Budget tiers

All prices are rough, in US dollars, for used or entry-level gear. Electricity estimates assume about 15¢/kWh. Check current prices before buying anything; this page will drift.

Tier 0 — $0, no new hardware

You change who holds your data and on what terms. Nothing to buy, a few hours of weekend.

• Move email to your own domain (about $12/year) at a provider that encrypts your mailbox. Now the provider is replaceable.
• Export your photos and files from the cloud drive and keep a copy on a drive you own; keep the cloud as a second copy, encrypted, or drop it.
• Switch to a password manager and notes app that store locally and sync without a company in the middle.
• Try a small AI model on the laptop you already have. A machine with 16 GB of memory runs a useful 4–8 billion-parameter model today — slower than the hosted ones, and nothing leaves the room.
• Connect your own devices to each other privately with a free mesh VPN.

Owns: data, network. Running cost: $0–5/month for encrypted off-site backup space. Good for: almost everyone.

Tier 1 — one small always-on box

About $150–400. A used office mini PC (often $100–200 with 16 GB of RAM) or a Raspberry Pi 5 kit, plus an external drive or two.

• Runs your smart-home hub, password manager server, file sync, photo library, and a media server all at once — these are light.
• Runs a small AI model slowly, or acts as the always-on front door to a bigger machine you only turn on when needed.
• Idles at roughly 10–20 W: $1–3/month in electricity.

Adds: compute, the beginnings of model. Good for: people who want the smart-home and file pieces to just work without a laptop open.

Tier 2 — a real home server

About $600–1,500. A mini PC with 32–64 GB of RAM plus a two-bay NAS, or a Mac mini (its shared memory makes it a surprisingly good box for 8–14 billion-parameter models), or a used workstation with room for drives.

• Everything on this site becomes practical, including a local AI assistant that feels responsive and can read your own documents.
• Proper redundant storage for photos and backups.
• Idles at 20–40 W: $2–5/month.

Adds: real model + compute. Good for: households that want to retire most cloud subscriptions.

Tier 3 — the hobby got serious

$2,000 and up, with no ceiling. A discrete GPU with 16–24 GB of memory (or more than one), lots of fast storage, maybe a rack.

• Runs larger models at speed, generates images and video, serves the whole family.
• Idles at 60–150 W or more: $7–20/month before you’ve asked it anything.

Adds: the full stack. Good for: you’ll know if this is you. Nothing on this site assumes it.

Does it save money?

Often, but not always. Add up what you pay today for photo storage, cloud drive, a music or video service, a password manager, a smart-home subscription, a camera subscription, and an AI assistant — many households land between $30 and $80 a month. Three years of that is $1,000–3,000, which buys a Tier 2 setup outright and runs it for pocket change.

When it doesn’t pay back: if you’d only replace one or two cheap subscriptions; if your time is the scarce thing and you’d rather pay than maintain; if you need shared access for a large group spread across cities. In those cases, do Tier 0, take the privacy win, and skip the hardware with a clear conscience.

I am deciding how much to invest in moving my digital life off the cloud. Here is what I currently pay for monthly or yearly: [list subscriptions and prices]. Here are the devices I already own: [list]. My comfort with computers is [none / some / fluent]. I live in [country], and electricity costs me about [price] per kWh.

Work out: (1) what I pay per year today, (2) which of those services I could replace at zero hardware cost, (3) whether buying a small always-on machine would pay back within three years, and (4) a recommended tier with a specific, currently-available example of hardware at that tier and its approximate price — checking current prices rather than guessing. Be honest if the answer is "don't buy anything."