1. Design the ideal platform and deployment process
2. Implement the design
3. Learn from the experience

I’m usually skeptical of too much upfront planning—real-world constraints tend to surprise you—but I’m giving it a shot.

🧾 Requirements

Here’s what I need from the platform:

• Must support a web server and a database
• Must allow zero-downtime deployments
• Must be internet-accessible with HTTPS
• Occasional downtime for patching is acceptable
• Downtime due to hardware failure is fine—recovery should be reasonable
• Monthly operating cost should be ≤ 6€ (e.g., Hetzner’s cheapest VPS)
• Fast deployment turnaround—code changes should go live quickly
• Code is hosted on GitHub. Deoploys should be possible both from GitHub actions and the local developer machine
• This is a learning project, optimized for fast iteration and feedback

🧱 Design Choices

✅ Containers

Containers offer consistent runtimes and portability. There is no reason to choose anything else.

☁️ Scale-to-Zero Container Runtimes

Platforms like Fly.io, Google Cloud Run, and Azure Container Apps let you run containers that can scale to zero when idle. They also handle updates, load balancing, and HTTPS certificates.

Pros:

• Easy deployment
• Managed infrastructure
• HTTPS out of the box

Cons:

• Cold starts can be slow
• Longer deployment turnaround
• Higher cost if always running

These platforms are excellent—but for this project, I think there’s a better alternative.

Fly.io deserves a shoutout: it’s affordable and can build your container directly, eliminating the need for a separate registry.

Databases in the Cloud?

Hosting web apps in the cloud is cheap. Hosting databases? Not so much.

Managed databases come with replicas, backups, and high availability—and those features cost money. I don’t need them (yet).

Serverless databases exist, but startup latency is a concern.

🧑‍🔧 Self-Hosting on a VPS

The downside of self-hosting? You manage everything.

The upside? A 5€ Hetzner VPS (4GB RAM, 40GB SSD) or even my Intel N150 mini machine can host multiple apps and databases.

There are tools that help you manage web apps on your own infrastructure:

• Kamal Deploy
• Uncloud
• Local Docker + custom scripts

You learn a lot by manually setting up an reverse proxy and running containers yourself.

Kamal Deploy works well, though complexity is growing as it adds features. I haven’t tried Uncloud yet, but it looks promising.

Kubernetes

Given my requirements, I believe a small server where I install a one node “mini” Kubernetes is the best option. A machine with 4 GB of RAM can run microk8s or k3s, with enough power to host multiple apps and databases. I can run a local registry can even run Valkey if needed.

• Kubernetes is made for running web apps with, it handles updates without downtime
• I can run a databases, redis etc.
• I will learn a lot of Kubernetes
• With a local build/registry on the Kubernetes machine the turnaround time (for code change to live) will be way faster than any other container based deployment.

It will be a lot of work, but a lot of learing. Is this the best option for you? It depends.

I hope to revist this in the future with some benchmark numbers, some experiences richer.