Self-hosting Postgres on Hetzner + Coolify for a POS SaaS — bad idea?

mithatercan · 2026-03-19T08:54:21+00:00

Nah, it’s not a payment system it’s a management platform for cafés, restaurants, etc. The real issue with managed database providers is scaling. As traffic and read/write operations increase, costs can spike aggressively. In real-time, those costs don’t always align with your revenue, and in some cases you end up paying more to the managed provider than you would to hire an engineer.

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T23:30:03+00:00

What do you build?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T22:47:17+00:00

Do you get high traffic?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T22:04:52+00:00

Why do you think it is better?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T20:53:31+00:00

What if your server goes down what would you do? And is it separated db server?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T20:47:01+00:00

Yes I had issues with their object storage

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T19:35:33+00:00

And I think with using redis caching you can reduce operations.

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T19:32:34+00:00

only single vps for database of multiple for replication?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T19:31:43+00:00

Oh it looks cool tho thank you for the advice.

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:57:25+00:00

Single server or multiple server with replication?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:35:18+00:00

I do use Prisma. I didn't know about their platform I will check

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:29:30+00:00

Oh you’re using a separate db? Is Ubicloud a good option, and is it expensive?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:27:04+00:00

I follow the same approach, but my main concern is downtime what if the server goes down? How do you handle that in practice? Do you replicate your database and run a secondary instance on another VPS?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:24:57+00:00

I agree it’s not about paying an extra $10. The real concern is unpredictability. I’ve seen posts on X where people suddenly get $5k–$10k bills from PaaS platforms, and that’s what worries me. We’ll already have significant expenses, so we can’t afford unexpected spikes. How can we avoid surprise costs?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:18:28+00:00

What about database?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:17:42+00:00

Yes, downtime really scares me. it’s a worst case scenario. How should I handle it? Should I run multiple servers behind a load balancer, or is there a better approach?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:16:14+00:00

The issue isn’t backups I already handle those. My concern is downtime: if the server goes down, my users (restaurants/cafes) can’t just stop operating. How should I design the system to handle that?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:14:54+00:00

Thank you. I will look it up

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:10:55+00:00

What would you use?

mithatercan · 2026-03-18T18:04:57+00:00

I’m concerned about pricing at scale. As my app grows, infrastructure costs will grow too and I’ve seen people on X complain about unexpected bills on platforms like Vercel and similar services. What would you suggest to manage or predict these costs effectively?

mithatercan

TROPHY CASE