Building My Own Hosting Server (Completely Free)

Remember when hosting anything on a public domain felt like climbing Everest in flip-flops? Every deployment meant wrestling with shared hosting limitations and paying for services I barely used.

So I did what any reasonable developer would do: I built my own server.

Why Self-Host?

Cloud hosting is great until you see the bill. For personal projects, experiments, and learning, the costs add up quickly.

My requirements:

• Host multiple apps and APIs
• Full control over the environment
• Zero monthly hosting fees
• Learn server administration

The Setup

Hardware: Old laptop/desktop, stable internet, UPS for power backup

Software Stack:

• Ubuntu Server
• Docker & Docker Compose
• Caddy (reverse proxy with auto HTTPS)
• Tailscale (secure remote access)

The Magic Ingredient: Tailscale

The biggest challenge with self-hosting is making your server accessible from anywhere without exposing it to the internet.

# Install Tailscale
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
sudo tailscale up

Now your server is accessible from any device on your tailnet, anywhere in the world.

Docker: The Foundation

services:
  app:
    image: myapp:latest
    expose:
      - "80"
    networks:
      - shared-net

What I'm Running

The Real Cost

Monthly expenses:

• Electricity: ~$5-10
• Internet: You're paying this anyway
• Domain: ~$10/year

Is It Worth It?

For production workloads? Probably not. Use the cloud.

For learning, experimenting, and personal projects? Absolutely. You'll learn more about servers, networking, and DevOps in a month than a year of tutorials.