You are paying ~$3-7 per deployment for your AI Apps. How do you do it in <$10 per month?

Published: January 24, 2026

You are paying ~$3-7 per deployment for your AI Apps. For 40 tools that is $100-200 PM. How do you do it in <$10 per month?

That's what happened around two years back, when I started deploying my open source tools on tigzig.com and doing client app projects.

Coming from analytics, this was new to me. Started with Render - very easy. Then I had 10 apps on free service and 2-3 on paid plans, paying $7 per service for persistent disk. Free tier ones go to sleep after inactivity. Plus, you only get 512MB RAM and half a CPU. Good for small tools, but larger tools tank.

I realized I needed full flexibility. Adding GBs of data, file hosting, higher RAM etc - without worrying about pay-as-you-go surprises, multiple providers or complex pricing.

Finally decided to self-host everything. There was the fear of the unknown, but over time, and with AI help, turned out to be easier than I had thought.

Two Major Elements

  1. A shared server - basically a machine
  2. A deployment tool - to manage multiple apps

Hetzner for the Server

Decided on Hetzner for pricing, reliability, and simplicity. For Euro 7.69 you get 8GB RAM, 80GB disk, 4 vCPUs, dedicated IP, full SSH access. It seemed like an ocean at that time. Now filling up fast.

Have a big app? 32GB RAM, 640GB disk, 16 vCPUs - Euro 39 p.m. Not bad, right?

All NVMe disks, by the way.

Very clean interface vs some cloud providers that feel like an aeroplane cockpit.

Coolify for Deployment

For deployment using Coolify (Free, Open Source). Provides a Render-like interface. Deploy via GitHub repo or Docker. Everything in its own container. You can customize RAM and swap file sizes.

I used this playlist from RJ Reynolds to set up Coolify: YouTube Playlist

When I set it up nearly two years back, I did it one command at a time with ChatGPT. Now with Claude Code, you can share SSH keys and have it do most of the setup. But still do it in small steps, checking every step.

More Resources

More on Infra Setup for AI Tool Builders in my 2026 Guide - Part 2