I Ditched 5 Cloud Subscriptions and Built a Self-Hosted Stack — Here's the Real Cost Breakdown

Description and use

The author migrated five cloud services to a self-hosted stack on existing hardware, cutting monthly costs from $89 to about $8 and gaining full control over data.

Problem

Monthly cloud services ($89/mo) were draining money for tools that could be self-hosted on existing hardware.

Outcome

Reduced monthly spend from $89 to ~$8, saving ~$16/month ($192/year). Gained lower latency, full control, and privacy, but added maintenance burden and limited mobile access.

Workflow

• Identify cloud services and costs
• Inventory existing hardware
• Select open-source replacements
• Set up Obsidian vault and Git sync
• Deploy Mattermost in Docker on Ubuntu
• Install Ollama and Continue.dev on Windows PC
• Configure Docker+Nginx on Mac Mini
• Run PostgreSQL in Docker on Mac Mini
• Set up Cloudflare Tunnel for external access
• Backup PostgreSQL data weekly to external drive
• Monitor and maintain services

Evidence

I save about $16/month. Not life-changing money. But over a year that's $192

Source

My internal tools respond instantly because they're on my LAN. The webhook receiver used to take 200ms from the VPS. Now it takes 5ms.

Source