Very cool! I run a set of ssh-based services over at https://pico.sh and love seeing all the indie web content on HN!
Sftp is still very useful even in 2026
Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
41–50 of 210 posts
Re: Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Considering many people doesn't know what a file is, keeping the spirit alive is important, I think.
The lack of basic computer knowledge I’ve seen from developers is terrifying.
It's almost inspiring how far someone can get without understanding really basic stuff about how an operating system operates.
Re: Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
#43I self host my site [1] on an old Mac mini in a Swift backend and sqlite database. Only thing I rely upon someone for is Cloudflare tunnels for free. I could replace that with port forwarding but so far, this way is pretty good. [1] https://limereader.com/
Yup, I have a similar setup where I use a Wireguard VPN to tunnel traffic to a tiny public facing Caddy server, which proxies the traffic to the server under my own roof. No Cloudflare!
Re: Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I encountered juniors straight out of school who don’t know what tar is, or rsync, or what a symlink is. It’s all learnable and everyone starts somewhere. But you’d think natural curiosity would kick in and they’d have picked up some of this on their own by the time they have a job.
If all you do is write code for Windows, why would you need to know what any of that is?
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Re: Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
#45I self host my site [1] on an old Mac mini in a Swift backend and sqlite database. Only thing I rely upon someone for is Cloudflare tunnels for free. I could replace that with port forwarding but so far, this way is pretty good. [1] https://limereader.com/
I have something similar. I use Cloudflare tunnels too but also their CDN which is free (for now).
That's the only thing I haven't really been able to figure out how to do on my own. Back in the day, hosting a static site from my crappy DSL connection was basically no problem and most people who were accessing my site were probably in my timezone. Now with how big the web is and how many bots there are, I worry about the quality of self hosting without a CDN.
Re: Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
#46Nearlyfreespeech is a great service though not a 100% independent as your still relying on them. I think the closest you can get to 100% independent without running your own internet infrastructure is either port forwarding from your home (if allowed) or hosting a website through TOR which isn't too hard. You just have to download the browser and edit a config file (torrc) with the port you want on the network. Not ideal of course though because anyone who wants to visit your website will need the tor browser and explaining to people that your website is on the "dark web" is a little hard to do.
I am a little surprised that doing so isn't more popular on in the indie web scene though as you do it on hardware you own, from your home, and the tor network protects people from knowing your servers ip address if that's something you care about. You could even go to your domain provider and have one of your domains redirect to your .onion address so people don't need to memorize it.
There also used to be the beaker browser which let you create and host your own website directly from the browser but that project got shut down. Hopefully something similar will show up at some point. Maybe a website creating plugin for tor would be enough to make it more popular.
Re: Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
#47now the real fun part is how to self-host it on a machine accessible on the net without services like cloudflare or tailscale tunnels.
You can do it over TOR.
Re: Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I find it a bit funny when people self host to get away from cloud and then use Cloudflare tunnels.
CF tunnels will ban your account if you used it to watch a movie due to DMCA/copyrights.
Is this really true? "A friend of mine" has been running a Jellyfin server behind Cloudflare tunnels for years and hasn't had any issue.
Re: Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
#49I don't get it. I've been doing this for over 20 years exactly the same way. I even ran a business. The server I rent is $2/month. I read nothing new in anything in that article.
I don't get it.
Re: Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day
#50Kind of funny that this is like some strange new concept... Having a web server and putting your stuff on it.
Oh, wait until the kids learn about hardware.