What does self-hosting actually cost?

Real numbers, real alternatives. Compare SaaS per-seat pricing against self-hosted tools we deploy and manage for you.

Our services at a glance

Health Check

One-time server and website audit. We find problems, fix what's urgent, and deliver a prioritised report. No prerequisites, no ongoing commitment. Fixed price — see the pricing page for current rates.

Self-Hosted Services

We deploy and maintain open-source tools on your infrastructure: Zammad, Twenty CRM, Gitea, Listmonk, Plausible, Nagios. Setup fee plus flat monthly hosting. No per-seat fees.

Support & Monitoring

24/7 monitoring, monthly patching, priority incident response. A monthly retainer scoped to your environment. Requires a Health Check first so we know what we're watching.

Custom Apps

We build your app on the platform framework: authentication, billing, real-time features, AI integration. You own the code. Fixed quote per project, no per-seat fees after delivery.

Hosting Migration

Full migration from your current host. Audit, plan, move, verify. Starts with a Health Check, then a fixed quote based on complexity. Zero-downtime cutover.

Emergency Support

Active incident? Book a Health Check with the Urgent Recovery add-on for priority response, containment, root cause analysis, and a written incident report.

Which service do you need?

1

Not sure about your server health?

Start with the Health Check. It's the entry point for everything else and stands on its own as a one-time audit. See pricing for current rates.

2

Server healthy but nobody watching it?

Support & Monitoring. We keep patching, watching, and responding so you don't have to staff a sysadmin.

3

Want to replace a SaaS tool?

If there's an open-source alternative (Zammad, Twenty, Gitea, Listmonk, Plausible), we deploy and manage it. If you need something custom, we build it on the platform framework.

4

Need to move hosts?

Hosting Migration. Starts with a Health Check audit, then a fixed quote. We handle DNS, SSL, data integrity, and post-move monitoring.

5

Something is down right now?

Emergency Support. Health Check with the Urgent Recovery add-on. Senior engineers, priority response, incident documentation.

SaaS vs self-hosted: what you're actually paying

Help desk: Zammad vs Zendesk

Zendesk charges €19–115 per agent per month. Ten agents on the Professional plan costs over €1,100/month. Zammad on your server is a flat monthly fee regardless of how many agents you add. Same SLA tracking, same automations, none of the per-seat scaling.

CRM: Twenty vs Salesforce

Salesforce starts at €25/user/month and climbs to €300+ for Enterprise. A 15-person sales team on Professional is €1,200/month before add-ons. Twenty CRM is open-source with AI built in. Flat monthly hosting, unlimited users.

Git hosting: Gitea vs GitHub

GitHub Team is $4/user/month (USD). Manageable for small teams, but at 50 developers that's $2,400/year just for repository access. Gitea gives you Actions runners, package registry, and deploy automation on your own hardware. One flat cost.

Email: Listmonk vs Mailchimp

Mailchimp charges €13–350/month based on subscriber count and features. Hit 10k subscribers and you're paying €100+/month. Listmonk handles transactional and bulk email with no per-subscriber or per-email pricing.

Analytics: Plausible vs Google Analytics

Plausible Cloud starts at €9/month. Self-hosted Plausible costs nothing in licence fees. Under 1KB of JavaScript, no cookies, no consent banners. GDPR-compliant without the compliance paperwork.

Monitoring: Nagios vs Datadog

Datadog charges $15–34 per host per month. Ten servers on Infrastructure Pro is $1,900/year. Nagios on your own monitoring server is a flat cost. Battle-tested since 1999, no per-host surprises.

12-month cost scenarios

Team of 20: replace four SaaS tools

Zendesk Professional (10 agents) + GitHub Team (20 devs) + Plausible Cloud + Salesforce Professional (15 users) adds up to roughly €30,000/year in subscriptions. Self-hosted Zammad + Gitea + Plausible + Twenty CRM on managed infrastructure cuts that to a fraction — flat monthly hosting, no per-seat fees, and you keep all the data.

Custom internal app: build once vs rent forever

Low-code platforms like Retool charge €160–800/month for 20 users. That's €2,000–9,600/year for an app you don't own and can't modify freely. A custom app built on the platform framework is a one-time project cost. After delivery, you own the code and run it on your own server. No recurring licence fees.

Server health + ongoing support

A typical managed services provider charges €6,000–24,000/year depending on scope. With us, you start with a Health Check and add a monthly retainer scoped to your actual environment. No paying for capacity you don't use.

Start with the Health Check

Every engagement begins with a server audit. It gives us the full picture and gives you a clear report — whether you continue with us or not.

Book a Health Check Talk to Sunny first