[chris_engel]

Sure, in theory Hetzner could pull the plug or access the data on my VPS. But that’s true of any infrastructure... just like someone could break into my house and steal my self-hosted server.

In fact, I’d argue the physical risk of loss, theft, or data compromise is much higher at home than in a professional datacenter with power redundancy, security controls, and constant uptime monitoring.

It’s a bit like saying, "Don’t trust the bank, they could take your money and freeze your account — keep all your money under the mattress." Technically possible, yes. But come on.

[MisterSandman]

I never said any of those things, you’re literally arguing with made up points I didn’t make?

But my point Hetzner isn’t self-hosted. Similar to how storing money in a bank isn’t self-banking. Self-hosting means you host your content yourself in a server room that you have physical access to. Hetzner isn’t that.

And that’s fine, self-hosting is pretty silly for most use cases nowadays. And all of the positives you mentioned are true. But I hate how we’ve turned “self-hosting” into a political dog-whistle for hosting with companies that seem more trustworthy than the big guys. And there’s nothing wrong with not wanting to trust GCP or Azure - just don’t call it self hosting.