Honest answers to the worries most people have before taking the first step.
How much does migration cost?
Bespoke projects are priced per scope — a single-person email migration is very different from setting up a full workspace for a 15-person nonprofit. The best way to get a number is to
schedule a free intro call so I can understand your situation. Supporter and Premium membership tiers (coming soon) are affordable monthly subscriptions. The Free tier costs nothing.
How long does a migration take?
I typically recommend planning for three months to fully migrate to self-hosted. I'll set up your server and migrate your email, but becoming comfortable with new software, building new habits, and moving everything else — calendars, contacts, files — takes time. Throughout those three months, I'll be available to support you and everyone on your domain, so no one feels stranded mid-transition.
Why mailcow, nextcloud and discourse?
These are best in class, battle tested open source software projects that I landed on after trying many others and after consulting with trusted experts. I know how to install and configure them and can advise you on how to use them with confidence. If you know an alternative you think is better I'd love to hear about it!
Can I import my existing Gmail (or other) data?
Yes. Mailcow supports full IMAP import, so your existing emails, folders, and labels migrate cleanly. Contacts and calendars export as standard vCard and iCal files that import directly into the new system. You won't lose anything.
What if I change my mind and want to stop self-hosting?
You own your data and your domain. If you ever decide self-hosting isn't for you, everything exports in open standards — IMAP for email, vCard for contacts, iCal for calendars, WebDAV for files. You can move to any other provider or back to a commercial service. There is no lock-in.
What about communicating with people still on Gmail or Zoom?
Email is federated by design — your self-hosted mailbox talks to Gmail, Outlook, and every other provider seamlessly. Digital sovereignty is a spectrum: you can keep your Google or Apple account active while primarily relying on your own server. You can also gently encourage contacts to use Nextcloud Talk or Signal instead of Zoom.
Do I need to go 100% open source?
Absolutely not. I use an Apple laptop and iPhone myself. Windows and Android work just as well. The self-hosted services we set up are accessible from any device and any operating system through a browser or standard apps. We do recommend switching to open source client software like Thunderbird for email and Firefox for web browsing — but you can keep using the apps you are already comfortable with. One step at a time.
Can't you just handle the server hosting for me?
I don't offer managed hosting — and that's intentional. Digital sovereignty means the admin owns and controls their own infrastructure. It's not as daunting as it sounds: Hetzner has a clean console that handles most tasks without touching the command line, and the community is here to help with anything that comes up. Importantly, end-users on the domain never have to worry about any of this — they just use their email and apps like normal. If you really want someone else to run the server entirely, I can refer you to a partner who offers that — but my ideal client wants to be in the driver's seat, with support alongside.
What if I already have a website hosted elsewhere?
No problem — leave it exactly where it is. You don't need to move your website to benefit from self-hosted email or a Nextcloud workspace. If you do want to move it later, that's also possible: static sites and sites built on open source CMSes like WordPress, Drupal, or Ghost can be migrated to your Hetzner server down the line.
Is Hetzner the only hosting option?
It's what I recommend, and for good reason. Hetzner is a German company fully subject to European privacy law — the strongest data-protection regime in the world. Their pricing is exceptional, starting at around $5 per month, and their console lets you handle most setup and maintenance tasks, create snapshot backups, and more without ever touching the command line. That said, if you already have a preferred cloud provider, I can work with it as long as it supports the latest Ubuntu Linux.
