About CostPlusDBBuilt by a bootstrapped trucker |
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I'm Jeremy. I run a small software consultancy (intent solutions io) building AI automation tools and production systems for businesses.
This tweet is exactly why I started CostPlusDB.
"They charge you $303/month. Actual cost? $12. Markup? 2,425%."
Cloud database pricing is absurd. AWS RDS, Google Cloud SQL, and other managed PostgreSQL providers charge 25-33x what the infrastructure actually costs.
I read that tweet and thought: I can do that.
I've spent 20+ years in restaurant operations and systems management, and more recently building AI automation tools and enterprise solutions. I know how to set up infrastructure, automate processes, manage databases, and keep systems running. Why not apply that to PostgreSQL hosting at a fair price?
So I'm building it. See my full work history at jeremylongshore.com.
I could've done the industry standard of 2000% markup like AWS.
But here's the thing: A fair margin is enough.
How it actually works: Base tiers ($59-$299/mo) use flat-rate pricing that includes all management overhead. Optional add-ons (extra storage, Slack support, etc.) are priced at infrastructure cost + 25%.
If I wanted to get rich quick, I'd take a FAANG job or chase VC funding. Instead, I'm focused on building something long-term and honest.
The margin on add-ons stays consistent. But the underlying infrastructure costs can change. Here's our policy:
Prices might increase if:
This is temporary. Once we own our servers, this won't happen.
Price stability:
Longevity rewards (exploring):
Every invoice shows the exact cost breakdown. If your price changes, you'll see:
Goal: Stable, decreasing prices as we grow.
Right now, I rent VPS servers from providers like Contabo and Hetzner. That's where most of your monthly cost goes.
Goal: Within 12-18 months, own our servers in a colocation datacenter.
Status: Active now
Your benefit: Lower monthly costs
Timeline: Q2-Q3 2026
Timeline: 2027
Transparency. You're trusting me with your database. You deserve to know the plan.
When we switch to owned hardware:
See our full business plan for financial projections.
I'm starting with only 5 customers.
Not because I can't handle more. Because execution is everything to me, and I will not sacrifice quality for quantity or speed.
If we're at capacity when you apply: I'll add you to the waitlist. You'll get a slot in 2-4 weeks as I expand carefully.
Building this right is more important than building it fast.
CostPlusDB works best for specific types of customers. If you're a technical founder who understands databases, values transparency, and wants direct access to the person running your infrastructure, you'll get the most value from our service.
You're comfortable writing SQL queries and reading PostgreSQL logs. You've run pg_dump before and understand indexes and basic performance concepts. You know the difference between a connection and a transaction. You don't need PostgreSQL training - you need reliable hosting that just works.
Paying AWS $280/month for infrastructure that costs $12 feels wrong to you. You track every recurring expense and would rather spend that $190/month on product development or your first hire. You're building profitably, not burning VC money, and you appreciate seeing exactly what you're paying for.
You want to email the person who actually runs your database. You appreciate 30-minute response times from someone who understands your specific setup, not ticket queues or tier-1 support scripts. The person who answers your questions is the same person who fixes issues when they arise.
You're building a business for the long haul - planning infrastructure for 2+ years, not constantly hopping providers for marginal savings. You value stability and relationships over chasing the cheapest option every quarter. You're willing to grow with a service as it matures.
You understand that 99.9% uptime instead of 99.999% saves you $150+/month. Email support gives you written records of all interactions. Manual recovery (1-2 hours) instead of automatic failover is a reasonable trade-off. You prefer working with a responsive solo founder over a corporate 24/7 team.
Your database is under 500GB with fewer than 100 concurrent connections. You're handling thousands of queries per second, not millions. You're a growing startup with 1-50 people, not a Fortune 500 enterprise. You need solid infrastructure without enterprise complexity.
If you need 99.999% uptime with automatic failover, 24/7 phone support, HIPAA/SOC2 compliance (available Q2 2026), multi-region architecture, or databases larger than 1TB, I'll be honest with you and recommend providers who can serve you better today.
No pressure. No hard feelings. Check back in 6-12 months as we add capabilities - we're growing deliberately.
I'm a solo founder. No investors, no team, just me. That comes with tradeoffs you should know about.
If your business cannot tolerate any risk: Use AWS. They have the team, the redundancy, the enterprise SLAs.
If you're okay with calculated tradeoffs for 68% cost savings and direct founder access: We're a good fit.
I'm not pretending to be something I'm not. I'm one guy trying to prove you don't need a 20-person team to run a database service well. The first 5 customers are betting on that with me.
| Area | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Funding | $0 raised. Revenue-funded from day one. |
| Team | Just me. I do setup, support, monitoring. |
| Growth | Slow. 5-10 customers/month, not 1000. |
| Support | Email: 4-hour SLA (business hours), typically 30-min response. Critical outages: IMMEDIATE. Slack: +$29/mo or included with Pro/Enterprise |
| Automation | Improving monthly. Some manual work currently. |
| Pricing | Fair margin, consistent. No "introductory pricing". |
If you need a polished sales experience, dashboards, and account managers, go with AWS. They're good at that.
If you want fair pricing and someone who actually reads your support emails, we'll get along great.
CostPlusDB is part of my broader work at intent solutions io, where I build practical software tools:
All bootstrapped. All focused on practical tools that solve real problems.
You're never trapped. Here's how easy it is to leave:
Your data is YOUR data. I'm just hosting it.
Email: jeremy@intentsolutions.io
Response time: 4-hour SLA (business hours), typically 30-min, 7 days/week
GitHub: jeremylongshore
Personal site: jeremylongshore.com
I don't have a phone number listed because I'm often driving. Email is faster and gives you a written record.
Ready to stop overpaying for database hosting?