I recently built LaunchIgniter — a platform to help makers and startups get early visibility — and decided to go the full self-hosted route. It turned out to be way more manageable and cost-effective than I expected.
Here’s the full stack, self-hosted on a $6/month VPS:
- Coolify: Handles deployment. Think of it as a self-hosted alternative to Render or Heroku. Simple Git-based deployments, Docker support, and reliable.
- MongoDB: Self-hosted with backups configured. For many projects, you don’t need a managed database unless you scale beyond reason.
- Umami: Lightweight, privacy-friendly analytics. Does the job without any page bloat or third-party tracking.
- Node.js (backend) and Next.js (Frontend) — kept things lean and efficient.
Why go this route?
A lot of devs and indie hackers start reaching for managed services, which are great — but not always necessary in the early days. You can easily rack up $100–200/month in services before you even have traffic. At MVP stage, that’s overkill.
This $6/month VPS has been handling 200+ daily users with no hiccups. Page loads are fast, the server rarely touches high CPU usage, and it gives me full control.
Key Takeaways
- Start simple. The goal at MVP stage is validation, not scaling.
- Self-hosting isn't as hard as it sounds. Tools like Coolify make deployment feel effortless.
- Every dollar saved is runway earned. Especially if you're bootstrapping or testing multiple ideas.
- Privacy & control matter. Hosting your own analytics or database means no hidden costs or data-sharing surprises.
Building and launching something on your own terms — without waiting, overthinking, or overspending — is incredibly freeing.
If you're working on something and want a push to launch, I created LaunchIgniter exactly for that. Just submit your product and get it in front of early users. No noise, no gimmicks — just momentum.
Happy shipping!
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