Stop Renting SaaS. Build Your Own Cloud.
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Why pay cloud companies when you can just… not?
I’ve recently started running my own services at home, because.. honestly?
I’m tired of paying cloud providers for things I can run myself on a tiny box.
No, you don’t need a server farm or expensive GPUs.
That old laptop collecting dust? Perfect.
Your rPi 4? Absolutely.
Even grandma’s water cooled gaming rig (which all grandmas have) works.
You’re renting what you could own
Here’s what’s wild - we’re all paying monthly fees for URL shorteners, storage, AI tools, even basic utilities.
The SaaS bill keeps growing.
Now, I'm *not* saying you should host anything.
Some services are better off in the cloud or from your provider.
Once such example is your email provider, that handles spam lists, and routing, filtration and DNS horror you don't want to deal with.
But here’s what I learned: most of these tools are just open-source software, or have great open source alternatives, running in containers anyway.
Why rent when you can own?
“Just Use The Cloud” is not always right
People say “just pay for the convenience.” I thought this for so long...
But look - that convenience comes with vendor lock in, price hikes, and your data sitting on someone else’s computer.
Plus, half the stuff you’re paying for?
You don’t actually need 99.9% uptime for. Now hang on, I know you're firing up, I did too, and I'm NOT saying cut the cables.
All I'm saying that if there's a power cut every once in a blue moon, it's not the end of the world.
Claude and Gemini failed me too many times to count.
A URL shortener for personal use?
A local file storage system?
These are perfect self-host candidates.
You don’t need enterprise-grade reliability for personal projects.
And when you do? Skip to other projects.
How I actually did it (and you can too)
I grabbed a Zima Cube (8GB RAM, tiny CPU - nothing fancy - and yes, I already had it), SSH’d in, and started with Docker.
Here’s the beauty: most of the work is already done for you.
Don't have a board? Take an old laptop or a pi4 and have a go.
Funny enough, the first thing I got annoyed by was bit.ly asking for upgrade on my single-shortened URL.
Enter Shlink:
# Create a directory for shlink
mkdir -p ~/shlink && cd ~/shlink
Create a shlink docker-compose file, and start the service.
Now I can just run
sl short-url:create https://example.com
# boom - shortened URL.
But here’s where it gets interesting. I wanted this public-facing but secure. That’s where Caddy comes in:
mkdir -p ~/caddy && cd ~/caddy
Caddy handles SSL automatically.
No messing with certificates.
It’s honestly magic.
But what about when I’m not home and need to access my dashboard?
Enter Twingate. I set up a connector on my box:
# Twingate connector docker-compose.yml
cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
services:
twingate:
image: twingate/connector:1
environment:
- TWINGATE_NETWORK=your-network
- TWINGATE_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-token
- TWINGATE_REFRESH_TOKEN=your-refresh-token
restart: unless-stopped
EOF
Download the Twingate client on your phone or laptop, connect, and you’re on your home network. Even on cellular. Even from a coffee shop.
What I actually run
Here’s the full stack: - Shlink for URL shortening - Caddy as a reverse proxy with automatic SSL - Twingate for secure remote access - Ollama with a tiny 3B parameter model for local AI (no more sending everything to OpenAI) - Open WebUI to actually chat with that model through a browser - My NAS mounted for storage and serves as my S3 (just replaced my previous setup with rustFS)
Total monthly cost? $0.
What you should actually self-host (and what you actually shouldn't)
Look, I’m not saying self-host everything.
Your email? Probably keep that with a provider.
Banking? Finances? Probably not.
But personal utilities, development tools, file storage, password managers, 2FA systems - these are perfect candidates.
Check out awesome-selfhosted if you want ideas.
The options are insane - from full Google Suite alternatives to ad blockers to home automation.
The key is starting simple. One service. Docker makes it easy.
You don’t need Kubernetes or proxmox or any of that stuff (unless you really want to). Just Docker compose and a bit of patience.
Your Action Items:
- Find that old laptop or Pi you’ve got lying around
- Install Docker (it’s probably already there if you’re running any modern Linux)
- Pick ONE service to self-host (start with something simple like a URL shortener or file browser)
- Set up Caddy in front of it for easy SSL
- Add Twingate if you need remote access
That’s it. You’re now a self-hoster. Welcome to the club.
Want more self-hosting setups? Reply and let me know what service you’re thinking about running yourself.
I hope this was valuable! Thank you for reading.
Feel free to reply directly with any question or feedback.
Have a great weekend!
Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:
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