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Calculator: self-hosting vs paying a subscription
Self-hosting Immich, Jellyfin, Nextcloud or Vaultwarden pays off when what you save each month on subscriptions, minus electricity and other costs, covers what you spent on the hardware. Enter what you pay today and what your server would cost, and I will tell you which month you break even and how much you have spent at 12, 24 and 36 months.
The calculator
This is a cost model using the numbers you enter, not financial advice. It does not include replacing the hardware, failures, or the value of your data if something goes wrong. What you enter stays only in your browser's URL.
What each app replaces, and what it does not.
Self-hosting is not always an exact copy of the service you pay for. This table reads without JavaScript.
| App | What it does | Main thing to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Immich | Photos and videos from your phone (what you do today with Google Photos or iCloud+) | Library backups and disk space: it grows with every photo. |
| Nextcloud | Synced and shared files (what you do today with Dropbox or Google Drive) | It is a large platform: it needs constant updates. |
| Vaultwarden | Passwords, compatible with Bitwarden clients | If the vault is lost without a backup, you lose your logins: back it up separately. |
| Jellyfin | Your own collection of movies, shows and music on any screen | It does not replace the catalog of a streaming service: it only serves your own content. |
How it is calculated.
Break-even = Hardware ÷ (Subscriptions − Own monthly cost)
- Subscriptions = the sum of what you enter in the list, per month.
- Own monthly cost = electricity + domain, VPS or backup + your time. Electricity is watts × (8,760 ÷ 12) hours ÷ 1,000 × MXN per kWh, as if it were on all the time.
- Total at N months: subscription = subscriptions × N; self-hosted = hardware + own monthly cost × N.
- Break-even month = hardware ÷ monthly savings, rounded up. If the monthly savings are zero or negative, the hardware never pays for itself and we say so.
Example with made-up numbers only to show the formula: hardware MXN $6,000, subscriptions MXN $500 a month, own monthly cost MXN $150. The monthly savings are MXN $350, and MXN $6,000 ÷ MXN $350 gives month 18. These are not real prices of anything.
Assumptions: costs constant over time, no inflation, no plan changes and no replacing the hardware. Any of those can move the numbers.
What the calculator does not see.
- Your time. Installing, updating and fixing things when they fail is work. If you leave it at 0, self-hosting looks cheaper than it is.
- 3-2-1 backups. Three copies of your data, on two different types of media, and one off-site. A single copy on the server's own drive is not a backup.
- Risk of losing data. A drive can fail, a theft or a fire can take the machine, and a mistake of yours can delete everything. A subscription largely avoids that; your server does not.
- No support. A paid service has someone you can complain to. With self-hosting, support is you, the documentation and the community.
- Security. You apply the updates. Before exposing anything to the internet, read the guide to checking a repo.
- Replacement. Drives and power supplies wear out. If you plan to replace them in a few years, add it to the hardware cost.
There are good reasons to self-host that are not about money: privacy, control or learning. This calculator only answers the pesos part.
Frequently asked questions.
- Is it worth self-hosting Immich, Nextcloud or Vaultwarden instead of paying for a subscription?It depends on how much you pay today, how much the machine costs and how much your time is worth. If what you save each month exceeds the electricity and the other costs, the machine pays for itself in a certain number of months; if not, it never does. The calculator gives you that month with your numbers. There are also reasons that are not about money, such as privacy or control.
- How long does a home server take to pay for itself?Machine ÷ (subscriptions per month − your own monthly cost), rounded up. With a machine of MXN $6,000, subscriptions of MXN $500 a month and MXN $150 a month in your own costs, the saving is MXN $350 a month and it pays for itself in month 18. These are example numbers, not real prices.
- Which costs get forgotten when self-hosting?The most common ones: your time to install, update and fix things; the off-site backup; replacing drives and power supplies; and the internet. If you do not count them, self-hosting looks cheaper than it is.
- What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?Keep three copies of your data, on two different types of media, with one of them off-site. A single copy on the server's own drive is not a backup: if the drive fails, you lose everything.
- What happens if my server breaks or I lose the data?With self-hosting there is no support to sort it out for you: it is you, the project's documentation and its community. That is why it pays to have tested backups before depending on the server, and not to keep there the one thing you cannot lose without another copy.
- Is this calculator financial advice?No. It is a cost model using the numbers you type in. It uses no prices from any service, does not account for inflation or for replacing the machine, and does not replace your own analysis.
Related guides and calculators.
The electricity and hardware numbers are yours; this page uses no third-party prices. The only external source on the site for costs is CFE (Mexico's state electricity utility), in the electricity calculator.