How to Run a Full Dev Stack on a $7 VPS With No Vendor Lock-In

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A technical guide published on DEV Community outlines how developers can self-host a complete web application stack on a single low-cost VPS for under $13 per month. The proposed setup replaces paid SaaS tools like Auth0, Firebase, Zapier, and Google Analytics with open-source alternatives: Authentik for authentication, PocketBase or Supabase for database needs, n8n for workflow automation, and Umami for privacy-friendly analytics. All services are containerised using Docker and routed through a Caddy reverse proxy, which handles automatic SSL certificate provisioning. The guide argues that typical cloud SaaS subscriptions can collectively cost $79 to $549 per month, whereas this self-hosted approach consolidates everything onto a 4GB RAM server from providers like Hetzner or DigitalOcean. Additional recommendations include locking down server ports via UFW firewall rules and setting up automated daily backups to maintain security and data integrity.

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