Is it better to buy a website hosting plan on BlueHost or host your own website directly from home on a Synology NAS? After some tests I arrived at the conclusion that hosting from home using a Synology NAS is extremely convenient from a financial point of view, and offers long-term benefits as well.
Let’s compare a mid-high-end Ultimate VPS Hosting plan with BlueHost against hosting on a DS718+ Synology NAS.
BlueHost hosting plan: stats
BlueHost Hardware: 8 GB RAM – 120 GB SSD (unknown vendor) – 4 Core CPU (unknown vendor) – Standard SSL Certificate – 3 TB (Terabyte) Data Transfer.
BlueHost price: 119.99 dollars per month which, multiplied by 12 months, adds up to a total of 1,439.88 dollars a year.
HTTP/2 support: Unknown.
SSD support: YES.
Free SSL Certificate: YES.
Linux Server: YES.
Dedicated IP: YES.
Price: 1,439.88 dollars / year without VAT.
Synology NAS as a web hosting server: stats
Synology DS718+: 8 GB RAM – 250 GB Crucial MX500 SSD – 4 Core CPU – Free SSL Let’s Encrypt Certificate – Unmetered Traffic and Data Transfer via fiber connection.
Synology DS718+ price: 420 dollars for the box + two SSD disks at 50 dollars each + 8GB RAM expansion. Total price: 700 dollars (one-time payment). 200 dollars if you add an UPS. Total cost: 900 dollars, a one-time payment.
HTTP/2 support: YES.
SSD support: YES.
Free SSL Certificate: YES.
Linux Server: YES.
Dedicated IP: YES.
Price: 900 dollars / forever
It’s easy to see the difference between the two options and realize that web hosting on your own Synology NAS comes with lower costs than a decent hosting plan with BlueHost. Especially long-term there are more advantages to web hosting on a Synology NAS considering the rising costs for hosting services which go up every year.
Synology also offers all the packages needed to start and maintain a professional website, and makes updates to the packages on a regular basis to keep up with the latest in security. Because it’s a Linux heart inside the box, choosing Synology means choosing security and stability. The fact that only you have access to your files adds to the benefits as data privacy is both an advantage and adds to the security.
What about power consumption? A DS718+ Synology NAS power consumption is just 20 Watts. You will pay a maximum of 20 dollars a year, but costs may differ slightly depending on which country you live in.
What about power failure? In my case, I’ve added an awesome product to my home web-hosting set-up and it’s called an UPS. A CyberPower UPS to be more exact. Adding an UPS to your Synology set-up means you won’t experience any power failure; by doing this, you will also be extending the life of your Synology NAS box. Not just this, but you will be able to enjoy a high uptime score that can rival that of any professional hosting service. In fact, with a Synology NAS and an UPS you can achieve an uptime score of 100% for your website.
Winner: Synology DS718+
Note: Read my article: Pay For Web Hosting vs Hosting on My Synology NAS.
This post was updated on Tuesday / August 31st, 2021 at 12:42 AM