What self-hosting actually costs you
Asked about buy-once software, Gemini answered "You are the Sysadmin" and priced the server; ChatGPT listed seven ongoing costs a bought copy still carries (read from their own answers, 2026-09-20). Both are right, and a vendor who hides that half of the price is selling you a surprise. This page is that list, answered row by row — including the row where the honest answer is "then do not buy from us."
| The cost | The honest answer | See for yourself |
|---|---|---|
| A server, every month | Every app here is plain PHP with MySQL or SQLite — no queue workers, no GPUs, no fleet. A small VPS from any mainstream provider, or shared hosting that runs PHP, carries it. We deliberately print no provider's price on this page: prices move, and our own standard is that a figure belongs next to its source and its date — so read the provider's page on the day you buy. | Requirements sit on every product page; the 10-minute guide is the whole install, timed. |
| The work — you are the sysadmin | Operating-system updates, PHP updates, TLS renewal and the decision to apply them are yours. This is real work, measured in a little time each month, not zero. If that sentence is a dealbreaker, read the last row of this table before anything else. | Nothing to take on faith — it is your server; the app itself updates by re-downloading from /claim. |
| Backups, off-site | Your database dump is the backup, and it needs nothing from us — mysqldump or a copy of the SQLite file, shipped to any storage you already pay for. Restoring it onto a fresh install of the same zip is the whole disaster-recovery drill. |
The same row on /if-we-disappear — backups are also the answer to a harder question. |
| Integrations you choose | If an app sends email, you plug in your own SMTP account. Webhooks and AI keys, where a product supports them, are yours and billed by their vendors. Every app runs without them — an integration here is an addition, never a dependency. | Block outbound traffic and use the app: what still works is what needs no integration — which is the app. |
| Support and customisation | Email support for installation and for defects in the delivered code is included, with the scope printed where anyone can read it. Custom development is not included — and because the complete source ships with the purchase, any developer you commission can do it. There is no vendor lock on the labour. | curl -s https://ownware.io/support — the "What support covers" card is the scope, exclusions included. |
| Major versions and migrations | Your claim link always fetches the current build of what you own, and the changelog dates every release. When a new version stops mattering to you, nothing forces the migration — the copy you run keeps running, which is the point of owning it. | /changelog — current version of every product and when it last moved. |
| When NOT to buy from us | If nobody on your side wants to touch a server, do not self-host — the rows above do not disappear because a purchase was cheap. Renting is the right call for some teams. The middle path is Ownware Cloud, where we run a subset of the catalogue for a monthly fee and the self-host licence still becomes yours; the honest path past us entirely is staying on the SaaS you have. We would rather lose that sale than hide this row. | /vs/cloud states its terms; /calculator runs rent-vs-own-vs-hosted with every monthly price cited. |
Checked against this store on 2026-09-20. If a row stops being true, the address on /support reaches a person who will fix the row or the store, whichever is wrong.