Research

Self-hosting vs SaaS: the real monthly cost (October 2026)

What 10 self-hosted apps cost each month on a VeloxaHost server against the SaaS they replace, at usage levels taken from each cost page's own table. SaaS prices were checked on the vendors' pages between 2026-10-18 and 2026-10-19.

The summary

One row per usage level. The VeloxaHost column is a server left running all month, plus the email service where the app needs one. Each comparison links to its cost page, where the full table, the sources and the reasoning are.

ComparisonSaaS planUsage levelSaaS a monthVeloxaHost a monthCosts less hereBreak-even
n8n vs ZapierChecked 2026-10-18Zapier Free plan100 tasks a month$0$8Veloxa 1SaaSA few hundred tasks a month
Zapier Professional, billed yearly10,000 tasks a month$129.00$8Veloxa 1VeloxaHost
Ghost vs SubstackChecked 2026-10-18Substack, 10% of revenue$100 of paid subscriptions a month$10$23Veloxa 1 + Mailgun BasicSaaS$230 of paid subscription revenue a month
Substack, 10% of revenue$2,000 of paid subscriptions a month$200$23Veloxa 1 + Mailgun BasicVeloxaHost
Nextcloud vs DropboxChecked 2026-10-18Dropbox Plus, billed yearly1 person, 50 GB$9.99$15Veloxa 2SaaSNot given; Dropbox is cheaper for one person, Nextcloud for a group
Dropbox Standard, billed yearly5 people, 60 GB in total$75$15Veloxa 2VeloxaHost
Uptime Kuma vs Better StackChecked 2026-10-18Better Stack Free plan10 monitors, 1 status page$0$4Veloxa NanoSaaSPast the Free plan's 10 monitors
Better Stack responder and monitor pack, billed yearly60 monitors$50$4Veloxa NanoVeloxaHost
Plausible vs Google AnalyticsChecked 2026-10-18Google AnalyticsAny traffic$0$15Veloxa 2SaaSNone against Google Analytics, which is free
Plausible Cloud Starter1 site, up to 10k monthly pageviews$9$15Veloxa 2SaaS
Plausible Cloud BusinessUp to 10 sites, up to 10k monthly pageviews$19$15Veloxa 2VeloxaHost
Vaultwarden vs 1PasswordChecked 2026-10-191Password Individual, billed yearly1 person$3.99$4Veloxa NanoSaaSAbout one person, where the two cost about the same
1Password Business, billed yearlyA team of 20$179.80$4Veloxa NanoVeloxaHost
Listmonk vs MailchimpChecked 2026-10-19Mailchimp Essentials500 contacts, 2,000 emails a month$13$8.20Veloxa 1 + Amazon SESVeloxaHostPast Mailchimp Free's 250 contacts and 500 emails a month
Mailchimp Essentials10,000 contacts, 40,000 emails a month$110$12.00Veloxa 1 + Amazon SESVeloxaHost
Gitea vs GitHubChecked 2026-10-19GitHub FreeAny team size, private repositories$0$8Veloxa 1SaaS2 developers on GitHub Team
GitHub Team1 developer$4$8Veloxa 1SaaS
GitHub Team10 developers$40$8Veloxa 1VeloxaHost
Ollama vs OpenAI APIChecked 2026-10-19OpenAI API, gpt-6-luna10M input + 2M output tokens a month$2.00$30Veloxa 4SaaSAbout 150 million input and 30 million output tokens a month
OpenAI API, gpt-6-luna200M input + 40M output tokens a month$40.00$30Veloxa 4VeloxaHost, if the server keeps up
PostgreSQL vs a hosted databaseChecked 2026-10-19DigitalOcean, one node1 vCPU, 1 GB$15.15$4Veloxa NanoVeloxaHostNone at the same CPU and memory: the server costs less in every row
DigitalOcean, one node2 vCPU, 4 GB$60.90$15Veloxa 2VeloxaHost

Download the table as CSV (one row per usage level, with the cost page and the date its SaaS prices were checked). Prices change: check the vendor's page before you decide.

What the numbers show

  • At the first usage level shown for each app, the SaaS costs less for 8 of the 10. At the last level shown, the VeloxaHost server costs less for 10 of them; for Ollama, only if the server keeps up.
  • Free plans settle the small cases. Google Analytics, GitHub Free and the free plans of Zapier, Better Stack and Mailchimp cost nothing, and a server costs something every month it runs.
  • Per-person and per-volume prices are where a server pulls ahead. GitHub Team, Dropbox Standard and 1Password Business charge for each person; Zapier, Mailchimp and Better Stack charge for tasks, contacts and monitors. A server's price stays the same as those grow, until the app needs a bigger size.
  • A revenue share has a crossing point. Substack keeps a share of paid subscriptions and charges no monthly fee; Ghost costs the same every month, so it costs less only above the break-even in the table.
  • On a CPU, a language model costs less on the API at most volumes. VeloxaHost servers have no GPU. Below the break-even, the OpenAI API's small model costs less than the server; above it, the server costs less only if it can produce the tokens.
  • A hosted database sells more than a server. At the same CPU and memory the server costs less in every row, but failover and point-in-time recovery are part of DigitalOcean's and Render's price and are projects on a server of your own.
  • Price is not the reason to leave Google Analytics. A server costs more than a free product. People move to Plausible for other reasons, such as who holds the visitor data.

Where the SaaS costs less, in each cost page's words

  • n8n vs Zapier: “If a few two-step Zaps fit in 100 tasks a month, Zapier's Free plan costs $0, which beats any server.”
  • Ghost vs Substack: “Below about $230 a month in paid subscriptions, Substack's 10% costs less than a server and Mailgun.”
  • Nextcloud vs Dropbox: “2 TB for $11.99 a month is far cheaper per GB than a server's disk.”
  • Uptime Kuma vs Better Stack: “The Free plan costs $0, less than any server, and runs outside your infrastructure.”
  • Plausible vs Google Analytics: “It is free. At any traffic level, $0 beats $9 or $15.”
  • Vaultwarden vs 1Password: “For one person or one family, Bitwarden's own service costs less than any server.”
  • Listmonk vs Mailchimp: “Up to 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, Mailchimp's Free plan costs $0.”
  • Gitea vs GitHub: “Private repositories with 2,000 Actions minutes a month cost $0 on GitHub, which beats any server.”
  • Ollama vs OpenAI API: “Up to about 150 million input and 30 million output tokens a month, gpt-6-luna costs less than a Veloxa 4.”
  • PostgreSQL vs a hosted database: “Render lists a free Postgres instance with limitations, which costs less than any server for a hobby project.”

Method

What is counted

  • The server. Each app runs on the size its cost page uses, usually the recommended size of the one-click app, priced as a server left on all month: the size's monthly cap. The sizes used are Veloxa Nano ($4 a month, $0.01 an hour), Veloxa 1 ($8 a month, $0.02 an hour), Veloxa 2 ($15 a month, $0.03 an hour), Veloxa 4 ($30 a month, $0.05 an hour). A server that runs for part of a month costs its hours instead; the VPS cost calculator works that out.
  • Email delivery, where the app needs it to work. Ghost sends newsletters only through Mailgun, so its column includes Mailgun Basic. Listmonk sends through Amazon SES, priced for the number of emails in the row. VeloxaHost blocks outbound port 25 by default, so mail goes through a relay.
  • Storage. The disk that comes with the size. Where the data outgrows it, as with one person keeping a terabyte in Nextcloud, the cost page says self-hosting is not a good fit, and the study leaves that case out rather than price extra storage.
  • The SaaS plan that covers the usage level, at the price on the vendor's own page on the date each cost page gives. Where a cost page's table lists both monthly and yearly billing, the study takes the yearly price per month, the lower of the two.

What is not counted

  • A dedicated IPv4 address. Most of these apps need one to serve HTTPS on port 443 under your own domain, because a server's block of ports on the shared IPv4 address does not include ports 80 and 443. It is a paid add-on with limited availability, and its price is shown in the console rather than on this site, so no figure for it is included. Each cost page says when an app needs it.
  • Your time. Installing, upgrading, backing up and testing restores. Each cost page lists what its app needs.
  • Support. VeloxaHost supports the server, not the app on it. A paid SaaS plan comes with the vendor's support.
  • Costs both options share or that depend on use, such as card processing fees on paid subscriptions, CI minutes, and usage beyond a plan's limit.

Every figure in the table is read from its cost page's table when this site is built. If a cost page changes a price, the study has to change with it, or the site does not build.

The cost pages

Cite this study

Link to this page, or cite it as: VeloxaHost, “Self-hosting vs SaaS: the real monthly cost (October 2026)”, https://veloxahost.com/research/self-hosting-vs-saas-cost. The CSV has the same rows as the table, with the URL of the cost page each figure comes from.

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