The Costs Of This Blog
Inspired by Amin's post about his thoughts on breaking even, today I'm writing a blog post on the costs of my blog and website.
Brief History
For the first few months of my website's existence, back in 2021, it was hosted on Hostinger because, to be frank, I didn't know better. It was using a template, and the most important thing for me was the option to upload the source files.
Later, I realized that Hostinger was too expensive and not easily customizable, so I used GitHub Pages for a year or so before switching to Netlify. For all that time, I didn't pay a cent except for domain costs.
This year, in 2024, I switched to the Kirby CMS after seeing Kev Quirk using it and having a very good experience. Kirby is usually a paid CMS, but they give out free licenses to students and organizations & people in need. Thanks Kirby team for the license, it helped me a lot in a bad situation ❤️
I also switched from Namecheap to Porkbun for the domain name registrar, Porkbun has a much better user interface and is cheaper and less intrusive than Namecheap. Thanks Amin!
The Costs
| Product | Type | Company | Price | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPS | CX22 | Hetzner | €4.11/mo | |
| Domain | .xyz | Porkbun | ~€12/yr | |
| €5.11/mo |
Yes. That's it. You don't need a shit ton of money to blog. Just a few bucks a month and you're rolling.
My Thoughts
Even though 5€/mo doesn't seem like a lot of money, for a student in a bad situation, even the 5€ makes a difference. That's why I'm really happy with the current costs. People tend to spend way more money on smaller websites.
And I know I could've probably gone for an even cheaper option, but my Hetzner VPS is serving me well. And I don't use my VPS only for this website, but for other self-hostable tools I use on a daily basis, so it is all worth it to me in the end.
Another thing worth keeping in mind is if you're someone who wants to blog but is on a budget or doesn't have money to spend, there are always options. One I would recommend is Bear Blog, it's very customizable, it's free to a certain level, and it even has regional pricing for people in countries where the economic situation is not good.
That'll be it for today. Next up you can expect posts about my everyday carry, home screen setup, and my favorite apps :)
This was Day 29 of #100DaysToOffload!