[sofixa]

Raw compute wise, you're almost right (almost because real cloud hosts aren't overprovisioned, you get the full CPU/memory/disk reserved for you).

But you actually need more than compute. You might need a database, cache, message broker, scheduler, to send emails, and a million other things you can always DIY with FOSS software, but take time. If you have more money than time, get off the shelf services that provide those with guarantees and maintenance; if not, the DIY route is also great for learning.

[baq]

My point is all of this can be hosted on a single bare metal box, a small one at that! We used to do just that back in mid naughts and computers only got faster. Half of those cloud services are preconfigured FOSS derivatives behind the scenes anyway (probably…)