Self-hosting vs managed: a 2026 decision tree for Indian SMBs

Indian SMBs in 2026 have more hosting options than ever before. Here’s a decision tree for choosing between self-hosting on a dedicated server + a small ops team, and using a managed provider like WebHost24.

The costs

Approach	Indicative Rs / month	Headcount	Time-to-live
WebHost24 Apps tier	see /pricing (slider-based)	0	hours
WebHost24 Linux Dedicated tier	see /pricing (slider-based)	0	1-2 days
Self-hosted Hetzner + Cloudflare	(representative - check current Hetzner India list)	0.25 FTE	1-2 weeks
Self-hosted AWS Mumbai	(representative - check current AWS Mumbai list)	0.5 FTE	2-4 weeks
Self-hosted on-prem server	(representative - depends on hardware + power)	1 FTE	4-8 weeks

The Hetzner line is realistic for an SMB that’s comfortable with Debian + Nginx + Postgres. The on-prem line is what most “we have an IT guy” setups end up at. The WebHost24 line is the sweet spot for SMBs that don’t have IT staff. The exact INR price moves month to month - verify third-party list prices on the providers’ own pricing pages and use /pricing as the WebHost24 source of truth.

Decision tree

Pick WebHost24 App Hosting if:

• You have 1-3 apps to host.
• Your team is 0-2 ops people (you + maybe one engineer who shouldn’t be on pager).
• You don’t want to learn Kubernetes / Docker / Postgres tuning.
• You want predictable INR pricing.

Pick WebHost24 Bare Metal if:

• You have 3+ apps + a custom database workload that needs raw hardware.
• You have 0.5-1 FTE who can manage a Linux box.
• You need full root access (custom kernel modules, custom network drivers, etc.).
• You want the cheapest possible per-cpu-hour.

Pick self-hosted on Hetzner if:

• You have 1+ FTE comfortable with Linux + Nginx + Postgres + Docker.
• Your workload has unusual requirements (specific kernel version, custom hardware, etc.).
• You need full control over the network stack.

Pick self-hosted on AWS Mumbai if:

• You have 2+ FTE running infrastructure.
• You need bursty capacity (10x traffic spikes).
• You have a specific AWS integration requirement.

Pick self-hosted on-prem if:

• Compliance requires on-prem (banking, healthcare, government).
• You have 2+ FTE.
• Your workload is steady + low-bandwidth.

What we recommend

WebHost24 Apps tier suits most Indian businesses. The pricing is predictable, the team is in India, and you get back to building product instead of running infrastructure.

For high-traffic, custom-stack, or regulated-industry workloads: the dedicated server plan with our operations team handling the hardware and network layers while you focus on the application layer.