Self-Hosted Savings Calculator

Select your current cloud subscriptions and see whether running self-hosted equivalents on a NAS actually saves money, after hardware, electricity, and a realistic breakeven timeline. AUD pricing, honest maths.

This self-hosted savings calculator compares your current cloud subscription costs against running self-hosted alternatives on a NAS, factoring in NAS hardware, electricity, and drives. Shows total 5-year cost, annual savings, and breakeven point in AUD, covering Dropbox, Google One, iCloud, OneDrive, Plex Pass, and Backblaze equivalents.

Current monthly spend: $0.00 AUD ($0/year)

Other subscription:

NAS hardware cost (AUD) Don't have a NAS yet? This is your upfront purchase cost. Already own one? Enter 0.

Amortisation period How long you plan to run the NAS before replacing it.

Annual electricity cost (AUD) Not sure? Use our Power Cost Calculator. ~$80 = 15W NAS, 24/7, NSW rates.

Region Prices shown are AUD from AU storefronts. Use as a guide for other regions.

Your Results

Annual subscription spend

Annual self-hosted cost

Annual savings / extra cost

Breakeven

5-Year Cost Comparison

Cloud subscriptions (5 yr)
Self-hosted NAS (5 yr)

What You're Replacing

Subscription	Monthly	Self-hosted replacement	Runs on NAS?

What this calculator doesn't include: your time. Setting up and maintaining self-hosted apps takes hours, especially the first month. If your time is worth $50/hour and setup takes 10 hours, add $500 to the NAS cost mentally. After initial setup, maintenance is typically 1–2 hours/month.

What Can You Actually Self-Host on a NAS?

Cloud service	Self-hosted replacement	Minimum NAS specs	Setup difficulty
Google Photos / iCloud Photos	Immich	4-bay, 8GB RAM	Medium
Dropbox / OneDrive	Nextcloud / Synology Drive	2-bay, 4GB RAM	Easy (Synology) / Medium (Nextcloud)
1Password / Bitwarden	Vaultwarden	2-bay, 2GB RAM	Easy
Plex Pass (paid features)	Jellyfin	2-bay, 4GB RAM	Easy
Google Drive + Docs	Nextcloud + Collabora	4-bay, 8GB RAM	Hard
Evernote / OneNote	Joplin sync via WebDAV	2-bay, 2GB RAM	Medium
Spotify (personal library)	Navidrome	2-bay, 2GB RAM	Easy
Adobe Photography Plan	No direct NAS replacement	N/A	N/A

When Self-Hosting Doesn't Make Sense

Self-hosting is often presented as an obvious win, but that's not always true. If your total cloud spend is under $20/month, the hardware breakeven period typically exceeds 5 years, longer than most people keep a NAS. For small storage needs under 200GB, a single $5/month iCloud or Google One plan is genuinely the better option.

Single users with no strong privacy concerns and no interest in tinkering will find cloud services significantly easier. Cloud services handle updates, hardware failure, redundancy, and offsite backup automatically. Self-hosting outsources none of that responsibility.

Some services have no good self-hosted equivalent: Adobe Creative Cloud, Spotify's streaming catalogue, Netflix, and any AI-powered service relying on cloud compute. For these, subscriptions are irreplaceable regardless of your infrastructure.

The honest test: if you wouldn't voluntarily spend a Saturday afternoon learning Docker or SSH, self-hosting will be frustrating. The savings are real, but so is the maintenance overhead.

AU pricing notes (verified March 2026): Subscription prices are AUD from each provider's Australian storefront. NAS hardware prices are from Amazon AU, Scorptec, and Mwave. Electricity cost default (~$80/year) assumes a 15W always-on NAS at NSW rates (~$0.27/kWh). Check our Power Cost Calculator for your state. For AU privacy context: the Privacy Act 1988 governs how Australian businesses handle personal data, self-hosting keeps your data under Australian jurisdiction by default.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does self-hosting really save money?

It depends on how many subscriptions you're replacing and whether you already own a NAS. Replacing 3+ subscriptions totalling $40+/month typically pays off within 12–18 months. Replacing one $5/month service rarely does.

What's the catch with self-hosting?

Time. Initial setup takes hours, and you're responsible for updates, backups, and troubleshooting. Most self-hosted apps are reliable once configured, but they're not zero-maintenance like cloud services.

Can I self-host everything on a cheap 2-bay NAS?

Simple apps like Vaultwarden and Jellyfin run fine on entry-level hardware. Photo management (Immich) and file sync with multiple users (Nextcloud) benefit from 8GB+ RAM and a 4-bay unit.

Is it safe to self-host my own passwords?

Vaultwarden (self-hosted Bitwarden) is widely used and well-audited. The main risk is you, if you don't back up the database and your NAS dies, your passwords are gone. Backup strategy is mandatory.