About FridayBuilds in a nutseashell

When I started coding, Heroku was the go-to platform for hosting your apps. For starter apps it was fine. But once you needed a background worker or a slightly bigger database? Well, it started to feel like everything can be either free or very overpriced.

In fact, most hosting services seem to have a very cheap (or even free) entry level, but then once you grow and want to actually scale with them, the prices skyrocket. For big companies that's not a problem, but for small businesses or indie developers, it can be a deal breaker.

So, I was forced to look into alternatives as soon as my first app started to grow. That's when I found dokku. It is an open source PAAS solution, which means I had to set up my own server, but that was a small price to pay (😎🎵).

Pretty early on I wondered if I could one day build an app that would issue dokku commands on my server and release it as a service. Much like Heroku, but on a more fair pricing model. One that wouldn't punish you for being successful.

And don't get me wrong. Self-hosting can always be cheaper. However, it's one more thing that takes time and effort to maintain. I just wanted a hosting service that is reliable, convenient and CAN scale when needed, while also at a price that would not make me resort to self-host, unless I actually wanted to.

FridayBuilds aims to be all that. I hope you like it!

- Tasos

Dedicated to my father, two-times cancer survivor and strong fighter in the third one, which sadly took his life on Friday, June 14th, 2024. To the person who taught me to not care about what people think of me, to make a difference by being kind. To the person that always called me and my brother his "pride and joy" ("καμάρι μου" in Greek). Forever in our hearts and memories. Love you dad ❤️🌹🕯