Self-Host vs SaaS: The Actual Tradeoffs

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The “self-host everything” movement has passionate advocates on both sides. Reality is nuanced. Here’s the framework I use when deciding.

Cost isn’t the main factor

Many self-host advocates lead with cost savings. Usually it’s misleading:

SaaS at small scale is often free or cheap ($0-50/mo)
Self-hosting on cheap VPS starts around $5/mo
But self-hosting eats engineer time — 2-10 hours/month for maintenance
At $100/hr engineering time, self-hosting often costs MORE than SaaS

Cost-wise, self-hosting wins when you’re either:

Terraform State Locking: Why You Need It and How It Goes Wrong

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Terraform state without locking is a bug waiting to happen. Two engineers running apply simultaneously can corrupt state in ways that take hours to untangle. Here’s what I learned after one such incident.

Why state locking matters

Terraform reads state, computes a plan, and writes new state. Without locking, two concurrent runs can:

Both read the same initial state
Both compute their plans based on it
Both write conflicting state — last one wins
Now state doesn’t match real infrastructure

The symptoms are weird: resources exist but Terraform wants to create them again. Or state references resources that were already destroyed.

Devops on Besterry — Linux & DevOps Notes

Self-Host vs SaaS: The Actual Tradeoffs

Cost isn’t the main factor

Terraform State Locking: Why You Need It and How It Goes Wrong

Why state locking matters