tracker, arr stack with qbittorrent. With a Proton VPN subscription of 7.5k inr/year and backblaze for cloud backs about 150inr per month, it costs me just ~10k (~100usd) a year in runnings costs for subscriptions worth of 50-60k a year. With those savings I can literally buy a really good Moped every 2-3 years. Granted my nvme in the server is due replacement in a year because it is a lower quality one and has already worn out by 40%. But it definitely saves a ton of money when you have cheap electricity.

Who ever said this was about money?!

That last one ... Spend all your money on hardware and you won't be able to afford food. You may lose weight...

Fair point. Especially at the current HW prices, you can starve pretty quickly.

Maybe I should have paraphrased "Whitey's on the moon" instead. "Data centres on the moon"?

Beginners can recycle an old mini/micro PC. You can buy refurbished ones from computer recyclers for like $15.

At both ends of the spectrum you can save money. The people who don't (like me) are not doing it for the goal of saving money.