The Cheapest Way to Self-Host Fider in 2026

Last updated: June 2026 Fider is the open-source feedback board a lot of teams reach for once Canny or UserVoice sends the renewal invoice. Public roadmap, feature voting, status updates, your own subdomain - the stuff you actually need to run "tell us what to build next," without the SaaS price tag. The reason to self-host it is two things: keeping your customers' feedback on infrastructure you own, and escaping a monthly subscription that climbs every time you add an admin or unlock a feature. Canny starts at $79/mo and jumps to $359/mo on the next tier. UserVoice starts around $899/mo. Fider is the same job - voting, boards, roadmap - for the cost of a small server. I have run Fider on a few setups. Here is every option I found, ranked by actual monthly cost, plus the one thing that decides it: Fider needs a Postgres database and an SMTP sender, so "static cheap" does not apply the way it does for a notes app. TLDR: For a managed Fider you never babysit, InstaPods is my pick at $3/mo flat - one-click deploy with SSL, the Postgres it needs already wired up, and SSH to a real server. PikaPods is in the same range (~$2-3/mo metered) but gives you no SSH. The cheapest self-managed route is a $4-5/mo Hetzner VPS with Docker Compose, if you do not mind running the database and mail config yourself. And every one of these beats Canny ($79/mo) or UserVoice ($899/mo) from day one. Every Way to Host Fider, Ranked by Cost Method Monthly Cost You Manage Setup Time Oracle Cloud free tier $0 Everything (DB, SMTP, OS) ~1 hr PikaPods ~$2-3 (metered, no SSH) Nothing ~1 min InstaPods $3 flat (SSH, Postgres included) Nothing ~30 sec Hetzner VPS + Docker ~$4-5 Everything (DB, SMTP, OS) ~30 min Coolify on Hetzner VPS ~$5-8 VPS + OS ~15 min Elestio ~$15-19 Nothing ~3 min For contrast, here is what the hosted SaaS versions of "feedback board + roadmap" cost - and the catch is the price climbs as you add admins, boards, and features: Hosted SaaS Starting Price Billing Frill ~$25/mo Monthly subscription Nolt ~$29/mo Monthly subscription Featurebase ~$49/mo Monthly subscription Canny ~$79/mo (Starter), $359/mo (Growth) Monthly subscription UserVoice ~$899/mo Monthly subscription A self-hosted Fider does the core job - voting, public roadmap, status updates - for one flat server cost. That gap is the whole reason this post exists. Fider needs a database and a mailer (read this first) This is the part that trips people up, so get it straight before you pick a host: Postgres. Fider stores every post, vote, and user in Postgres. There is no SQLite mode. So unlike a static whiteboard or a notes app, "cheapest" here means "cheapest place that also runs a database" - either bundled in the same pod or as a managed add-on. SMTP. Fider sends email for sign-in links, notifications, and digests. You point it at any SMTP provider (a free Brevo or Mailgun tier is plenty for a small board). Skip this and logins will not work. Both are light. Fider itself is a single Go binary that idles at a few dozen MB of RAM, and Postgres for a feedback board is tiny. So even with the database in the same pod, the cheapest plan on any platform handles it. The trade-off is purely how much of that wiring you want to do yourself. InstaPods ($3/mo) InstaPods has Fider as a one-click app. Click deploy, get a running board with HTTPS in about 30 seconds, with the Postgres it needs already provisioned in the same pod. $3/mo on the Launch plan. Full disclosure: I built InstaPods. I am including it because Fider is exactly the kind of light app it is good at, and a "cheapest way to host X" post that left out the thing I built would not be honest. I will be straight about the limits. Cost: $3/mo flat (Launch plan: 1 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 5 GB storage). Fider plus its Postgres fit comfortably, and the price does not climb when your board gets popular or you add admins. Pros: Fastest setup, and you do not stand up a separate database - it is wired in. SSL and a URL included. SSH access on a re