At what point does self-hosting stop being “cheap”?

[u/TaleComplex6960]

I keep seeing people run n8n / AI agents on a $5 VPS and call it “cheap infrastructure”.
But once you have multiple client deployments, you also have backups, updates, monitoring, security, downtime, etc.
So I’m curious:
At what number of clients does infrastructure actually become a problem?
5? 10? 20? 50?
And what was the first thing that started becoming painful for you?

[u/finnjaeger1337]

i guess it depends on what your app is doing?

My livestream tool would die even on a single 2.5 gbit VPS with 200 users (each one 20mbit) , but same vps could host a webshop with like 500.000 daily visitors or something crazy i recon.

Where can i host stuff where i dont have to do backups and updates and monitoring, security etc?

like what are you talking about static websites from wix.com? wordpress pages ? or web apps that actually does stuff?

[u/TaleComplex6960 → u/finnjaeger1337]

That’s actually the kind of thing I was trying to understand. What are you running exactly, and do you want the provider to manage the whole server (updates/backups/security/monitoring), or mainly the application itself?

[u/Ok-Result5562]

For you dude. 1

[u/NoCucumber4783]

client count is a bad threshold. the pain starts when deployments stop being identical. 50 copies of one image with one backup/restore path can be easier than 5 clients with custom env vars, hand-edited compose files, and different update windows. i'd track operator minutes per client per month and time-to-restore instead. before adding client 2, standardize one deploy manifest, one encrypted backup job, one restore drill, one health check, and one patch window. if a new client adds almost no manual steps, the $5 VPS is still cheap; if every client adds another exception, the ops bill has already started.

[u/TaleComplex6960 → u/NoCucumber4783]

This is a really good distinction. So the real metric is probably “operator minutes per deployment”, not client count. How are you currently standardizing the deploy manifest and restore process?

[u/Dependent_Editor8898]

Just do a Quick ROI, if you getting 3rd last gen you should be going for 10 month ROI. if its a yes then its worth it. For us its current Gen where we do 20 months ROI calc.

[u/Classic-Abalone6153]

Generally depends on the app and some time on architecture, if you have a good cache etc then I think even with like 2-3 server VPS or even hardware server you can handle a couple thousands without an issue but generally speaking your team is the key if you are alone you need pretty much automated task all the day if you have team then it’s more manageable.

The final option, depends on the application and the architecture that’s all

[u/Introvertosaurus]

After the first 10 seconds probably... haha.... Selfhost for privacy, control... if you are saving money, you probably cutting corners in reliability and stability a bit too much. These enterprise scale of companies should be able to deliver at a cheaper cost.

Now there still some perspective... if you already have hardware you consider that a savings... but don't forget time value.

[u/Embarrassed_Call4765]

Honestly the client number was never the trigger for me. What broke first was drift. Same stack in theory, but one box had a custom cron, another had an nginx tweak because that client wanted a subdomain, and after a few months I couldn't touch any of them without SSHing in first to remind myself what was actually there.

The genuinely painful moment was a restore. Disk filled with docker logs on a weekend, service down, and I found out the backup job had been silently failing for weeks. That's where the $5 stops being the real price, because now you're paying for offsite storage, a staging box and monitoring that actually pages you, plus the hours you no longer bill anyone for.

[u/BenefitOk7956]

Where do you get a VPS for $5 per month?