Cost Engineering: Running 28 Production Services for $31/Month

The Bill

Let's start with the numbers:

No Vercel Pro, no AWS Lambda, no Supabase, no Render. Every service runs on one machine.

How 28 Services Fit on a Single VPS

systemd Services (24)

Grouped by purpose:

• Web apps (6): personal site, dashboard, docs site, n8n, proxy manager, status page
• API services (4): irrigation calculator, search, contact form, webhook receiver
• Automation (8): briefing generation, data sync, certificate renewal, log rotation, backup, etc.
• Infrastructure (6): Nginx, Node.js runtime, Python services, monitoring, etc.

Each service is its own systemd unit — auto-restart on crash, logs go to journald.

Docker Containers (4)

Services that need environment isolation run in Docker: n8n (workflow engine), Uptime Kuma (status monitoring), and a couple others.

Key Decisions

Why Not Serverless

1. Predictable latency: Node.js processes on a VPS stay resident in memory — no cold starts
2. Predictable cost: $30/month flat, no surprise bill from a traffic spike
3. Full observability: journalctl -u xxx shows the logs — no CloudWatch needed
4. SSH access: When something breaks, log in and investigate directly instead of guessing

The Power of Cloudflare's Free Tier

• DNS + CDN: Global edge network, free
• SSL: Origin Certificate, free and automatic
• CF Access: Zero-trust authentication, no need to roll your own login system
• Origin Rules: Route to port 8443, with Nginx as the unified entry point

Nginx as the Unified Gateway

All services are exposed through an Nginx reverse proxy on a single port 8443. Subdomains route to different upstreams:

docs.tianlizeng.cloud → localhost:3001
status.tianlizeng.cloud → localhost:3002
n8n.tianlizeng.cloud → localhost:5678

Resource Usage

Actual utilization on the 4C/8G box:

• CPU: 5-10% on typical days, peaks around 60% during builds
• Memory: 3.2 GB resident, with 4.8 GB headroom
• Disk: 18 GB used out of 40 GB
• Network: ~2 GB outbound per day

Scaling Plan

When one VPS isn't enough:

1. Vertical: Bump to 8C/16G (about $60/month) — covers most scenarios
2. Horizontal: Move compute-heavy services (builds) to a second box
3. Cloud services as last resort: Only when a single service genuinely needs elastic scaling

Takeaway

Indie developers don't need "cloud-native." A single VPS plus Cloudflare's free tier is enough to build a reliable production environment. The point isn't picking the most cutting-edge stack — it's that every dollar lands where it earns its keep.