Today I finally deleted my last website on Netlify after using Netlify for almost 10 years.

Netlify was fun when I first started using it. The Microsoft GitHub integration made publishing on the web fun. You push your changes to your repository and one minute later you can share your site with your friends. You can't beat the feeling of immediacy every time someone shortens the feedback loop.

Yet every good thing must come to an end. Microsoft started slowly killing Netlify and GitHub integrations just aren't cool anymore. I'm hosting more and more of my projects on CodeBerg or Sourcehut.

Many times I don't even push anything to a "Git forge" anymore. I'm fine with uploading my site files directly. There's a reason PHP graybeards miss their "Edit with FTP" immediacy. Netlify fails being easy here. Their upload CLI has hostile opt-out telemetry.

Enshitnetlify

Opt-out telemetry is bullshit. Neither rsync, sftp, nor S3 uploads with boto3 send my personal computer's IP address and other personally identifiable to someone else's computer.

As Netlify writes in their Self-Serve Subscription Agreement³:

Netlify shall have the right to collect and analyze data and other information relating to the provision, use and performance of various aspects of the Services and related systems

This is the same as saying "eat up, piggy! you may pay for this service but we own you." Beware the constant disrespect and contempt that companies with "someone else's computers" have for you.¹

I appreciate that some people foam with anger hearing the phrase "someone else's computer" and write articles jumping to the defence of billionaires that totally care about you.

Knowing that companies always mean the opposite of what they say, I knew my reliance on Netlify was doomed when I received this email from Netlify in April 2026:

To support Netlify's evolution from a front-end deployment and hosting site to a platform where anyone can prompt and build, Netlify is updating its Privacy Statement to ensure our terms are as clear as possible.

At Netlify, you own your content. We do not sell your code or content, and we do not use it to train AI models without your permission. Netlify uses Service Data (non-identifying data) to operate and improve the platform. Your customer content is used only to provide our services to you.

Netlify is a private company like any other. Netlify uses the same corporate doublespeak like any other. From the email:

• "evolution … to a platform where anyone can prompt and build …" Netlify, you were supposed to do one job: host my site
• "At Netlify, you own your content." Since you mention it you probably mean the opposite
• "Netlify uses Service Data (non-identifying data) to operate and improve the platform." So Netlify does use your data.⁴ Non-identifying is meaningless with de-anynomyization techniques.²

This email is at odds with their Self-Serve Subscription agreement either way. Why spend hours thinking about whether your Services as Software Substitutes are plotting against you when you can self-host?

If not Netlify, then… ?

Here's what I'm using instead:

• Debian 13 on a Hetzner VPS (~EUR10 a month)
• IPv4 and IPv6
• Apache HTTP Server
• 5 vHosts, i.e., it hosts 5 sites for me
• php-fpm for my Wiki
• Automatic TLS certificates with Apache mod_md

I did not know about automatic TLS certificates in Apache HTTP server and I prefer Apache HTTP server over Caddy these days. Without mod_md, you'd have to use certbot and I didn't enjoy it.

Pairing certbot with Apache HTTP server means that you need to first create a VHost on port 80, start certbot, activate another VHost on port 443 using the certbot provided configuration, reload Apache, try opening the site in your browser a few times until it works, ….

I've used Caddy before and liked its automatic TLS certificates. Caddy isn't well supported on Debian and always lags behind.

Here's how to configure automatic TLS in Apache in just 6 lines, including domain aliases such as non-www domains:

# VirtualHost for the site you're reading right now
<MDomainSet www.justus.pw>
    MDCertificateAgreement accepted
    MDContactEmail webmaster@justus.pw
    MDMember justus.pw
    MDMember dweb.justus.pw
    MDRequireHttps permanent
</MDomainSet>

I encourage you to give Apache HTTP server another try if you didn't like it in the past. This is rock solid software that you can run anywhere and that indeed does run everywhere.