A solo maker chose a VPS to keep app hosting costs lower
Building an app with AI help did not make hosting simple. The project started as a inspired by GitHub examples and ideas. One possible setup was Vercel for the frontend and Render for the backend, but that looked expensive if the app grew.
The chosen path was to host the app through Docker on a rented server. A Contabo VPS in the Australia region cost about 153.41 AUD, or 108.48 USD, for one year. A .com domain from cost about 14.79 AUD, or 10.46 USD, for one year.
Dokploy was installed on the VPS, and GitHub was connected so that pushing code to the publishes the app through Dokploy. Each push to main now restarts the whole app as part of the flow.
Key points
- AI help did not remove the difficulty of hosting and .
- Vercel plus Render looked too costly if the app scaled.
- The VPS cost was about 153.41 AUD, or 108.48 USD, for one year.
- The .com domain from cost about 14.79 AUD, or 10.46 USD, for one year.
- Dokploy was connected to GitHub so pushes to the deploy the app.