DevOps Daily

I am a bit biased here, but would like to showcase https://sherpa.sh/. We built it primarily for hosting our own NextJS apps, but we are rapidly expanding into other frameworks too, and hosting docker containers.

Why? We have extensive experience in the hosting industry and DevOps, stemming from our previous work. By building our infrastructure, we can offer a significantly lower price while maintaining the same or even better performance.

The end goal is to provide seamless and scalable hosting for the price of self-hosting.

We’ve been loving Fly. io lately..

My team currently uses vercel, pricing is good

I recently bought Contabo subscription to host my AI powered tool

personnaly i use vercel

Vercel is for free now, you can use it

I have been using cloudflare for DNS ans security and a custom VPS from Netcup for our Project.

Totally self hosted and managed by us including the DB and server.

I use Hetzner, and there a custom Laravel Envoy script to deploy a Swoole-powered PHP app in a Docker-based environment.

I use digital ocean droplets with custom services, not even docker containers yet. I figured I'll worry about scaling when that'll be a problem I have.

Right now my hosting setup is a mix of DigitalOcean and Vercel. I use DigitalOcean for all backend services. Managed Kubernetes to run my .NET Core APIs. Managed PostgreSQL database. Spaces for object storage. DO Container Registry for storing Docker images. I use Vercel to host my frontend apps, built in Next.js

I’ve tried Azure and AWS before, but DigitalOcean just feels much simpler to set up and manage, especially when you don’t want to deal with overly complex interfaces or pricing models.

I’m currently trying to build a new project entirely on Next.js, including the backend. Curious to see how well it handles real-world scenarios and where the limitations are. Right now, I’m wrestling a bit with structuring the backend logic properly, especially with scalability in mind.

I’m using Miget for hosting my apps. It starts with a small free tier, but for POC it is enough. The deployment is easy, you can click addons like Postgres, Mongo, cache or deploy other blocks within a single project and wire things up effortlessly. I have my private project there, and we had in our startup a whole microservice system, and it does its job. Under the hood, there’s Kubernetes with a really smart and fair scheduler that assigns resources dynamically without downtimes.

I've using Railway lately. Easy to use, pay as you go, and you don't need to manage infra. It's also pretty cheap (min $5 / month) and you can host a lot of project, with their database

I've mainly been using DigitalOcean (App Platform or Droplets) with Cloudflare on top. It's simple, reliable, and gives me just enough control without overcomplicating things. Also love their managed products like databases, Kubernetes, Spaces and etc.

A mix of Contabo VPS' and object storage with some Azure services mixed in.

Still looking for an easy/reliable way to backup/restore Postgres databases. Eyeing Barman and Pgbackrest at the moment.

In my experience, most companies actually wish they could go full cloud and not deal with infrastructure themselves.

Self-hosting is rarely a choice, it’s usually something you're forced into because of legal, government, or compliance constraints. I’ve mostly seen it as a costly burden, not a benefit.

That’s why I run my indie project on Docker + Cloud Run. Backend services scale from 2 to 100,000 users (theoretically😄). Sure, not needed in the early days – but honestly, it’s no effort either.

Which advantages in going with Vercel, Railway, etc. I am missing?

vercel cuz it's free

Vercel for its versatility

Hi. I use vercel for the Frontend because it is very convenient and also they offer a free plan

We deployed our backend on a vps from Hostinger. I wasn't able to find any free and convenient options. So, I chose this as it was cheaper

### **Project Name:** LAWFALL RP

* **Co-Founder Developer** (Unity engine)

* **3D Artist** (Optional but welcome)

**My Role:** Founder & Marketing Management

**My Previous Projects:** N/A (first major project, full-time commitment)

**Team Size:** 7 (looking to build a core founding team)

**Project Length:** 3–5 months for a vertical slice prototype (goal: attract players, content creators, and potential funding)

**Compensation:** Unpaid / Revshare (50% equity offered for co-founder developer)

---

### **Responsibilities:**

* **Developer (Co-Founder):** Lead development using Unity. Build core systems such as multiplayer networking (Photon, FishNet, or Unity Netcode), character control, inventory, UI, crime/police logic, and basic AI. You will be responsible for shaping the technical foundation of the game.

* **3D Artist (Optional):** Contribute to creating semi-realistic modular environments, props, and vehicles that fit the game’s tone and setting.

---

### **Project Description:**

**LAWFALL RP** is a roleplay-focused multiplayer game set in a grounded fictional world with crime, justice, and deep social systems at its core. Inspired by immersive RP experiences and open-ended storytelling, the game aims to provide meaningful player-driven interaction with consequences.

The setting blends realism with custom lore, featuring a world divided by power structures, corruption, and player-aligned roles. Our focus is to build systems that support long-term, evolving gameplay shaped by the community — such as police departments, crime syndicates, civil society roles, and narrative layers.

The project is currently at the **idea and design stage**, with documentation in progress. No assets or code exist yet — we are starting from scratch, with full creative freedom and vision.

Our first milestone is a **vertical slice prototype** that captures the game’s core systems and immersive RP mechanics. The goal is to build a community, attract early attention, and potentially secure support for full development.

We are seeking someone who believes in co-creation — not just a developer, but a partner who will help define the game from the ground up.

**Contact methods:**

Instagram: theshankar_raj_88

Discord: not_alone1

Telegram: @Alone_b68

I just found this thread. Want to share mine, the monetization path for a free tools site depends heavily on which tools drive the most traffic. Security and privacy tools bring in higher-CPC traffic because the affiliate products (NordVPN, Bitdefender, ProtonPass) pay $30–100/conversion. Compare that to utility tools (color pickers, text counters) which bring in $1–3 RPM ad traffic.

Hi,i am new here

If you are looking for more affiliates, let me know at x.com/strzibnyj. I have two relevant books you could help me sell :) I checked the sponsorship pricing and unfortunately that wouldn't work for me as they are niche and there isn't as much money in it.

Maybe “buy me a coffee” or open sponsorships..

This is a great idea, as a devops engineer. Great way to hone skills. Do you have plans to incorporate news in as well? Ie updates to k8s, etc

1. Great idea! Curated DevOps content saves time and keeps teams updated with the latest tools, practices, and trends essential for staying competitive in today’s fast-paced tech landscape.

Hey! You're on the right track. There are a lot of great ways you could monetize what you're doing.

• PDF's is a good idea, maybe make a bundle of 5-6 different eBooks and sell them for $5 each but $15 in the bundle

• If you already have an audience, try posting courses on Udemy or PayHip about your topic. If you drive the traffic on Udemy, they only take a 5%> share.

• Try creating a software related to the field and charge a monthly subscription. Use a nocode service like Bubble if you don't know any web development.

If you have an audience, you've already done the hard part! Monetizing the audience is the easy part!

You’re striking the right balance by leading with value and being cautious with monetisation.

A few options that preserve trust:

• Bundle a few of your best guides + checklists into a $5–10 PDF like you mentioned. Low price, high intent.

• Offer a "behind the scenes" Pro newsletter with weekly deep dives, tool breakdowns, or workflows - something they can't get for free.

• Create a dev-focused “Lab Vault” with premium exercises, scenarios, or certification prep.

Overloading with ads or pushing affiliate links too hard doesn't work. It erodes trust fast. Keep the free stuff clean, community-driven, and useful. Then try building premium around implementation and depth, not access.

I'm here again! I think it's a good idea some ads and create spaces to sell banners. The possibility to generate pro accounts with full features is the key, but you need to create content for that. Try to start a community around your product. If you don't have a discord, create one. If you already have one, bring it!

Hey, these are some ideas off the top of my head without much context (number of users, product roadmap, etc.)

1. Ads. Preferably manually negotiated and placed, not an ad exchange. Depending on the size and type of audience you build, you could make a sizeable revenue stream without altering the current state of content and education on offer. Worth considering is the customer profiles you attract. For example, will you focus exclusively on people who want to learn devops or branch out into company decision makers or people in adjacent fields with different needs?

2. Sponsors. This can be a site wide sponsorship or specific to a section or type of product. For example, can you find a company willing to sponsor the labs or quizzes? Also, you could offer smaller sized (or any sized) direct support from your readers/customers directly who can be credited on the site and allow them to help shape the direction of what you build and recommend the things they're most interested in.

3. A Starter Kit? Similar to your idea of a survival guide I guess, but I'm not technical so I don't know. Is there a shared base of configurations all/most projects would need? Github, testing, automations, etc? Can you draft a guide that helps people get up and running quickly? Can you offer a framework that they can plug and play with to substitute the exact tools they choose to use (similar to SaaS boilerplates perhaps?) If it helps reduce complexity, time, and decision making, it could be worth something to the right audience.

4. Similarly, a marketplace. I could be way off base here, but I think there are parts of devops that can be setup at the beginning of a project and require little adjustment after the fact. Connecting startups or even solo founders that are juggling countless responsibilities with a devops engineer who can set things up for them at the start that would make their workflow after so much smoother would be worth their while. Bonus points if it can help new devops engineers get some experience and be cost effective to smaller operations.

5. Certificates. Not too sure how well this would be received, but for the right price, it might be helpful to have a one page summary that can be linked to explaining everything the earner has demonstrated competence in.

6. Premium Course or talk. As a platform with an audience you may be able to host special events with valuable speakers and educators who can cut through a lot of mess and noise and deliver pointed, valuable classes that will help learners leap past common pitfalls.

7. Paid Lab Reviews? Keeping labs free would keep in the spirit of a community-first driven site. Offering the option to review labs or offer feedback or critiques might be valuable for people who want to accelerate their learning with direct contextual feedback.

8. Job Alerts.

9. Adding affiliate links to resources like books. If the links are placed strategically within related materials and actually provide value, you may earn some additional revenue from people who prefer learning from books.

10. Services. You can explore offering services directly as a way to earn until you discover more ways to have the site support itself.

I feel is something that you have to sit and think about properly...if you're spending much just to bring these things to live then it wouldn't be bad if you put a little monetization to cover up expenses. But if you do not put money to bring them to live then you can consider leaving it on a free mood But if you asked me I would say the world is a market place and therefore there's need to market what works for the world. Thank you, I hope you find this useful ❤️

Hello, I am the founder of Refov, hiring platform made for DevOps jobs. We can connect and share ideas.

Thanks,
Nev

looks interesting. Would be good to cover or have a section on market trends because anyone who’s out there looking for a job, needs to be fully aware

It’s built really nicely. It’s beautifully designed, well done.

I must ask, did you consider security in mind? I ask from a Sec consultant :D

Lets connect?

muito bom, parabéns

Tu sitio está súper cool!!!
Me gustó la opción de realizar la instalación de la PWA desde que llegué al sitio.
En general la organización del sitio, su fluidéz e inmersión es muy buena.
Por cierto, gracias por compartir el conocimiento, pero estoy preocupado por como vas a resolver el tema de la monetización. Es decir, además del "Patrocinio"; por favor dime que ya pensaste algo diferente a "Versión PRO por solo 4.99 USD al mes"?
Felicidades y éxito en tu proyecto.

I think it’s visually stunning. I’m training for DevOps jobs, so I’m definitely going to use it. That said, if you implement a guided path for studying certifications like AWS Solutions Architect, it would be a game-changer. I want to explore it more in-depth, but I think you’re on the right track.