I wrote a free, no-BS guide for developers who want to self-host their own dev tools instead of paying for SaaS subscriptions.
What it covers:
- Initial server setup and security hardening (SSH keys, UFW, fail2ban)
- Setting up Nginx as a reverse proxy
- Self-hosting 7 specific services: uptime monitor, SSL checker, website change detector, API toolkit, QR generator, and more
- Backup strategies
- Full cost breakdown ($5/month total)
Why I wrote it: I was spending $150+/month on various dev tools and monitoring services. Most of them are trivially simple to self-host. The guide walks through everything step by step, no prior sysadmin experience needed.
Link: The No-BS Self-Hosting Guide for Developers (2026)
It is completely free, no email gate, no signup required. Just the guide.
Feedback welcome — what services would you add to the stack?
Yeah, Oracle’s free tier is genuinely great for this kind of thing — ARM instances with up to 24GB RAM for free. The only catch is availability can be spotty in popular regions. If you get a
Out of capacityerror, just keep trying at off-peak hours.