One of the things nobody warned me about when I started shipping more platforms with #ClaudeCode is how quickly the database bills add up if you're using managed services for everything. I was looking at a real possibility of spending more on databases than on the actual development tools, and the math just stopped making sense.
So I switched to self-hosted Postgres across Hetzner (VPS), Netcup (Root Server), and OVH bare metal, picking the provider based on how much traffic the platform handles. Now, I'm spending a fraction of what I used to and the platforms run faster than they did on the managed services.
I wrote up my full reasoning, the three-tier setup I use, and when managed databases are still the right call. Link in comments.
18 years ago I started a site that grew to millions of monthly visitors. If I tried to start the same site today with the same idea, I'm pretty sure I would fail.
Here's what changed and what it means for solo founders shipping with #ClaudeCode.