Five subscriptions, one box

Analytics, $9. Uptime monitoring, $15. Newsletter, $29. Status page, $29. A form backend, $19. Your side business spends $101 a month on tools before it earns anything, and every one of them has a self-hosted version you never installed, because self-hosting meant another VPS.

Now each open-source version runs in a container on the $29 box you already rent. Plausible in one, Uptime Kuma in another, Listmonk, a status page, a form handler. Each has its own URL and its own SQLite file. They're idle except when someone loads a page or a cron fires, and idle containers on one box cost nothing beyond the box.

Five subscriptions became five folders. The tools didn't get cheaper; the slot each one needed stopped existing as a cost.

The tools didn't get cheaper; the slot each one needed stopped existing as a cost.