Be prepared for the urge to run your own bare metal in a colo.
More expensive
More time consuming
More involved
More sweat
but for us right now, it's more awesome, and it's actually way cheaper.
we're probably an exception and not the norm.
Moved from AWS → Render → Hetzner Dokploy.
AWS: $100/mo, 3 services, IAM & networking hell, surprise bills etc.
Render: $40/mo for very low/basic specs, meh control (but still nice to work with)
Hetzner Dokploy: $5-10/mo, full VPS, full control
One-click deploys. Traefik reverse proxy. Auto SSL. Postgres/Redis included. GitHub Actions ready.
Same app. 95% cost reduction. 10min setup. Actually fun.
Next step: Raspberry Pi in my closet. Then I’ll grow up and over-engineer everything with K8s like a real adult 🫡