Yeah, creating a Docker container and setting up Caddy seems like a lot of work.
Netlify, Firebase Hosting, GitHub pages, etc, all make it super easy to host a static blog for free, require zero maintenance, and are all backed by global CDNs.
My blog setup uses Netlify to automatically build and deploy on a git push using the built in Hugo support.
Now of course, there is the argument of what "self-hosting" is. Does it just mean you own your domain name and content? Or does it mean you are actually running the server? If its the latter, then sure this is a valid solution, but if all you care about is owning your domain and content I'd use one of the static hosting providers.
I heard Troy Hunt say about why he uses a blog service instead of hosting it himself, (roughly) "Do I want mess around with server configuration or do I want to write?"
Not disagreeing, but the post is titled "Self-Hosting a Blog" which I would assume means that the blog author has already made the decision not to use GitHub or Netlify (for some reason, don't know why).
The truly cheap would go with one of them and avoid the $2.50 monthly fee for a server.
I rather just install WordPress on a $5 a year shared hosting service, or as you said GitHub pages, so just convert WP to static files. I'm not big on WP but it just freaking works, and if it can generate decent static files, why not?
Netlify, Firebase Hosting, GitHub pages, etc, all make it super easy to host a static blog for free, require zero maintenance, and are all backed by global CDNs.
My blog setup uses Netlify to automatically build and deploy on a git push using the built in Hugo support.
Now of course, there is the argument of what "self-hosting" is. Does it just mean you own your domain name and content? Or does it mean you are actually running the server? If its the latter, then sure this is a valid solution, but if all you care about is owning your domain and content I'd use one of the static hosting providers.