I don’t use linode but another VPS. I want 99.9% uptime and a gigabit pipe, it’s simple. I can’t get either of those things from my home connection and I don’t want to open my network to the internet.

I think it comes down to how reliable or fast your internet is. You can selfhost a lot of stuff with reliable internet, power, and environmental variables.

If you have any of those which are less than reliable, a VPS like Linode may make sense for uptime.

Cost, convenience and the fact that a VPS runs on a cluster. no downtime, fast hardware, high-speed ISP.

$5 a month to test and break things. Always makes senses to me

Internet speed + the electricity monthly would cost me 4 times as much + plus I’d have to buy the hardware. Really, I don’t understand why people are soooo STUPID and dont JUST selfhost, it’s so EZ mannn.

• electricity cost
• network reliability

It’s much cheaper than equivalent hardware at home- redundant hardware, hot spares, redundant power, UPSes and generators, etc. And good network access with really good peering arrangements- something residential ISPs can’t offer.

That said, do most people need all that? No.

It’s just like AWS. AWS makes sense for a narrow swath of businesses - businesses that can’t afford the capex to run their own data centers and have needs more advanced than less expensive services. Any company over a certain size isn’t going to pay the 10x premium for AWS over their own data centers and infrastructure. But for small businesses with advanced needs it’s the only way to afford things.

It all depends. First you dont have to get your own hardware. Sure some of us get stuff from work for free or have an old PC but even a 100 Buck PC is 5 Months with linode for example. Secondly, Linode is not the only option for example Netcup offers a VPS with 4c 16gb for 10-15 a month. So that seems a bit more fair IMO.

ANd theres other reasons. Like: You want to selfhost. But don’t get a public IP. Or your internet service being so bad that its not worth it. Which are all issues you don’t have with a VPS. Further Uptime. At home to keep a good uptime you would probably want to invest in a UPS and other hardware to eliviate problems. which further costs money which you could invest into a VPS.

And the Killer for me is Power Consumption. At 40-50ct/kwh running a PC of 60w costs me 300+ a Year, whereas a VPS at 15-20 costs me 240. And I get the benefit of lower latency and better bandwith and not needing to pay for extra Internet service.

So it depends. I do still selfhost stuff at home, why? not because Its cheaper, it actually isn’t but rather to gain experience with the hardware etc. But i do see that many people may not want to deal with that. So a VPS is defo a viable option.