Building a Self-Hosted Development Stack
Building a Self-Hosted Development Stack
One of my core principles is self-hosted first — minimizing external SaaS dependencies and recurring costs. Here's how I built a complete development environment on a single VPS.
The Hardware
Everything runs on a Hostinger KVM8 VPS:
- 8 vCPU
- 32GB RAM
- 400GB NVMe
This handles everything comfortably with headroom to spare.
The Services
| Service | Purpose | RAM Usage | |---------|---------|-----------| | Forgejo | Git hosting | ~512MB | | Authentik | SSO/Auth | ~3GB | | Coolify | Deployment | ~1.5GB | | PostgreSQL | Database | ~1GB | | Caddy | Reverse proxy | ~50MB |
Why Self-Host?
The cost comparison speaks for itself:
- Cloud services for a team of 5: $150-300+/month
- Self-hosted on a single VPS: ~$25/month
That's a 6-12x cost reduction while maintaining full control over your data. #selfhosted #devops
Key Takeaways
- Start with the essentials: Git, CI/CD, and a database
- Add services as needed — don't over-engineer from day one
- Use Docker Compose for reproducible deployments
- Monitor everything with Uptime Kuma
The self-hosted path isn't for everyone, but if you value data sovereignty and cost efficiency, it's worth the investment. #infrastructure