The AltStack Starter Kit
If you’re new to self-hosting, don’t try to replace your entire SaaS stack on day one. Start with three tools that are immediately useful, easy to deploy, and will teach you how everything works.
The Stack
| Tool | Replaces | Why It’s First |
|---|---|---|
| Uptime Kuma | Pingdom, UptimeRobot ($15/mo) | Monitors everything else you deploy. Set it up first. |
| Plausible | Google Analytics (free but creepy) | Privacy-respecting analytics. You’ll see results immediately. |
| Coolify | Vercel, Heroku ($20+/mo) | Deploy future apps with git push. Your own PaaS. |
Total monthly cost: ~$6 (one small VPS) Total SaaS cost replaced: ~$35+/mo
Deploy Order
This order matters:
1. Uptime Kuma (5 min)
Your monitoring dashboard. Once it’s running, add monitors for everything else you deploy. You’ll always know if something goes down.
2. Plausible Analytics (10 min)
Lightweight, cookie-free analytics. Add the tracking script to your site and immediately start seeing real visitor data — without the privacy guilt.
3. Coolify (15 min)
This is the game-changer. Coolify turns your server into a self-hosted Vercel/Netlify. Git push → auto deploy. It’ll become the foundation for everything you build.
After the Starter Kit
Once you’re comfortable, explore the Curated Stacks — pre-built bundles of tools designed for specific use cases:
- 🚀 The Bootstrapper Stack — Full SaaS toolkit for $0/mo
- 🔒 The Privacy Stack — Maximum data sovereignty
- 🤖 The AI-First Stack — Run LLMs and image gen locally