Seven years ago, in an ordinary room in an ordinary house, I turned on a NAS, opened a browser, and published the very first article. There was no business plan, no sponsors, no ads, no hidden referral links, no tracking. There was only the desire to explain things properly in English to anyone who genuinely wanted to learn something serious about Synology NAS, self-hosting, security, backups, Docker… everything I believed should be explained honestly, without ever taking advantage of anyone. In these 7 years I have:
- Published thousands of extremely detailed guides.
- Helped tens of thousands of people solve real problems.
- Built two of the largest and most active Synology and UGREEN communities.
- Received countless private messages saying “thank you, you saved me hours/days of frustration”.
And yet… I want to be completely transparent with you today.
mariushosting.com exists solely thanks to the voluntary support of those who believe this work deserves to continue.
There are no companies behind it. There are no invasive banners following you around the web. There are no mandatory subscriptions. There is no one paying me a fixed salary at the end of each month.
There is only you. Or rather: there are only those few modern-day Samaritans who, every month, decide to make a donation but with heart and with the clear understanding that they are keeping an independent project alive.
Unfortunately, over the last few years I’ve also experienced the other side of the coin:
- Gratuitous insults and constant hate (sometimes really heavy and personal).
- People who, after following in-depth guides, leave absolutely nothing, not even a simple thank you.
- Thousands of downloads, views, shares, and complete silence.
- Comments made only to criticize, never to say thank you.
It hurts. I won’t lie to you. It hurts because behind every single article there are countless hours of testing, trial and error, rewriting, updating whenever Synology changes something, answering your questions. And when the most common response is indifference or even cruelty, at some point you feel drained. But today I want to tell you something very important:
It’s not the haters who decide whether mariushosting.com lives or dies. It’s you.
It’s you who sometimes open PayPal or Stripe and think: “This work saved me time, money, and so many headaches. I want it to keep going.”
So on this seventh birthday I’m asking you one simple thing:
If, over these years, mariushosting.com
- Has helped you.
- Has saved you hundreds (or thousands) of euros in specialized technical support.
- Has prevented you from wasting drives, pursuing wrong configurations, saved endless hours of your time.
- Has made you feel less alone in the world of self-hosting…
…then please take a moment and ask yourself: Do you want this project to still be here in one year? In three years? In another seven years?
💰SUPPORT MY WORK!
If the answer is yes, then I kindly ask you to become one of the silent Samaritans who keep mariushosting.com alive. You don’t need to be rich. You just need to care about the project and understand that freedom, honesty, and independence come with a cost. A huge thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has been supporting the project for a long time (you know who you are ❤️). Thank you also to anyone who reads these lines and perhaps decides today to take STEP 1. And thank you to every single one of you, even just for having stopped by in these 7 years.
Shall we keep going together?
Big hug, Marius.
Happy 7th birthday, mariushosting.com!
This post was updated on Friday / January 9th, 2026 at 2:32 PM