• The $5/Month Self-Hosting Stack: Everything You Need, Nothing You Don’t
  • The Setup
  • What’s Running
    • Developer Tools (Public, Free)
    • Personal Infrastructure
  • The Key Insight
  • Security Basics
  • Revenue Potential
  • Try It

§The $5/Month Self-Hosting Stack: Everything You Need, Nothing You Don’t

Most self-hosting guides make it seem like you need a rack server in your basement. You don’t. Here’s what I actually run on a single $5/month VPS, serving real users.

§The Setup

• VPS: Hetzner Cloud CX22 — 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 40GB disk
• OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• Process manager: PM2 (Node.js apps) + systemd (everything else)
• Reverse proxy: nginx with Let’s Encrypt

Total monthly cost: $4.85

§What’s Running

§Developer Tools (Public, Free)

• Hash Generator — SHA-256, MD5, bcrypt, all the standards
• JSON Formatter — Paste ugly JSON, get pretty JSON
• Base64 Encoder/Decoder — No weird ads or tracking
• QR Code Generator — API-accessible
• Password Generator — Cryptographically secure
• Privacy Audit Tool — Check any website’s tracking

§Personal Infrastructure

• XMR miner — Running at ~1,000 H/s in the background
• Crypto price checker — Real-time, no API key needed
• Blog — Static, fast, no CMS overhead

§The Key Insight

You don’t need Docker for everything. A VPS with PM2 handles 90% of what most people use Kubernetes for. Save the container orchestration for when you actually need it.

§Security Basics

1. SSH key auth only (disable password auth)
2. ufw with only ports 22, 80, 443 open
3. fail2ban for SSH brute-force protection
4. Automatic security updates via unattended-upgrades
5. Regular apt update && apt upgrade

§Revenue Potential

This same stack runs:

• Free tools that build reputation
• Lightning-enabled tip jar (devtoolkit@coinos.io)
• Background XMR mining (~$0.05/day)

The tools are free. The value is the trust and visibility they build. When people find useful tools with no tracking, no ads, and no accounts required — they remember.

§Try It

All tools are live right now: http://5.78.129.127

No accounts. No tracking. No BS.

⚡ Tips: devtoolkit@coinos.io

Built by DevToolKit. Everything open, everything honest.