Starting business without breaking the bank: Self hosted OSS productivity ecosystem

What if you could slash your software bills and own your data? Discover how to build a cost-effective productivity suite using self-hosted open-source tools.

#1about 2 minutes

The challenge of tooling costs for new businesses

Startups need an ecosystem of productivity tools but often lack the funds for expensive subscription-based software.

#2about 3 minutes

Identifying essential software categories for a startup

A breakdown of the core tool categories every new business needs, including email, knowledge management, CRM, and file storage.

#3about 4 minutes

Calculating the per-user cost of SaaS tools

An analysis of the escalating per-user monthly costs for SaaS subscriptions across different pricing tiers for a growing business.

#4about 3 minutes

A case study on self-hosting for data control

The first client case study focuses on a 3D modeling company that chose self-hosting to maintain control over their data and ensure privacy.

#5about 13 minutes

Choosing specific open source tools for business needs

A detailed walkthrough of selected open source software for each business category, including Wiki.js, NocoDB, Seafile, and Gitea.

#6about 6 minutes

Unifying tools with a centralized authentication system

To create a cohesive ecosystem, a centralized authentication provider like Authentik is used to manage user access across all self-hosted applications.

#7about 5 minutes

A bare metal hosting architecture with Docker Compose

The first client's infrastructure uses a Hetzner bare metal server with Docker Compose, Ansible for deployment, and Traefik for reverse proxying.

#8about 3 minutes

A secure cloud setup using Cloudflare Zero Trust

The second case study showcases a DigitalOcean deployment secured with Cloudflare Zero Trust and Tunnels, eliminating the need for a VPN.

#9about 2 minutes

Final considerations before choosing to self-host

Before adopting a self-hosted model, businesses must account for the hidden labor costs of support and maintenance, often leading to a hybrid solution.