Get Yourself a Server or Freedom on $10 a month

By Chuck Hennet — September 10, 2025

This is the introduction to a series of articles about why you should manage your own server — and what that actually means.

The Get Yourself a Server series will cover the basics:

• Where to get a cheap server
• How to secure it on the open internet
• How to get a domain name and point it to your box using DNS
• How to access your server from your desktop

Other series in the Basic Tech section of Feeding Crows Tech will go further. We’ll walk through how to:

• Set up a basic web page
• Install apps like WordPress or even your own private Wikipedia
• Create and manage a database
• Build small web applications to handle things like member lists, orders, or events

All of this is meant to help you take control of the tech you depend on — and to show that real tools are within reach, even if you’re not a professional developer. For about $10 a month, you can own your infrastructure.

We won’t be walking you through every step of these projects. But we will show you how to get started and how to use AI to effectively deploy and manage this technology on your own.