Zo vs Nextcloud on Hetzner

Running your own VPS – setting up a service like Nextcloud on Hetzner – gives you complete control over your data and infrastructure. It's the gold standard for privacy-conscious users who want to own their stack. But it comes with real overhead.

As one user put it when they saw Zo: "This is actually a great idea and way less friction than my Nextcloud Hetzner setup."

Another user saw the vision immediately: "Zo Computer is exactly what I've been waiting for – finally an excuse to dive into homelab/automation without the overhead. Makes VM management accessible while keeping control. Brilliant vision for democratizing personal computing."

The Self-Hosting Reality

Setting up Nextcloud on a Hetzner VPS requires:

• Provisioning and configuring a VPS
• Installing Docker or managing packages directly
• Setting up a reverse proxy (Nginx or Traefik)
• Configuring SSL certificates (Let's Encrypt, Certbot)
• Editing config.php for trusted proxies and URL overrides
• Setting up backups and monitoring
• Ongoing security patches and updates

The initial setup can take 4-8 hours if you know what you're doing. First-year maintenance adds 24-72 more hours. And that's before anything goes wrong.

The Time Tax

Research shows self-hosted VPS maintenance requires:

• Initial setup: 4-8 hours
• Monthly maintenance: 2-4 hours
• Incident response: 4-48 hours per incident
• First year total: 28-80 hours
• Subsequent years: 24-48 hours annually

That's a part-time job just keeping the lights on. Every hour spent on server maintenance is an hour not spent on what you actually wanted to build.

What You're Really Paying

Hetzner VPS:

• CX11 (2GB RAM): €4.15/month
• CX21 (4GB RAM): €5.83/month
• CX31 (8GB RAM): €10.52/month

Looks cheap, right? But add:

• Your time (at any reasonable hourly rate)
• Learning curve for new tools
• Stress when things break at 2 AM
• Opportunity cost of projects not built

Zo Computer:

• Plans start at $18/month
• Managed infrastructure
• AI assistant built in
• Ready to use immediately

The VPS is cheaper in dollars. It's often more expensive in time.

AI That's Already There

With Nextcloud, you can add Nextcloud Assistant for AI features. But you need to:

• Configure additional containers
• Set up local LLM infrastructure or API connections
• Manage model updates and resources

With Zo, AI is built in. Chat with multiple models, have them work with your files, run code, build automations. No configuration required.

As one user noted: "I've had a couple people who didn't think they needed a VM find that having an always on cloud computer that they can text and email and have respond is handy."

What Self-Hosting Gets Right

To be fair, self-hosting has real advantages:

• Complete control: You own the hardware (or VM), the software, everything
• Maximum privacy: Your data never touches third-party services
• Customization: Install anything, configure everything
• Learning: Deep understanding of how systems work
• Cost at scale: Cheaper per-GB for massive storage needs

If you enjoy system administration, self-hosting can be genuinely rewarding.

What Zo Gets Right

• Zero setup time: Start using it immediately
• Managed infrastructure: We handle updates, security, uptime
• AI-native: Chat, code execution, and automation built in
• Self-hosting when you want it: Run n8n, databases, whatever you need
• Standard formats: Your files are still yours, sync them locally anytime

You get the benefits of having a server without the maintenance burden.

Who Each Approach Is For

Self-hosted VPS is great if you:

• Enjoy system administration
• Have time to maintain infrastructure
• Need maximum control over every layer
• Want the learning experience
• Have very large storage needs (multiple TB)

Zo is better if you:

• Want to build things, not maintain servers
• Value your time highly
• Want AI capabilities out of the box
• Prefer managed infrastructure with escape hatches
• Want the homelab experience without the overhead

Get Started

Ready for a personal server without the maintenance? Try Zo Computer and spend your time building, not configuring.