Mate, I went full slog and got a vps. Now each site is a virtual host. I did have individual landers in each host, but now they just redirect to my main site.
Get started with a Linux server and then I'd go with something like Nextcloud in a Docker container. Then do reverse proxy, nginx on the host is very easy. You can get and update SSL certs with certbot (Let's Encrypt).
And if you don't have an unique public IP address, for example because you are behind CGNAT, you can use Pangolin. It tunnels all traffic from your homelab to a VPS via Wireguard and exposes your services via a Traefik reverse proxy. Pangolin also automates the Traefik setup and provides a webui to configure the individual proxies.
For a VPS I recommended ionos, because they offer servers with unlimited traffic starting at only 1€ per month with server locations in both Europe and the US.
"######.xyz" was cheap as chips. Now I'm using Https I want to stay there so I was thinking about getting a more convenient domain, but then I'd have to migrate... So £12 it is
What a ripoff, .com has always been about 10$. The renewal being somehow more expensive than a new registration, while in actuality there is no difference in the process, really makes it obvious they charge what they think people will fall for.
$7.85 per year in 2012. $8.39 in 2021, $8.97 in 2022, and $9.59 in 2023, $10.26 in 2024, increases always in september.
Transfers, registrations, and renewals all cost the same and all charge the domain by 1 year. You can charge at any time for I think up to 10 years. Any registrar not passing that system on is being deceptive.
They aren't even roping in people with prices below cost, they charge you a reasonable fee for the first year and then somehow bank on people not switching. Maybe they make the process really painful?
I ended up dropping them today because of that. My random domain went from $30 to $90 over the course of a couple years. Found another registrar for $35
Namecheap is 100% ripping people off on the renewals
They also use AI support now, so don't even get the benefit of good support any more
question, i bought domains a few times, and the first year is super cheap, then the second year they jack up the prices. no, I'm not paying 140$ for a domain I only use for my kids Minecraft server.
Those are class 1.111B domains. I actually buy them a little cheaper, but have to do it one year at a time. It's only 6-9 digits though, not any string of digits
Well the domain helps with that for sure, especially for things like let’s encrypt. But my other stuff is running through Tailscale/headscale so https isn’t really necessary.
I got a pretty great one for cheap that I want to migrate my Navidrome service to. I don't mind the $12 renewal; I just need to figure out how to host 1TB of music on the cloud for cheap.
Yes I am aware that I am paying to use someone else's hardware. I already self-hosted lots of stuff on my own hardware, renting a server has other benefits that my own hardware doesn't, mainly guaranteed uptime.
In a lot of cases it's cheap and fun, but it can also be time consuming and easy to mess up. Hosting your own mail server for example is probably not worth it for most people.
Unless youre a large enterprise... hosting your email is always a bad idea. All it takes is one pc on your network to be compromised and get yourself on a spam blocklist. And good luck convincing all email services to unblock you.
Used to. I gave up for the various reasons mentioned in my comment. But yes, that's pretty much what I did. If you're interested in trying, using WireGuard and iptables is relatively straightforward:
Thanks for the guide. S3 buckets are the way to go and I already have a few Linode/Akami servers I keep for playing around with. I'm just a little worried about Navidrome hammering the server because I messed something up then getting a $1000 bandwidth charge.
I am using my domain. Best 10€ ever spent (maybe after Terraria). For just 10€ I get a .org domain name and all the DNS records I want, and I get pampered by cloudflare all the time...
"Oh, you want a distributed reverse proxy? You want a dislocated cache? You won't TLS without getting a certificate? Block AI on the proxy? Even more stuff? Well guess what, we already make a bajillion dollars from big tech, so you the little guy can have all of that included in your 10€"
Yeah this is why I don’t get the selfhosting communities dislike of cloudflare. Most of the free stuff they give you, you can’t hope to self host. And the stuff you can, you are still free to. There’s the chance they turn on us in the future, but for now they seem pretty reliable.
Now if it’s a dislike of centralization to a single company? I can understand that.
Yeah this is why I don’t get the selfhosting communities dislike of cloudflare.
There’s the chance they turn on us in the future, but for now they seem pretty reliable. Now if it’s a dislike of centralization to a single company? I can understand that.
I think that's exactly what people are concerned about. Any company that turns into a monopoly should be looked at with suspicion.
We dislike it because nobody needs it. Nobody here is getting DDoS'd to any extend that needs external protection.
I'm talking anecdotally but it seems to me that all the people who ride-or-die Cloudflare are also self-hosters who aren't very knowledgeable about self-hosting concepts and just heard that cloudflare protects against all these imaginary problems because they sure do sound scary!
I host a GameVault server with a largeish number of games, but the people who use the server span the entirety of the globe. The number of people isn’t huge, but serving a 100GB file to SEA from the US just isn’t going to be a good time for anyone involved.
The problem with cloudflare is when everyone relies on them, then if something happens to them, they take the whole internet offline... its much like when aws has issues, half the internet just stops working. It undermines the concept that the internet is a federation.
Well, I don't use most of their stuff because I mostly run self hosted stuff that either don't need their proxy stuff or violate their content policies (you can't serve movies/video over their proxy, which is reasonable). But if I wanted to I already have all of that at my disposal, without any extra money.
The only questionable stuff I do is stream game files and Stremio over it. Though the game files are “supported” because they come from backblaze I guess?
I've been serving video to myself remotely via proxy for six years on Cloudflare, never got any email to stop, never got throttled for bandwidth issues. They likely don't want you to host another version of YouTube, or tank their pipes with data, otherwise they don't give a fuck what you do
I have a domain I keep because it's short, but my main one is more memorable. I just don't want to lose the short one, I'm sure I'll find a use for it one day.
Oh sweet summer child. Back in the 1999 and 2000 Network Solutions was the only registrar (for North American TLDs) and it cost $35/year (and if memory serves you had to buy it initially for 2 years, and after that you could renew it for 1 year at a time). $35 in the year 2000 is worth $65.66 today.
Yep. It wasn't cheap or easy back when they had the monopoly.
That's back when ISP's offered personal webpage hosting as part of your service. I setup my first webpage on my dialup ISP's server. Family photos and such before the social media things got going.
I for many years after that for large file transfers. Just set up a landing index page and a folder for the file in FTP to activate it. Then share the http address to file.
Ooo this hurts deep. I was paying hosting and domain, but now just domain since the site needed a refresh and one day I will get around to it…
Mate, I went full slog and got a vps. Now each site is a virtual host. I did have individual landers in each host, but now they just redirect to my main site.
Which is a lander 🤣
My domain is just used so I can reverse-proxy my homelab for people who don't know anything about vpn, etc.
Yeah, I use it for personal link sharing for Immich. Sharing photos is a breeze.
I got a domain that I only use for email right now but I'd love to set something like this up. Any recommendations on tutorials?
Get started with a Linux server and then I'd go with something like Nextcloud in a Docker container. Then do reverse proxy, nginx on the host is very easy. You can get and update SSL certs with certbot (Let's Encrypt).
Just do Caddy instead of nginx/cerbot all that garbage. Caddy just simply handles it all for you: Subdomains, wildcard certs, authentication, ssl
My whole caddy config file is like 6 lines; something like
@mydomain.com {ipaddress:portpath:/}And you can do all sorts of plugins that make it compatible with fail2ban, etc.
I hear Traefik is pretty easy to set up too.
And if you don't have an unique public IP address, for example because you are behind CGNAT, you can use Pangolin. It tunnels all traffic from your homelab to a VPS via Wireguard and exposes your services via a Traefik reverse proxy. Pangolin also automates the Traefik setup and provides a webui to configure the individual proxies.
For a VPS I recommended ionos, because they offer servers with unlimited traffic starting at only 1€ per month with server locations in both Europe and the US.
"######.xyz" was cheap as chips. Now I'm using Https I want to stay there so I was thinking about getting a more convenient domain, but then I'd have to migrate... So £12 it is
I don't even know why everyone keeps getting these no-name bullshit tlds. .com is $12/yr, it basically never changes...
For me, it was the cheapest entry.
Gym memberships: "Hold my beer."
$12 is 2018 prices
I just renewed my .com for USD $11.08 and that's not even the cheapest registrar. Some companies will absolutely rip you off on renewals though.
My .xyz domain is $13 on renewal, where should I move to attain lower prices?
You can check tld-list.com to see who has the best prices.
A lot of the price data is inaccurate or outdated. They didn't include Namecheap's latest 2 price increases, for example (fuck Namecheap)
A good starting point, but be sure to double check prices
I paid $11.08 too on porkbun, but it's a .com domain
Well, maybe OP has been holding on to it for quite few years by now.
Just got this in my email today:
What’s the average increase? Because if it’s $0.05 I don’t think this is concerning.
https://www.namecheap.com/blog/price-increase-on-identity-digital-domains-2025/
I mean yeah, vanity tdl’s cost more. What about .coms or .nets, or .orgs?
There’s definitely some upcharge in there. .coms at cloudflare are $10.46 for instance.
What a ripoff, .com has always been about 10$. The renewal being somehow more expensive than a new registration, while in actuality there is no difference in the process, really makes it obvious they charge what they think people will fall for.
Transfers, registrations, and renewals all cost the same and all charge the domain by 1 year. You can charge at any time for I think up to 10 years. Any registrar not passing that system on is being deceptive.
They aren't even roping in people with prices below cost, they charge you a reasonable fee for the first year and then somehow bank on people not switching. Maybe they make the process really painful?
Either way why would anyone use them?
I ended up dropping them today because of that. My random domain went from $30 to $90 over the course of a couple years. Found another registrar for $35
Namecheap is 100% ripping people off on the renewals
They also use AI support now, so don't even get the benefit of good support any more
Woooooot?
I guess I am lucky that my domain comes with the cheapest webhosting I pay for at Hetzner.
Goes I'm going to have to look at my domain cost.
I still hold a .de domain for 12€/year
I used to have like 30 domains. Then last week I bought another one so now I have like 31 domains.
I bought it for a good reason though.
Oh neat.
I'm in this meme, and I don't like it.
Me too. My nextcloud has been dead for years at this point.
I wish I could keep my dreams alive for $12.
yeah a box of good reeds costs more than that
question, i bought domains a few times, and the first year is super cheap, then the second year they jack up the prices. no, I'm not paying 140$ for a domain I only use for my kids Minecraft server.
that's why you always look at renewal prices and never first year prices. tld-list.com has a good comparison.
A lot of the big ones like to jack the prices up every year. Just dropped Namecheap because my domain tripled in price over 3 years
Who did you go to?
Nameexpensive.com
They start at 50€/Month but get cheaper over time!
thanks, that's what i need to know
Thats why I bought a dirt cheap domain that is entirely numbers, and it renews for 10 dollars every 10 years.
I just need to remember the digits.
.xyz
Heh. I own https://9007199254740991.com/
It’s the max safe integer in double precision floating point format.
Wait you're the port87 guy
Yeah. :)
JoCo reference is top tier
You’re the first person to mention it. :)
So... you reinvented ip addresses.
With subdomains and ddos protection
Can you recommend a good site to find/check these prices? No problem if not, I'm utterly clueless and entirely curious lol.
Cloudflare sells domains at cost
my domains were also dirty cheap. they jacked up the prices afterwards because they can
Those are class 1.111B domains. I actually buy them a little cheaper, but have to do it one year at a time. It's only 6-9 digits though, not any string of digits
Make sure you're buying .com or another common standard TLD and not some weird TLD with super high prices.
And check the renewal price, if your registrar doesn't make it very clear then go somewhere else.
I have a .us domain, I don't even remember what I pay, I only do it every 6 years, it's so cheap...
you must have a high traffic TLD like a .ai or .sucks or something.
one was .eu, another .uk
don't remember the rest
Guys one day, my nixos config WILL hold both my pc and home server configuration, just gotta block out 3 months to get it bootable
I mean. It does make me feel better knowing I'm not actually alone.
Right? On one hand I feel personally attacked, but on the other hand “oh thank god it’s not just me”.
But next year I swear I’ll have the time and energy to actually build all those cool ideas behind the domains! I hope….
Just renewed and I'm upset as well
My dream of pressing a red button with pay $12 on it will never be fulfilled 😥
I have one that I use for services that other people need to get to. Otherwise I just remember the IP.
No https?
I've heard that Let's Encrypt recently started issuing certificates for IP addresses. I'm unable to find the article at the moment though.
Oh, they stopped the excuses finally? Not a "huge security problem" and "impossible to verify real ownership" anymore?
I mean, there are many ISPs out there that don’t provide a static. You can easily end up with a very for an IP you don’t currently have control over.
Okay fair point
Well the domain helps with that for sure, especially for things like let’s encrypt. But my other stuff is running through Tailscale/headscale so https isn’t really necessary.
Just set up auto renew and be sad when you are charged, then forget about it in a few days.
I got a pretty great one for cheap that I want to migrate my Navidrome service to. I don't mind the $12 renewal; I just need to figure out how to host 1TB of music on the cloud for cheap.
'the cloud' is just someone else's computer. The cheapest way is always going to be to use your own hardware. Get into homelabbing :D
Yes I am aware that I am paying to use someone else's hardware. I already self-hosted lots of stuff on my own hardware, renting a server has other benefits that my own hardware doesn't, mainly guaranteed uptime.
In a lot of cases it's cheap and fun, but it can also be time consuming and easy to mess up. Hosting your own mail server for example is probably not worth it for most people.
If the homelab involves using an IP address under a residential internet service, that quickly goes from "not worth it" to "literally impossible".
Unless you're willing to set it up so SMTP and IMAP are tunneled through a VPS that you also pay for, the story becomes:
Why can't I receive my test mail?
Oh, the ISP blocks inbound SMTP connections.
Why can't I access my mailbox from outside my home?
Oh, they also block IMAP and POP.
Why do my outgoing emails all end up in the spam folder?
Oh, most email providers insta-spam anything from residential IPs ranges.
And then, even if it's not a homelab, DIY email hosting is:
Oh my god, there's so much spam.
I need to set up more aggressive filters.
Why did this important email get filtered?
Oh, I need to make the spam filter less aggressive.
Why are my outbound emails being marked as spam?
Oh, I need to set up DKIM and SPF.
Why is it still being marked as spam?
Wait, some providers require reverse lookup hostname of the mailserver to match the sender name? Fuck.
Oh, ok, now my server or its IP block got added to a spam list.
How do I get removed from the spam list?
Painfully. Very painfully.
And so on.
It's really not worth it.
Unless youre a large enterprise... hosting your email is always a bad idea. All it takes is one pc on your network to be compromised and get yourself on a spam blocklist. And good luck convincing all email services to unblock you.
So you run everything through a VPS? Is that so very hard? You don't use the VPS directly, you use it for the RDNS and static IP.
Used to. I gave up for the various reasons mentioned in my comment. But yes, that's pretty much what I did. If you're interested in trying, using WireGuard and iptables is relatively straightforward:
https://blog.arrogantrabbit.com/vpn/net/Wireguard-DNAT-and-IPTABLES/
Yeah.. I want to host mail, but I loath the idea of hosting my own mail.
I manage enterprise email and I don’t want to host my own email. You’ll get some folks here that are pretty adamant that it’s easy.
Define "cheap".
https://bdon.github.io/cng-storage-guide/
Note that this isn't a one-to-one guide.
Some have a minimum storage amount but with 12 TB you're fine.
I think cloudflare may be the most cost effective since they don't have egress costs like AWS.
Thanks for the guide. S3 buckets are the way to go and I already have a few Linode/Akami servers I keep for playing around with. I'm just a little worried about Navidrome hammering the server because I messed something up then getting a $1000 bandwidth charge.
my dream of hosting a few services mostly for personal use is alive and kicking tyvm
Lol I renew in 5 year increments
I am using my domain. Best 10€ ever spent (maybe after Terraria). For just 10€ I get a .org domain name and all the DNS records I want, and I get pampered by cloudflare all the time...
"Oh, you want a distributed reverse proxy? You want a dislocated cache? You won't TLS without getting a certificate? Block AI on the proxy? Even more stuff? Well guess what, we already make a bajillion dollars from big tech, so you the little guy can have all of that included in your 10€"
Yeah this is why I don’t get the selfhosting communities dislike of cloudflare. Most of the free stuff they give you, you can’t hope to self host. And the stuff you can, you are still free to. There’s the chance they turn on us in the future, but for now they seem pretty reliable.
Now if it’s a dislike of centralization to a single company? I can understand that.
I think that's exactly what people are concerned about. Any company that turns into a monopoly should be looked at with suspicion.
We dislike it because nobody needs it. Nobody here is getting DDoS'd to any extend that needs external protection.
I'm talking anecdotally but it seems to me that all the people who ride-or-die Cloudflare are also self-hosters who aren't very knowledgeable about self-hosting concepts and just heard that cloudflare protects against all these imaginary problems because they sure do sound scary!
I mean, I don’t use it for DDOS protection. I use it as a cdn, which is something I absolutely cannot self host. At least not on a budget.
I ask with genuine curiosity, what do you need a CDN for?
I host a GameVault server with a largeish number of games, but the people who use the server span the entirety of the globe. The number of people isn’t huge, but serving a 100GB file to SEA from the US just isn’t going to be a good time for anyone involved.
The problem with cloudflare is when everyone relies on them, then if something happens to them, they take the whole internet offline... its much like when aws has issues, half the internet just stops working. It undermines the concept that the internet is a federation.
Well, I don't use most of their stuff because I mostly run self hosted stuff that either don't need their proxy stuff or violate their content policies (you can't serve movies/video over their proxy, which is reasonable). But if I wanted to I already have all of that at my disposal, without any extra money.
The only questionable stuff I do is stream game files and Stremio over it. Though the game files are “supported” because they come from backblaze I guess?
I've been serving video to myself remotely via proxy for six years on Cloudflare, never got any email to stop, never got throttled for bandwidth issues. They likely don't want you to host another version of YouTube, or tank their pipes with data, otherwise they don't give a fuck what you do
I have a domain I keep because it's short, but my main one is more memorable. I just don't want to lose the short one, I'm sure I'll find a use for it one day.
That might be good for shortlinking
I will never let go of bascul.in, that's for sure.
At least put all three basculin on it!
How very dare you.
I finally let mine go last week. RIP 🪦
My condolences
Wow this was me yesterday. Opened Namecheap and saw the 10 domains I have sitting there doing nothing.
X5
reading these comments makes me quite please about my $6 renewal .stream domain lol
Options have value.
Options expire.
🤷
Oh sweet summer child. Back in the 1999 and 2000 Network Solutions was the only registrar (for North American TLDs) and it cost $35/year (and if memory serves you had to buy it initially for 2 years, and after that you could renew it for 1 year at a time). $35 in the year 2000 is worth $65.66 today.
Yep. It wasn't cheap or easy back when they had the monopoly.
That's back when ISP's offered personal webpage hosting as part of your service. I setup my first webpage on my dialup ISP's server. Family photos and such before the social media things got going.
I for many years after that for large file transfers. Just set up a landing index page and a folder for the file in FTP to activate it. Then share the http address to file.
I can't be the only one that collects cheap domains for fun.