Self-Hosting Isn't Free: The Honest Math of Running Your Own Server
Every self-hosting guide starts the same way: “Forget Dropbox, forget Google Drive — run it yourself and save money.” I’m going to tell you something different. Self-hosting costs money. Self-hosting costs time. Self-hosting has hidden costs that nobody writes about until you’re three hours deep in a broken Docker volume at 11 PM on a Wednesday. This isn’t an anti-self-hosting post. I’ve been running my own servers at home for five years. I love it. But I wish someone had shown me this math before I started. So let me show you the math. ...