I've had a Hostinger KVM 4 for a while with 4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM and 200 GB NVMe with the following applications:
| Project | 7d CPU | 7d RAM | Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coolify | 9% | 660 MB | host |
| Langfuse | 21% | 1.8 GB | 7 GB, 5 CPU |
| Hermes | 3% | 1.1 GB | 2 GB, 1.5 CPU |
| Forgejo | 1% | 210 MB | 2 GB, 1.5 CPU |
| Multica | — | 270 MB now | 5 GB, 1.5 CPU |
| Garage | 0% | 40 MB | 1 GB, 1 CPU |
| 5 side projects | 8% | 1.4 GB | 14 GB, 11 CPU |
My next 2-year renewal is R$3,119.76, or roughly R$130/month, so I started checking what else I could get for the same money. I originally got it during a Black Friday promotion for around R$55/month
VPS alternatives
I compared a few options with roughly the same amount of RAM.
| Provider | CPU | RAM | Storage | ~Price/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netcup VPS 2000 G12 | 8 vCore | 16 GB | 512 GB NVMe | R$65 (€10) |
| Hetzner CX43 | 8 vCPU | 16 GB | 160 GB | R$95 (€16) |
| OVH VPS-4 | 8 vCore | 24 GB | 200 GB NVMe | R$120 (US$23) |
| Hostinger renewal | 4 vCPU | 16 GB | 200 GB NVMe | R$130 |
| HostGator NVMe 16 | 6 vCPU | 16 GB | 400 GB NVMe | R$160 |
I'm considering Hetzner mostly because of how popular it is with developers and the self-hosting community.
HostGator would be an option if I wanted to keep the server in Brazil, but I would probably only consider it if a good promotion or discount appeared.
What about a Mac mini?
Then I started wondering where buying my own hardware starts to make sense.
A Mac mini M4 with 16 GB for around R$5,000 is roughly in this territory:
| Option | Initial cost | Monthly | ~4 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger VPS | R$0 | ~R$130 | ~R$6,200 |
| Mac mini M4 | ~R$5,000 | ~R$12 power | ~R$5,600 |
So the hardware cost can roughly catch up with the VPS after around 4 years.
The comparison isn't exactly fair, though. A machine at home also means dealing with power outages, CGNAT, internet availability, backups and hardware failures.
I don't think I would use it as a direct replacement for production infrastructure.
What I'm considering instead is keeping production and services/products that people pay for on rented VPS infrastructure, while eventually having a dedicated machine at home for hobby projects.
And you, how much are you paying for your own hosted solutions and hobby projects?
This article was originally published by DEV Community and written by Mark Kop.
Read original article on DEV Community