I have been doing some renovations. Not on the house, but here on the site.
For a long time, this blog lived in a rented room. I used EasyWP from Namecheap. It was functional. It worked. But it felt like living in a hotel. You can sleep there, but you are not allowed to drill holes in the walls or change the locks.
I decided it was time to move out. I have spent the last three days migrating everything to my own VPS (Virtual Private Server). It was surprisingly quick. I expected a week of headaches, but it has gone smoother than I thought.
The Economics of Independence
We are often told that convenience is worth paying for. Usually, I agree. But in the world of hosting, the markup for convenience is steep.
My previous setup was a patchwork of services. I was paying £7.40 a month for the WordPress hosting. On top of that, I paid £5 a month for Mullvad VPN to keep my browsing private. That is over £12 a month just to exist online securely.
My new VPS costs £3.05 a month.
For that price, I get more storage and traffic allowance than I will ever need. I have migrated the WordPress site. I have also set up WireGuard on the server. This replaces my Mullvad VPN subscription entirely.
The maths is undeniable. I am saving nearly ten pounds a month, and I am getting more for it.
The “Douglas Ireland” Cloud Stack
The best part of this move is knowing exactly what is running under the bonnet. There is no “black box” anymore. I built the system, so I know how it works.
Here is the current setup.
1. The Foundation – I am using Hetzner Cloud based in Germany. It feels appropriate for a project focused on privacy to host the data within Europe. The OS is Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (Noble Numbat) running Linux Kernel 6.8.0. It is solid and stable.
2. The Architecture – I went for a hybrid approach.
- Host Level: Nginx runs natively. It handles the public traffic and manages the SSL certificates via Let’s Encrypt.
- Container Level: Everything else runs in isolated Docker containers. They talk to each other through a custom internal bridge network.
3. The Silence (Privacy & Ads) – This is the feature I am most pleased with.
- VPN: I am running WireGuard (via the wg-easy image). It is faster and leaner than older protocols.
- Ad Blocking: I have AdGuard Home running as a network-wide DNS sinkhole.
- The Link: The VPN and AdGuard are linked internally. When I connect my phone or laptop to the VPN, all the DNS queries are forced through AdGuard. It scrubs the ads and trackers before the data even reaches my screen.
4. The Applications –
- The Blog: douglasireland.com is running on a native Nginx/PHP implementation.
- Coming Soon: I am looking to implement my own cloud storage and password manager next. That will save me even more money in the long run, but for now, I am taking it one step at a time.
5. Maintenance – I don’t want to spend my life running updates manually. I have Watchtower running in the background. It checks for Docker image updates every 24 hours and applies them automatically.
Escaping the Walled Garden
Managed hosting is a walled garden. They keep it tidy for you, but they also lock the gates.
They block certain plugins. They restrict file access. On a VPS, I have “root access.” That means I hold the keys to the entire building.
If I want to run a Python script alongside this blog? I can. If I want to host my own password manager later down the line? I can. If I want to mess up the configuration and break the whole thing? I can do that too.
That risk is part of the appeal.
The Joy of Logic
There is a satisfaction in getting a system to run perfectly. It is the same feeling you get when you finally crack a difficult crossword clue or fit the last piece of a puzzle into place.
Setting this up required reading, learning, and typing commands into a terminal window. It gave me something to do. I am genuinely enjoying learning about how the internet actually functions.
When I get a new service running, like the WireGuard VPN which now shields all my devices rather than just the five Mullvad allowed, I feel a real sense of accomplishment.
Mid 90s Style Independence
Ultimately, this is a philosophical choice.
We have drifted into an era where we rent everything from Big Tech. We trade our data for ease of use. Moving to a VPS is a small act of rebellion. It is about data sovereignty. I control the backups. I control the logs. I am not relying on an ecosystem that might change its terms of service tomorrow.
It feels like the internet of the mid 90s. It is a bit rougher around the edges, perhaps. But it is mine.
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