Self-Hosting in the EU

Applications on your own servers at a European provider – with the convenience of a deployment platform.

dectria runs web applications, databases and staging environments on its own servers in the EU: on dedicated virtual servers at Hetzner, managed with Coolify. This keeps data with a European provider, and costs are fixed and predictable per server.

We use this ourselves: our internal applications, staging environments and websites run on Hetzner with Coolify.

For clients, we set up servers, deployments, backups and monitoring, and on request we also take over ongoing operations.

Official website

Your contact Michael Jauk Contact for cloud & infrastructure

What is self-hosting – and when is it worth it?

Self-hosting means that applications run on rented servers managed by you or by us, instead of on a platform such as Vercel or Render. Unlike on-premises, the servers are not at your site but in the data center of a hosting provider in the EU. Coolify is an open-source platform (Apache 2.0) that handles deployments from Git, databases, certificates and backups on these servers – similar to Vercel, but on your own infrastructure.

Self-hosting is worth it when data should stay with a European provider, with steady load, or with many small services that platforms would bill individually. It is not worth it when nobody is responsible for updates, backups and monitoring, or with strongly fluctuating load that a platform absorbs automatically.

Vercel, Render or self-hosting at Hetzner?

	Vercel	Render	Self-hosting at Hetzner
Provider	US company	US company	German company
Data location	functions selectable in Frankfurt	Frankfurt region	Germany or Finland
Operation	by the provider	by the provider	by you or dectria
Cost model	usage-based	per service and database	fixed monthly price per server
Suited for	Next.js applications, quick start	backends with database and jobs	EU data location, steady load, many services

What We Build with Self-Hosting (Hetzner & Coolify)

Setting Up Hetzner Cloud Servers Coolify as Deployment Platform Deployments from Git Docker & Docker Compose Databases such as PostgreSQL Automatic Certificates (Let's Encrypt) Backups to S3-Compatible Storage Preview Deployments Monitoring & Alerting Updates & Security Patches

Use Cases

Typical Use Cases

Web Applications with EU Data Location

Applications and databases at a German provider when data protection requirements or customers demand it.

Staging & Test Environments

Preview and test environments for several projects on one server, without paying per environment.

Internal Tools & Websites

Internal applications, dashboards and websites running on shared, low-cost infrastructure.

References

Selected Projects

Web Application

Klanglicht - Art Festival of Bühnen Graz

Klanglicht Audio Guide

Mobile App

Radio Soundportal

Soundportal App

Web Application

Österreichische Raiffeisen-Sicherungseinrichtung eGen (ÖRS)

Deposit Insurance Payout Platform

View all references

FAQ

Self-Hosting (Hetzner & Coolify) FAQ

Is Hetzner suitable for GDPR-sensitive data?

Hetzner Online is a German company with its own data center parks in Nuremberg, Falkenstein and Helsinki, certified to ISO 27001. We choose one of these EU locations and sign the data processing agreement. It is best to align the legal assessment for your case with your data protection advisor.

What is Coolify?

An open-source platform you install on your own servers. It builds applications from Git or Docker Compose, issues Let's Encrypt certificates automatically, runs databases, backs them up to S3-compatible storage and creates preview deployments for pull requests. This gives self-hosting much of the convenience of a platform like Vercel.

Who takes care of updates, backups and monitoring?

We agree on this in writing beforehand. We set up servers, backups and monitoring, and on request we take over ongoing operations with security updates and backup checks. Alternatively, we hand the environment over to your IT with documentation.

Does Next.js run on Coolify?

Yes, as a Docker container. Most features work as on Vercel, but caching needs its own configuration. We set it up so that it runs reliably without Vercel's infrastructure.

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