ngpaas.eu

PaaS Cost Calculator: Hosted Platform vs. Own Server

Estimate what your app costs per month on a hosted PaaS versus your own server with a self-hosted PaaS, including admin time. How to fill in each field.

PaaSPublished

Calculator

What does your app cost per month?

The fields start with round example values. Enter your provider's current prices and the result updates as you type.

A · Hosted platform
B · Own server + self-hosted PaaS

Total A

–

– per year

Total B

–

– per year

–

Excluding tax. Admin time is included in B because updates, backups and outages are otherwise invisible.

The calculator above compares what your application costs per month on a hosted platform (option A) with running it on your own server with a self-hosted PaaS such as Coolify or Dokku (option B). It adds up services, databases, extras and, for option B, the time you spend maintaining the server. It contains no stored provider prices: enter the current figures from your provider’s pricing page and the result updates as you type.

Why admin time is part of the sum

Most price comparisons put a platform’s monthly fee next to the price of a virtual server and declare the server the winner. That ignores the work a hosted platform does for you: operating system updates, security patches, backups, certificate renewals, monitoring and the occasional night-time incident. On your own server, someone does that work. The calculator makes it visible by multiplying your admin hours by an internal hourly rate.

If you are unsure what a platform takes off your plate, read what a PaaS is and the comparison of PaaS, IaaS and serverless.

How to fill in option A: hosted platform

Services (web, worker, cron …). Count every component that runs as its own instance: the web app, each background worker, scheduled jobs that run as separate services, a separate API. Preview environments count if they run permanently.

Price per service / month. Take the instance size you need from the provider’s pricing page. If services differ in size, use an average or enter the total in the next fields. For usage-based platforms, estimate a typical month from the documented rates for memory, CPU and traffic.

Managed database / month. The price of the production database plan, including any standby or backup option you need. Development databases are rarely suitable for production data.

Other / month. Everything else on the invoice: outbound traffic beyond the allowance, persistent storage, build minutes, team seats or workspace plans, log retention and add-ons.

How to fill in option B: own server and self-hosted PaaS

Number of servers. One server is enough for many small apps. Add a second if you want to separate the dashboard and builds from running apps, or a dedicated database server.

Price per server / month. The current monthly price of the server size you need, from the provider’s pricing page. Check whether the price includes VAT and whether traffic is included. Our VPS comparison for developers lists providers with European data centres.

Backups, storage, other / month. Object storage for off-site database backups, server snapshots, extra volumes, a monitoring service, a domain or DNS plan if relevant.

Your admin hours / month. Be honest. Routine updates and checks take some time every month; add an average share for incidents and upgrades. Teams new to self-hosting usually underestimate this in the first months.

Internal hourly rate. What an hour of that person’s time costs your business, or what you would bill a client.

Currency. Switch between EUR, USD, GBP and CHF for display. The calculator does not convert: enter all values in the chosen currency.

Reading the result

The result shows the monthly and yearly total for both options and which is cheaper by how much. Three patterns are typical:

  • One small app: the difference is often small, and a hosted platform wins once admin time is counted.
  • Many small apps: a single server spreads its cost across all of them, and option B pulls ahead, provided admin time stays stable.
  • One large, busy app: fixed server capacity is often cheaper than platform pricing, but database operations and availability become serious work.

Money is not the only factor. A hosted platform gives you rollbacks, scaling and on-call coverage by the provider; your own server gives you full control over location and software. The trade-offs are described in self-hosted PaaS, and hosted options are compared in Heroku alternatives.

Tips for a realistic estimate

  1. Use real invoices if you already run the app somewhere. They show traffic and storage that pricing pages do not.
  2. Model growth. Run the calculator for today and for the expected size in twelve months.
  3. Add a buffer for usage-based items in the ‘other’ fields.
  4. Compare like with like: if option A includes a managed database with automatic backups, option B needs a backup budget too.
  5. Remember exit costs. Moving later costs time; a slightly more expensive option that is easy to leave can be the better deal.

Frequently asked questions

Why doesn't the calculator include provider prices?

Platform prices change often, and an outdated default would give a wrong answer with false confidence. Entering the current figures from the provider's pricing page takes a minute and keeps the result accurate.

What hourly rate should I use for admin time?

Use what an hour of the person doing the work costs your business, or what you would charge a client for it. For founders, think about the opportunity cost: what else would that hour produce?

Are taxes included?

No. Enter net prices for both options so they are comparable. Note that many US platforms bill in US dollars; you can switch the currency, but the calculator does not convert exchange rates.

How do I handle usage-based platforms?

Estimate a typical month from the provider's documented rates for memory, CPU and traffic and enter it as the price per service, or as one combined service. Then add a buffer for spikes in the ‘other’ field.

More in PaaS