One person, three hosting paths
I build the application and the infrastructure under it. Pick the hosting model that fits your stage — free-tier hybrid for new MVPs, managed for stable small/mid projects, or proper cloud (AWS / GCP) for growth-stage workloads. You don't need three vendors; you need one engineer who handles all three honestly.
Hosting paths
Hybrid free-tier
Free infra, you only pay my time.
For new MVPs trying to validate before they spend, I assemble production-ready infrastructure entirely from generous free tiers — Vercel for the app, Render or Railway for backend services, Supabase for Postgres + auth + storage, Resend for email, Cloudflare for the domain and CDN. The whole stack costs literally $0/month for typical MVP traffic. You pay me to set it up and ship code; you pay nothing else until you outgrow it.
- Vercel — app hosting, edge, preview deployments
- Render or Railway — backend services / cron / workers
- Supabase — Postgres, auth, storage, realtime
- Resend — transactional email
- Cloudflare — DNS, CDN, basic WAF
- GitHub Actions — CI/CD
Managed hosting
Predictable monthly cost, near-zero ops.
Hostinger or another managed provider, fully set up and maintained by me. Stable, simple, and the bill never surprises you. Good for marketing sites, small SaaS, WordPress / WooCommerce stores, and anything that does not need cloud-scale infrastructure.
- Domain + DNS configured properly
- TLS, automated backups, security hardening
- Email, file storage, basic monitoring
- WordPress / WooCommerce optimization where it applies
- I handle updates and incidents
Cloud (AWS / GCP)
When the platform is the product.
Real cloud infrastructure for projects with real load. AWS or GCP, designed for the workload you actually have — not the one a generic guide assumes. CloudFront, Lambda@Edge, S3, RDS, Cognito, CloudWatch — assembled deliberately, written in CloudFormation or Terraform, and deployed through CI/CD that you can read.
- CDN strategy that survives traffic spikes
- Multi-region or multi-environment when justified
- IaC: CloudFormation / Terraform — no click-ops
- Observability: logs, traces, alerts that fire on the right things
- Cost monitoring with sensible budgets and alerts
- Documented playbooks for incidents
At-a-glance comparison
| Hybrid free-tier | Managed | Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly infra cost | $0 at MVP traffic | $5–$30 | $50+ (scales with usage) |
| Setup time | 1–3 days | Same day | 1–3 weeks (proper) |
| Scales to | Tens of thousands of users | Mid-size traffic | Anything |
| Vendor lock-in | Low — common stack | Medium | Whatever you design for |
| Best when | You are validating an idea | Stable, predictable workload | Growth, multi-tenant, or compliance |
Why one person for both?
One person handles dev and hosting — no contractor handoff
Right-sized infra for your stage, not the agency-default oversell
Documented setup so the next engineer can pick it up
Honest cost tracking — you see what you pay for
Migration path between models when you grow
How it works
- 1
Diagnose stage
A short call. Where are you? Pre-revenue? Existing revenue? Compliance constraints? That decides which path fits.
- 2
Set up infra + ship code
I configure the stack and ship features in parallel. No handoff between “the dev” and “the ops person” — same person.
- 3
Maintain, monitor, migrate
Ongoing support. When you outgrow the path you started with, I migrate you to the next one cleanly.
If managed hosting is the right fit
I've set up dozens of small projects on Hostinger and it consistently delivers. If that's your path, my affiliate link gets you a discount and helps fund the time I spend on the open-source side of this site.
Affiliate disclosure: I get a small commission if you sign up through this link. It does not change your price.
What's always included
Security & backups
TLS, automated backups, secret hygiene, basic WAF where the host supports it.
Performance
Smart caching, CDN configuration, image optimisation, Core Web Vitals tuning.
Documentation
Setup notes, run-books, and credentials handed over so you are not locked to me.
Migration support
When you outgrow your tier, I move you to the next one without breaking the live product.
Not sure which path you need?
Most founders pick the wrong one — usually too much infrastructure, too early. A 30-minute call will tell you which tier fits and what it actually costs.
Book a 30-min call