TechFuel HQWorked examples
These are this calculator’s own outputs, computed with the same formula the tool runs in your browser — so you can see a real answer without touching a single input.
Default state — exactly what a first-time visitor sees before touching anything: the three seeded subscriptions (Google One 2TB, Plex Pass, 1Password Families) against the default $300 budget mini PC over a 5-year life
- Inputs: Subscriptions: Google One 2TB $9.99/mo, Plex Pass $6.99/mo, 1Password Families $5.99/mo. Hardware $300, lifetime 5 years, idle draw 15 W, electricity $0.184/kWh, maintenance $15/yr, Backblaze B2 $1.20/mo. (All values are the layout’s own defaults.)
- Result: SaaS / month $22.97 · Self-host / month $9.46 · Monthly savings +$13.51 · Break-even 1.4 yr (green) · 5yr timeline label “5yr: +$810”. The “← break-even” marker lands on the Year 1 row.
The scenario the page’s own FAQ #1 describes — same three default subscriptions, but the reader picks the $170 N150 mini PC preset from the hardware dropdown instead of the $300 default
- Inputs: Subscriptions: Google One 2TB $9.99/mo + Plex Pass $6.99/mo + 1Password Families $5.99/mo = $22.97/mo. Hardware $170 (dropdown option “N150 mini PC (~$170 new)”), lifetime 5 years, 15 W idle, $0.184/kWh, $15/yr maintenance, $1.20/mo backup.
- Result: SaaS / month $22.97 · Self-host / month $7.30 · Monthly savings +$15.67 · Break-even 9 mo (green) · “5yr: +$940”. This exactly reproduces the FAQ claim “Break-even is around 9 months” for a $170 mini PC against ~$23/mo of SaaS.
The full six-service bundle listed in the page prose (the $61.95/mo table), all six available as preset buttons, replaced with the same $170 mini PC — the heavy-SaaS reader the article is aimed at
- Inputs: Subscriptions from the preset chips: Google One 2TB $9.99/mo, 1Password Families $5.99/mo, Plex Pass $6.99/mo, UptimeRobot Solo $9.00/mo, Dropbox Plus $9.99/mo, Zapier Starter $19.99/mo. Hardware $170, lifetime 5 years, 15 W idle, $0.184/kWh, $15/yr maintenance, $1.20/mo backup (all defaults).
- Result: SaaS / month $61.95 · Self-host / month $7.30 · Monthly savings +$54.65 · Break-even 3 mo (green) · “5yr: +$3279”. This confirms the prose line “A $170 mini PC running this stack breaks even in under 4 months.” Note that no year row carries the “← break-even” marker here: break-even at 2.96 months is more than 6 months away from the Year-1 boundary (|12 − 2.96| = 9.04), so the ±6-month tolerance never fires.
How to use this calculator
Add each SaaS subscription you currently pay for — or use the presets for the most common services. Then set your hardware budget and the server’s idle power draw. The calculator shows your monthly savings, break-even timeline on a 5-year axis, and a year-by-year savings table.
Prefer to run it yourself? A single-file standalone copy of this calculator is at /tools/selfhost-breakeven-standalone.html — the file itself carries no analytics and makes no external requests. Note that while it is served from this domain our CDN injects its own analytics beacon, as it does on every page here; save the file and open it locally and nothing outbound remains. The live page stays the source of truth for the defaults.
The monthly self-host figure and the year-by-year table amortize the hardware cost over the lifetime you pick. Ongoing costs (electricity, backup storage, domain) are monthly. The break-even point treats hardware as upfront instead: it is the month where cumulative SaaS costs exceed the purchase price plus cumulative ongoing costs.
What self-hosting actually costs per month
The ongoing cost of a minimal self-hosted stack:
| Cost item | Typical amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity | $1–4/mo | 10–30W idle × 24/7 at $0.184/kWh |
| Backblaze B2 backup | $0.60–2/mo | ~100–300GB after deduplication |
| Domain name | $1–1.25/mo | $12–15/yr amortized |
| Total ongoing | $3–7/mo | Before hardware amortization |
Compare that to common SaaS bundles:
| SaaS bundle | Monthly cost | Self-hosted equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Google One 2TB | $9.99 | Nextcloud + local storage |
| 1Password Families | $5.99 | Vaultwarden |
| Plex Pass | $6.99 | Jellyfin (no ongoing cost) |
| UptimeRobot Solo | $9.00 | Uptime Kuma |
| Dropbox Plus | $9.99 | Nextcloud |
| Zapier Starter | $19.99 | n8n |
| Total | $61.95/mo | ~$5/mo ongoing |
A $170 mini PC running this stack breaks even in under 4 months at that savings rate.
The real cost variables
Electricity rate matters more than most guides acknowledge. At $0.13/kWh (roughly the cheapest US states, Idaho and Utah, in EIA’s May 2026 residential table), a 15W mini PC costs about $17/year. At $0.333/kWh (California’s average in the same table), the same box costs about $44/year. Use your actual rate from your electricity bill.
Hardware lifetime determines how the upfront cost amortizes. A $300 mini PC used for 5 years costs $5/month in hardware amortization. Used for 7 years, $3.57/month. Buying used hardware at half the new price and running it the same duration halves that amortized cost.
What you’re replacing is the most important variable. Replacing $10/month in Google storage with a $800 server never pays back: the operating savings alone would need about 12 years, more than two 5-year hardware lifetimes, so the calculator returns “Never” rather than a payback date. Replacing $50/month in cloud subscriptions with a $200 mini PC breaks even in under 5 months. This calculator makes that math explicit so you can see whether your specific situation makes sense.
Services worth replacing vs ones to keep
The 12 best self-hosted apps guide covers this in detail, but the quick version:
Clear wins — services where self-hosting is dramatically cheaper and reliable:
- Vaultwarden → replaces 1Password Families ($5.99/mo), Bitwarden Premium ($1/mo)
- Jellyfin → replaces Plex Pass ($6.99/mo), no transcoding session limits
- Uptime Kuma → replaces UptimeRobot Solo ($9/mo)
- Immich → replaces Google One 2TB storage ($9.99/mo) if you have local storage
Context-dependent — self-hosting is viable but more effort:
- Nextcloud → replaces Dropbox/Google Drive, but requires maintenance
- n8n → replaces Zapier, saves $20+/mo but has a steeper setup curve
Not worth it for most — keep paying the SaaS:
- Email (deliverability problems from residential IPs, high maintenance)
- CDN / DDoS protection (not worth running your own)
- Calendar sync (too fragile, too little savings vs Fastmail at $3/mo)
Power usage and the Power & Cost Calculator
The electricity cost here uses the server’s idle watt draw 24/7. For a more complete picture of your full stack’s electricity cost — including peak load, multiple devices, and 3-year TCO vs cloud — use the Power & Cost Calculator and bring those numbers back here.
The break-even math changes significantly based on what you’re running. A 10W N100 mini PC is very different from a 150W tower server in electricity cost over 5 years.
Assumptions and sources
- The subscription presets use the vendors’ published list prices at capture time - Google One plans, 1Password pricing, and Plex Pass - and plans change, so confirm the current price before deciding.
- The $0.184/kWh electricity default is the EIA May 2026 US residential average; current figures are published monthly in the EIA Electric Power Monthly, and your bill’s effective rate is the number to actually use.
- The 15 W idle draw, $15/year maintenance, and $1.20/month backup defaults are TechFuelHQ working assumptions for a small mini-PC stack, stated so you can replace them with your own measured numbers.
- The six hardware presets are TechFuelHQ street-price estimates for a class of machine, not quotes for a named SKU, and they are not sourced the way the subscription prices are. Treat the dollar figure as a starting point and type in what you actually paid.
- Break-even is the months of operating savings needed to recoup the upfront hardware cost. When that lands past the hardware lifetime you selected, the tool reports “Never”: a payback you can only reach after buying a replacement machine is not a payback, and it is the same condition as the monthly-savings figure being negative.